Articles by Petra Pakkanen
European Journal of History and Culture 1-1, 2024
This article explores the ‘ism’-concepts in classical Greek texts by contrasting and comparing th... more This article explores the ‘ism’-concepts in classical Greek texts by contrasting and comparing their ancient and modern uses. Isms are approached as temporalised concepts which appear either as characterising
typologies or action-agential concepts. After a brief exploration of the character of isms and criticism their scholarly use have faced, the formation and morphology of -ismόs words and their manifestations in ancient Greek classical texts are explored in the first main section of the article. This leads to a discussion in the next section with the following questions: How do the
ancient Greek isms-concepts relate to abstracting ideas and designating
people and their actions? What do the Greek -ismόs terms manifest? Are
isms and ideologies interdependent? It will be shown, via examples from the
Greek terminology, that isms-terms showcase a significant semantic shifting
(and semantic extensions) between classical antiquity and their later use.
The process is called ‘ismicism’ and leads to a modern conceptualising of
isms in academic and every-day discourses. It is argued that religious ideational developments may have contributed to the post-antique ismicism
and triggered (modern) association of especially action-agential isms with
ideologies. In order to illustrate this, the uses of isms in the study of ancient
Greek religions are discussed in the last section of the article.
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The stuff of the gods – The material aspects of religion in ancient Greece, eds. Matthew Haysom, Maria Mili, Jenny Wallensten, 2024
In this article material objects related to sanctuaries are considered in
relation to two main fr... more In this article material objects related to sanctuaries are considered in
relation to two main frameworks, namely their spatiality and their perceived
ownership. Land and terrain as locus for more fixed sacredness
provides a starting point to elaborate less fixed sacredness of movable
items which often were profitable also in profane commercial terms.
Changes and fluctuation in the perception of sacredness of such objects
is connected with the changes in the ownership of them and with the
spatial location they were kept or deposited. Material, such as meat and
hides from sacrificial rituals, (hierothyta) was often further sold or used in
the production of utensils, and in such cases the original sacredness was
recognised in a higher esteem of the quality. It is argued that since sacred
was not rendered as a polar opposite to profane and whereas consecration
was a central principle and ritual act in Greek antiquity it did not
manifest in an opposite of ritual of desecration.
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Numen no. 71 , 2024
Ancient Greek religion has been very rarely studied with reference to pantheism. This article pro... more Ancient Greek religion has been very rarely studied with reference to pantheism. This article proposes that we should introduce pantheism as an additional interpretive strategy to understand Greek religion. This presupposes addressing the relationship between the interpretations of doxa (theology), discussion about the nature of divine unity in antiquity (philosophy), and religious cult praxis. The main conceptual arguments underlined in refutations of pantheism are discussed. This is followed by a brief survey of the more frequently discussed monotheism and henotheism in Greek religion. The main part of the article presents pantheistic trends in Greek religion, including philosophical argumentation, pantheistic expressions in mythology and in cultic life. It is found that Greek religion exhibits views that can be regarded as pantheistic: gods were immanent rather than transcendent, everything could potentially participate in divine reality, and the boundaries between divine, human, and nature were not exclusive but permeable and fluid.
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Grifos. Electronic publications of the Finnish Institute at Athens vol.1, 2022
Preface to the publication series GRIFOS and to its first volume entitled
A Swedish Philhelleni... more Preface to the publication series GRIFOS and to its first volume entitled
A Swedish Philhellenic Pamphlet from 1821. “Will you let that sacred voice that echoes in the tender Swedish heart cry out in vain?” by George Kalpadakis and Vassilios Sabatakakis.
