Classical Studies

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This article explores how themes and questions developed within the field of reception studies can be usefully applied to the study of the restoration of ancient sculpture. It focuses on a second-century AD statue which was restored at the very end of the eighteenth century by the Roman sculptor Giovanni Pierantoni and which is now in the collections of the Lady Lever gallery in Port Sunlight. This statue originally represented Antinous, but Pierantoni’s addition of a cup and jug turned the figure into Ganymede. Here I show how the restorer’s choices responded to contemporary trends in sculptural restoration, allegorical portraiture, and Catholic worshipper imagery; in particular, I argue that the myth of Zeus and Ganymede was newly configured to match a Christian model of interaction between mortal and divine.

This chapter focuses on the anatomy of the classical hybrid, and its relationship to (whole) human and animal bodies. Both ancient and modern sources describe hybrid anatomies in the positive terms of construction and creation, of grafting and fusion. However, in this chapter I draw attention to a parallel tradition, which experiments with the theme of deconstruction, of disaggregation. The material introduced shows how ancient authors and artists often chose to highlight the instability of the hybrid body, by distributing its parts across the surface of an object, or through the lines of a written text. Once this trend has been established, I move on to explore the implications of this shift in emphasis – from construction to deconstruction – for how we see ancient hybrids functioning in their environment. Working from the insistent connection made in ancient thought between animality and fragmentation, I suggest that the hybrid’s ‘partible’ body can be seen to challenge the cultural as well as the biological boundaries that separated humans and animals in the Graeco-Roman world. The idea that the form of hybrid bodies reflects broader discourses about human-animal relations in a particular historical context is reinforced by looking at hybrid images from the 21st century, whose anatomies are radically different from those of their classical ‘ancestors’.

his article focuses on the models of body parts that were dedicated in Classical healing sanctuaries in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. My interpretation builds on, but goes beyond, the traditional reading of the votive body parts, which sees the visual form of these objects as serving (only) to illustrate the part of the body that was ill or malfunctioning. I argue that these objects can also be read as representing the fragmentation or disaggregation of the human body, and I introduce evidence which indicates that the ancient dedicants themselves recognised and explored this aspect of the votive imagery. In order to reconstruct the significance of these anatomical fragments in the social and religious context of Classical Greece, I call upon a range of contemporary images
and texts from both within and beyond the healing sanctuary. I suggest that the fragmentation of the body in the sanctuary served as a metaphor which gave visual form and social meaning to the otherwise intensely personal experience of illness. Furthermore, I argue that this symbolic dismemberment also played a dynamic functional role in the process of healing, which was itself metaphorically conceived as the reintegration of the dedicant’s broken body.

This article represents an initial exploration of how allegorical figures were made and viewed in Classical antiquity. It focuses on a well-known series of personifications which decorated a second-century CE temple complex in the heart of Rome. Previous studies of these sculpted reliefs have engaged in lively debate about which nations are represented, without ever reflecting on the processes by which the group has been designed and made. Here I replace the individual personifications back within the context of the group, and demonstrate that even the most cosmopolitan ancient viewer would found the interpretation of these images problematic. This reading is shown to have wider implications, both for how the Roman world was conceptualised in and through these images, and for the construction of social hierarchies within the city of Rome itself.

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"In many ways, the Arch of Constantine in Rome is an obvious choice of subject for an exploration of Roman memory. Not only was its primary function commemorative (it celebrated Constantine’s tenth year of rule and his victory over Maxentius in A.D. 312), but it was also constructed from pieces of sculpture and architecture that had, at some point, been taken from the monuments of earlier Roman rulers. Indeed, much of the existing scholarship on the arch already addresses the topic of memory, although the word memory itself is not always explicitly invoked. These earlier discussions deal primarily with themes that might come under the heading of “Cultural Memory” or “Collective Memory,” since they consider how the arch’s makers selected, preserved, and re-presented elements of a “usable past” to serve their own, contemporary purposes. Most commentators now agree that the decision to recycle old sculptures was motivated by an ideological agenda rather than a (purely) financial one, taking it to be deeply significant that the older reliefs come from the monuments of the “good emperors,” Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. The fact that these scholars go on to offer rather different interpretations of the arch’s program reflects the inherent ambiguity of reused images, which can simultaneously indicate both change and continuity, and which can assert supremacy over the past at the same time as appropriating its numinous power.

