Papers by Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia
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Over the past thirty years, ancient Greek religion has undergone a methodological sea change. Whe... more Over the past thirty years, ancient Greek religion has undergone a methodological sea change. Where major research was once largely built upon the to the traditional polis religion model, most historians of religion now have critiqued its interpretative scope and strength. Recent years, therefore, have seen a shift in focus on approaches to Greek religion and new emphasis has been given to the investigation of worshippers’ human cognition and emotions. In this perspective, by employing a multi-disciplinary approach, this paper explores the reasons and motives that led to the melting down of the sacred objects preserved in the Attic sanctuaries.
The periodic as well as irregular melting down (τῆξις/σύντηξις) of the sacred objects was an intentional practice, as documented in the ancient literary and epigraphic texts. This paper looks at the epigraphic and literary evidence associated with the strategy of both regular and irregular melting down and recasting processes of the sacred objects in Classical Athens. Over the years, scholars have been interested in the reduction, reuse and recycling of sacred objects and funds in Classical Athens.1 Where most research has focused on documenting the archaeological and literary evidence documenting the melting down process, the research objective here is to consider the reasons and different mindsets connected with the act of the periodic as well as erratic melting. This objective is employed in an attempt to reflect upon the implications of the melting down of the sacred objects and in extension to unravel the diverse social and individual mindsets that induced this practice in Attica during the Classical period
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to publisher's copyright restrictions.
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Scattered inscriptions lying in ruins, whether found in their original archaeological setting or ... more Scattered inscriptions lying in ruins, whether found in their original archaeological setting or embedded within the walls of public buildings, houses, and in Orthodox churches or Muslim mosques, are preserved in the old notebooks of scholars who made a concerted effort to record, study and collect Greek inscriptions. It is easily forgotten, however, how deeply rooted the contribution of 19th-century scholars and travellers is in the rescue, preservation, and development of the first systematic study of Greek inscriptions. Even when we possess the complete narrative of an ancient historian, inscriptions recorded in archives are of great value in confirming or supplementing, or sometimes, clarifying the nuances of an ancient literary text. In this light, this research project focuses on the identification of the ancient inscriptions, as these are preserved in the archive of Stephanos A. Koumanoudes (1818-1899) in the National Library of Greece.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HLNC.ESSAY:103377756
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Very few studies to date have discussed contextualized interpretations of the sensory impact of t... more Very few studies to date have discussed contextualized interpretations of the sensory impact of the dresses in the dances of ancient mysteries. The aim of this paper is to assess to what extent the colour-coding of the dresses of the initiates in the mysteries facilitated or hindered their dance movements during the night. To this end, the research questions that this paper will address are the following: 1) What was the sensorial impact of the flowing and ornamented dresses of the initiate women during their nocturnal dancing? 2) Did the colour of their dresses and respective adornment facilitated their dancing in the artificial light of night? 3) Is there any archaeological and iconographic evidence that would enable us to reconstruct the sight that the dresses and the adornment of the dancing initiates would have produced?
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to Oxbow copyright restrictions.
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The starting point of this article was the recent discovery of an unpublished note of Stephanos A... more The starting point of this article was the recent discovery of an unpublished note of Stephanos A. Koumanoudes (1818-1899). The note was found in his archive that is kept at the Department of Manuscripts at the National Library of Greece (Φ 14, Φ 1128) and preserves a different reading from the editio princeps of IG II2 2660 which was published in 1877 by Ulrich Köhler. Recent autopsy of the inscription at the Epigraphic Museum (ΕΜ 10197), showed that Koumanoudes’ corrected reading of l. 6: θυγατρί is still visible. For this reason, a new edition of the inscription followed by a commentary is appended above.
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It can be argued that in the works of ancient Greek historians as well as in insc... more It can be argued that in the works of ancient Greek historians as well as in inscriptions, especially sacred regulations, one can find the notions of ἀδικία (injustice) and ἀσέβεια (impiety) used seemingly interchangeably. Both being notions which qualify some kind of human transgression, they give the impression of being used as synonymous notions. Part of the confusion of the semantic overlap between ἀδικία and ἀσέβεια is that both notions can be indistinguishably applied in both secular (e.g. περὶ δὲ ἀνθρώπους ἀδικίαν, Xen. Cyr. 8.8.7) and religious matters (e.g. Ἂν δέ τις ἀδικεῖ ἐν τοῖ ἱεροῖ, LSCG 69.9). However, how we choose to interpret this semantic overlap, often affects our broader understanding of the value terms of injustice and impiety in relation to social and religious matters. The focus of this paper is placed on the analysis of the semantic overlap of ἀδικία and ἀσέβεια attested in the sacred regulation (LSCG 69) of the Amphiareion at Oropos, one of the most important healing sanctuaries of ancient Greece. My aim in this paper is to give a comprehensive outline of the range of the overlap’s use in LSCG 69.