Entire publication is accessible at:
https://edition.fi/finnishinstituteathens/catalog/book/606
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Theoretical Frameworks for the Study of Graeco-Roman Religions , 2003
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The Annual of the British School at Athens, 2000
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Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, Feb 7, 2014
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"Mehr Licht" More Light Più luce. Studia in honorem Arja Karivieri, ed. Katariina Mustakallio, Minna Silver and Simö Örmä, Turku (Sigillum) 2020, 2020
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Kernos 34 Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique, 2021
The complexity of the pig in Greek antiquity can be traced through the rich vocabulary applied to... more The complexity of the pig in Greek antiquity can be traced through the rich vocabulary applied to various porcine animals. This extends to cultural, religious, and symbolic meanings imbedded into the perceived anomalousness of this animal. The religious and ideological role of the pig in antiquity and beyond has been widely studied, but little scholarly attention has been paid to the skin of the animal in ancient studies. In this article pigskin is discussed on two levels, namely practical and onceptual/symbolic. The starting point is the fact that the structure of pigskin is different in comparison to any other mammal skin (with the exception of human skin). The overall purpose is to provide new insights into the skin as an explanatory category which can contribute towards our understanding of the treatment of pigs in Greek antiquity as well as the attitudes towards them and the esteem in which they were held. In the first part of the article the terminological issues pertaining to pigs and pigskin are scrutinised; in the second part sacrificial procedures are looked at more closely through a comparison between a pig sacrifice and a ‘standard’ sacrifice of a non-porcine animal, with a focus on flaying and singeing; in the third part the negative connotations of pigskin as diseased and ‘lepraic’ are considered. Finally, this leads to the last part of the article which considers the socio-cultural and historiographical association of leprosy with pig(skin) as a reason for cultural and social exclusion.
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Das Bild Griechenlands im Spiegel der Völker bis 18 Jahrhunderts (Philhellenistische Studien 14), 2008
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This article focuses on three interrelated themes in the study of ancient Greek religion, looked ... more This article focuses on three interrelated themes in the study of ancient Greek religion, looked at through the material evidence from the sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia on the island of Poros, Greece. First, I look at the so-called polis model and its applicability to an interpretation of Kalaureian material related to the cultic life of the sanctuary from the point of view of the 'historiography' of Greek religion. I then discuss the historical context of the archaeological material, with particular emphasis on the topic of the sanctuary as a known place of asylum particularly during the Hellenistic period. Thirdly, I examine the archaeological material related to eating and dining and its potential connection to the demarcation between sacred and profane activities and between sacralised and profane space in the sanctuary, with special interpretative attention to the significance of border(s) and boundaries. Drawing attention to these issues may help us understand the dynamics and interplay between 'official' and 'private' aspects of ancient Greek religion, within both the tradition of the scholarship of ancient Greek religion and the so-called 'archaeology of cult'. In this article I discuss the interpretation of the archaeological material related to religion and cult at the sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, on the island of Poros, Greece. My approach encompasses three distinct but interrelated aspects for studying the social and physical demarcation of ritual and sacred space at the sanctuary. They are the following: 1) Mapping the important parameters for the conceptualisation of ancient Greek religion. In this case study the role of the Greek city-state, the polis, as a signifier of official and private cultic activity is discussed. 2) Investigating the histori-1 I am grateful to Arto Penttinen for reading the manuscript and commenting on it. I also wish to express my thanks to anonymous readers of the text for their suggestions, as well as to Paul Ewart for his language advice.
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Archaeological material ranging in date from the Early Bronze Age to Late Antiquity was found in ... more Archaeological material ranging in date from the Early Bronze Age to Late Antiquity was found in 2007 and 2008 in the excavations in Area H to the south and southeast of the Temple of Poseidon. Finds datable to the periods of major change in the Sanctuary—the Late Archaic and the Early Hel-lenistic—illuminate the character of the change. In the Late Archaic period an attempt to erect a votive column at the site was for some reason given up, and drums of large dimensions were left visible, possibly as a reminder of the failure. The construction of a monumental drain next to the Archaic peri-bolos of the Temple of Poseidon in the early third century BC necessitated large-scale leveling work in the area coinciding in time with the dedication of a Ptolemaic, royal statue. These types of events have a tendency to dominate in the archaeological record at the cost of periods of normalcy. Those periods are represented in the form of pottery, other artifacts and animal remains, which constitute evidence for activities that obviously did not change much over time, such as dedicating objects to the deities present in the Sanctuary and animal sacrifice with ensuing preparation and consumption of food. In this report we attempt to present the archaeological remains in accordance with the type of deposits they originate from. Also included is an appendix on the marine mollusks by Tatiana Theodoropoulou.
