In ancient Greece, epiphanies were embedded in cultural production, and employed by the socio-political elite in both perpetuating pre-existing power-structures and constructing new ones. This volume is the first comprehensive survey of the history of divine epiphany as presented in the
literary and epigraphic narratives of the Greek-speaking world. It demonstrates that divine epiphanies not only reveal what the Greeks thought about their gods; they tell us just as much about the preoccupations, the preconceptions, and the assumptions of ancient Greek religion and culture. In doing
so, it explores the deities who were prone to epiphany and the contexts in which they manifested themselves, as well as the functions (narratives and situational) they served, addressing the cultural specificity of divine morphology and mortal-immortal interaction. Divine Epiphany in Greek
Literature and Culture re-establishes epiphany as a crucial mode in Greek religious thought and practice, underlines its centrality in Greek cultural production, and foregrounds its impact on both the political and the societal organization of the ancient Greeks.
Author(s): Georgia Petridou
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 472
City: Oxford
Cover
Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of figures
List of abbreviations
A note on transliteration
Introduction
What is an epiphany?
Status quaestionis: a brief history of epiphany
Scope and methodology
The book at a glance
The god within: divine presence and absence
1: Divine morphology
Anthropomorphic epiphany: exploring the tension between the human and the divine body
Enacted epiphany: humans playing gods
Effigies epiphany: gods in the form of their cult images
Cult statues animated by the gods
Cult statues animated in the eyes of their beholders
Viewing divine images entails the same dangers and challenges as viewing gods in person
Phasma epiphany
Pars pro toto epiphany: gods in fractions
Honey is for honeysweet poetry, bees are for honeysweet Muses
Dionysus is for wine, Demeter and Kore is for wheat, bread, and flour
Zoomorphic epiphany: animal-like gods
Avian epiphanies?
Reptilian epiphanies
Bovine epiphanies
Amorphous epiphany: epiphanies as manifestations of power
Synopsis
2: Epiphanies in crisis
Battle epiphanies
Trojan wars: fighting amongst and against Panhellenic gods
The Persian wars: fighting among and against local heroes
Marathon
Artemision
Salamis
Plataea
The Gallic wars: fighting among local gods of potential Panhellenic radiance
Siege epiphanies
`Whilst seeking Athena´s help, move your own hands too´
Look at the bright side of war! The illuminating epiphanies of Artemis, Hecate, and Parthenos
Zeus in arms
Synopsis
Epiphanic stratagems or stratagematic epiphanies?
Aristomenes on how to stage a Dioscuri epiphany
Archidamos´ staging of a Dioscuri epiphany
Aristomenes´ epiphany and Herakles´ pars pro toto quasi-epiphany
Themistocles on how to stage Athena´s aphaneia
Peisistratus on how to stage Athena´s epiphany
Phye´s epiphany procession
Cultic paradigms for Peisistratus´ kathodos
Pro(s)charisteria and Pro(s)chaireteria
Synopsis
3: Healing epiphanies
Apollo and Asclepius: private and public aspects of disease
Asclepius the divine healer, Asclepius the divine physician
Asclepius´ mystic epiphanies
Asclepius´ zoomorphic epiphanies
Is there such thing as a paradigmatic healing incubation?
Complaints about Asclepius´ misdemeanours
Media of transmission: dreams or waking reality?
Synopsis
4: Dei in remotis
Epiphanic landscapes and interstitiality
Divine pluralities in remotis
Epiphanic Pan
Hermes and Dionysus in remotis
Epiphanies in a travelling context
Midday: the hour of danger, the hour of epiphany
Epiphanies initiating poetry
Epiphanies moulding ars poetica
Dreaming of the gods in remotis and dreaming of poetry
Synopsis
5: Erotic epiphanies
Erotic and epiphanic landscapes
Night and dreaming
Midday
Temples, shrines, and festivals
Form and transformation
Sex stratagems
Synopsis
6: Epiphanies in cult
Mystic epiphanies
Legomena and dromena: words and actions
Ritual viewing
Encountering the gods and goddesses of the underworld
Theatricality
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: an insight into mystic epiphanies at Eleusis?
Synopsis
Epiphanic festivals: celebrating the presence of the gods, celebrating in the presence of the gods
Divine epidēmia: advent festivals and divine mobility
Apollo´s birth and his Theophania festival
Dionysus´ and Kore´s advent festivals
Playing hide and seek with the divine
Divine mobility as cultic residue of an older perception of the divine
Sacrifice
Synopsis
7: Theoxenia festivals
Twin guests and Heraklean feasts
Zeus Philios: successful and twisted theoxenic rites
Dionysus´ `itinerary epiphanies´
Demeter´s parousia and political rivalry
Synopsis
8: Synthesis
Epiphanies as crisis management tools
Explanatory function: epiphanies and making sense of the world
Authoritative function: god-sent prestige and validity
The city and the temple as recipients of epiphanies
The individual as recipient of epiphanies
Elective affinities: epiphanies and shaping societal values
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index Locorum
Index Rerum