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The hero-cult of Hippolytus in Troezen is well documented in the archaeological, epigraphic and l... more The hero-cult of Hippolytus in Troezen is well documented in the archaeological, epigraphic and literary record. This paper focuses on the social function of the cult of Hippolytus in Troezen. After discussing the archaeological evidence for this hero-cult, I demonstrate how a special type of votive dedications that predominate in the assemblages of his sanctuary sheds light on the hero’s specific social function and cultic identity (i.e. his kourotrophic power). By tying together the different types of evidence (archaeological as well as literary), I argue that the kourotrophic function of Hippolytus was an effective medium at the hands of the polis-authorities of internalising a reverent behaviour in the ancient worshippers.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “Arcadia, Arcadians”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, pp. 111-112.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “Arcadian League, Archelaus”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, pp.112-113.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “Argos, Argives”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome: The Definitive Political, Social and Military Encyclopedia, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, pp. 118-119.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) "Melos”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, p. 366.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “Naxos, Naxians”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, p. 391.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “The naval battle of Salamis (306 BC)”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, pp. 484-485.
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Rassia, Aikaterini-Iliana (2016) “Thasos”, Encyclopedia of Conflict in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sara E. Phang, Iain Spence, Douglas Kelly, and Peter Londey (eds.), ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, Santa Barbara, USA, pp. 543-544.
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Book Reviews by Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia
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BMCR Review, Published 09.11.2017
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BMCR Review, Published 09.06.2014
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Papers by Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia
The periodic as well as irregular melting down (τῆξις/σύντηξις) of the sacred objects was an intentional practice, as documented in the ancient literary and epigraphic texts. This paper looks at the epigraphic and literary evidence associated with the strategy of both regular and irregular melting down and recasting processes of the sacred objects in Classical Athens. Over the years, scholars have been interested in the reduction, reuse and recycling of sacred objects and funds in Classical Athens.1 Where most research has focused on documenting the archaeological and literary evidence documenting the melting down process, the research objective here is to consider the reasons and different mindsets connected with the act of the periodic as well as erratic melting. This objective is employed in an attempt to reflect upon the implications of the melting down of the sacred objects and in extension to unravel the diverse social and individual mindsets that induced this practice in Attica during the Classical period
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to publisher's copyright restrictions.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HLNC.ESSAY:103377756
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to Oxbow copyright restrictions.
Book Reviews by Aikaterini-Iliana Rassia
The periodic as well as irregular melting down (τῆξις/σύντηξις) of the sacred objects was an intentional practice, as documented in the ancient literary and epigraphic texts. This paper looks at the epigraphic and literary evidence associated with the strategy of both regular and irregular melting down and recasting processes of the sacred objects in Classical Athens. Over the years, scholars have been interested in the reduction, reuse and recycling of sacred objects and funds in Classical Athens.1 Where most research has focused on documenting the archaeological and literary evidence documenting the melting down process, the research objective here is to consider the reasons and different mindsets connected with the act of the periodic as well as erratic melting. This objective is employed in an attempt to reflect upon the implications of the melting down of the sacred objects and in extension to unravel the diverse social and individual mindsets that induced this practice in Attica during the Classical period
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to publisher's copyright restrictions.
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HLNC.ESSAY:103377756
NB: The full text cannot be uploaded on Academia due to Oxbow copyright restrictions.
It would go beyond the scope of this review to offer a detailed synopsis of all the 28 papers collected in these three sections. On a general (and distinctly positive) note, this reviewer would like to emphasise that, for the main part, the contributions in question are concerned either with ancient evidence or with the material evidence from recent and older excavations concerning the ritual practices of Graeco-Roman religion. The chapters that follow are arranged on broad thematic bases.