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Articles by Petra Pakkanen
typologies or action-agential concepts. After a brief exploration of the character of isms and criticism their scholarly use have faced, the formation and morphology of -ismόs words and their manifestations in ancient Greek classical texts are explored in the first main section of the article. This leads to a discussion in the next section with the following questions: How do the
ancient Greek isms-concepts relate to abstracting ideas and designating
people and their actions? What do the Greek -ismόs terms manifest? Are
isms and ideologies interdependent? It will be shown, via examples from the
Greek terminology, that isms-terms showcase a significant semantic shifting
(and semantic extensions) between classical antiquity and their later use.
The process is called ‘ismicism’ and leads to a modern conceptualising of
isms in academic and every-day discourses. It is argued that religious ideational developments may have contributed to the post-antique ismicism
and triggered (modern) association of especially action-agential isms with
ideologies. In order to illustrate this, the uses of isms in the study of ancient
Greek religions are discussed in the last section of the article.
relation to two main frameworks, namely their spatiality and their perceived
ownership. Land and terrain as locus for more fixed sacredness
provides a starting point to elaborate less fixed sacredness of movable
items which often were profitable also in profane commercial terms.
Changes and fluctuation in the perception of sacredness of such objects
is connected with the changes in the ownership of them and with the
spatial location they were kept or deposited. Material, such as meat and
hides from sacrificial rituals, (hierothyta) was often further sold or used in
the production of utensils, and in such cases the original sacredness was
recognised in a higher esteem of the quality. It is argued that since sacred
was not rendered as a polar opposite to profane and whereas consecration
was a central principle and ritual act in Greek antiquity it did not
manifest in an opposite of ritual of desecration.
A Swedish Philhellenic Pamphlet from 1821. “Will you let that sacred voice that echoes in the tender Swedish heart cry out in vain?” by George Kalpadakis and Vassilios Sabatakakis.
Entire publication is accessible at:
https://edition.fi/finnishinstituteathens/catalog/book/606
typologies or action-agential concepts. After a brief exploration of the character of isms and criticism their scholarly use have faced, the formation and morphology of -ismόs words and their manifestations in ancient Greek classical texts are explored in the first main section of the article. This leads to a discussion in the next section with the following questions: How do the
ancient Greek isms-concepts relate to abstracting ideas and designating
people and their actions? What do the Greek -ismόs terms manifest? Are
isms and ideologies interdependent? It will be shown, via examples from the
Greek terminology, that isms-terms showcase a significant semantic shifting
(and semantic extensions) between classical antiquity and their later use.
The process is called ‘ismicism’ and leads to a modern conceptualising of
isms in academic and every-day discourses. It is argued that religious ideational developments may have contributed to the post-antique ismicism
and triggered (modern) association of especially action-agential isms with
ideologies. In order to illustrate this, the uses of isms in the study of ancient
Greek religions are discussed in the last section of the article.
relation to two main frameworks, namely their spatiality and their perceived
ownership. Land and terrain as locus for more fixed sacredness
provides a starting point to elaborate less fixed sacredness of movable
items which often were profitable also in profane commercial terms.
Changes and fluctuation in the perception of sacredness of such objects
is connected with the changes in the ownership of them and with the
spatial location they were kept or deposited. Material, such as meat and
hides from sacrificial rituals, (hierothyta) was often further sold or used in
the production of utensils, and in such cases the original sacredness was
recognised in a higher esteem of the quality. It is argued that since sacred
was not rendered as a polar opposite to profane and whereas consecration
was a central principle and ritual act in Greek antiquity it did not
manifest in an opposite of ritual of desecration.
A Swedish Philhellenic Pamphlet from 1821. “Will you let that sacred voice that echoes in the tender Swedish heart cry out in vain?” by George Kalpadakis and Vassilios Sabatakakis.
Entire publication is accessible at:
https://edition.fi/finnishinstituteathens/catalog/book/606