The present chapter builds on this rich tradition of scholarship on the Arch of Constantine. However, in contrast with most earlier commentators, here I am particularly interested in memory as a human, cognitive faculty. The figure of the Roman viewer is thus central to my analysis, and one aim of this chapter is to show how work in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies can bring us closer to understanding the dynamics of viewing monuments in antiquity. I focus principally on two aspects of the complex and mutually formative relationship that existed between the arch and the Roman viewers who contemplated it. First, I emphasize the fact that viewers approached the monument with a suite of existing memories, which shaped their own unique responses to the imagery and configured its meaning in ways that could both consolidate and subvert the intentions of its creators. Secondly, I suggest that the arch actively impacted the memory of viewers, shaping the way in which they thought about the past, in the future. This idea of a two-way relationship between a monument and viewer dovetails with those theories that describe memory as distributed between individuals and the physical or social environment in which they operate. Finally, I will propose a third way in which the monument relates to memory, suggesting an analogy between in- dividual memory and national history similar to that described by Schlesinger in the citation above."

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This chapter focuses on the small-scale models of classical ruins sold by vendors in the historic centre of Naples. These models, which normally represent columns, arches and aqueducts, are destined for display in the Neapolitan presepi – the elaborate and complex nativity scenes constructed by local families as part of their Christmas celebrations. The chapter locates these Neapolitan models within the longer artistic tradition of representing Christ’s birth at the site of ancient ruins. However, it also emphasises the unique meanings behind the use of classical ruins in the context of the presepe Napoletano. It explores, but moves beyond, the traditional interpretation of these scenes, which read the classical ruins in (all) nativities as a symbol of the triumph of Christianity over paganism. While this interpretation certainly has currency today, here it will be shown that the meanings of the Neapolitan miniature ruins are much richer and more varied than such a universalising reading would suggest. The discussion will draw attention to the overall aesthetic of temporal and spatial collapse in the presepe, and to the other, more esoteric classical references that can be detected in its figures and landscapes. It will also look at examples of individual presepe which appropriate classical ruins for very specific purposes. Particular attention will be paid to the 2009 ‘Presepe for L’Aquila’, which was made in S. Gregorio Armeno by Marco Ferrigno. This impressive creation substituted the usual ancient columns and aqueducts with the shattered buildings of the post-earthquake town, which were at the same time given a new, redemptive meaning (Nec Recisa Recedit - ‘No retreat, even when broken’). The Presepe for Aquila serves to exemplify the symbolic richness of ruins in the presepe Napoletano, and the continued relevance and dynamism of classical receptions in the modern city.

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For historians interested in the religious beliefs and practices of classical antiquity, votive offerings constitute a resource of almost immeasurable richness. Gifts to the gods—anathemata in Greek, dona in Latin—have been found at sites all over the ancient world, from the peak sanctuaries of Minoan Crete to the chilly streams of Roman Britain. Over the last few decades, scholars have become increasingly attentive to this form of material religion, and have adopted a wide range of approaches for studying it. Votives have been used, among other things, as documents for the study of social and gender history, as evidence for the develop- ment and transmission of religious beliefs, as sources for art historical analyses of ancient craft industries, and for the retrospective diagnosis of ancient illnesses. Although these studies differ widely in their aims and methods, they nevertheless share a common feature: they all con- sider the votives collectively, either in broader categories of form and/ or medium (e.g., votive heads from terra-cotta, marble votive reliefs), or in the context of larger votive assemblages from particular sanctuaries or geographical areas.

This chapter will adopt a different approach to the ancient votive offer- ing by tracing the “biography” of a single votive through time and across space. Object biographies and life cycles have become very popular in material culture studies recently and have been applied to a wide range of artifacts including Neolithic ceramics, Roman sarcophagi, and Japanese netsuke. The object biography is a promising mode of analysis for vo- tives, given that these are often small and inherently mobile items, which inevitably—at least in the case of ancient Greco-Roman offerings—move over time from a sacred to a secular context. The biographical approach also encourages us to shift our attention away from the moment of ritual dedication (which has tended to dominate most scholarly analyses of vo- tives) and onto later, equally interesting stages of the offering’s history. For the function and meaning of a votive are not fixed at the moment of dedication; rather, these properties change as the object moves through time and space and as it becomes entangled in new associations with things and people. The process of compiling a votive’s biography also has the potential to enhance that object’s value and meaning for modern audiences, not only because it allows us to attach engaging stories to the material offering, but also because it enables us to measure change in beliefs and attitudes in later historical periods, including our own.

This book examines a type of object that was widespread and very popular in classical antiquity-votive offerings in the shape of parts of the human body. It collects examples from four principal areas and time periods: Classical Greece, pre-Roman Italy, Roman Gaul and Roman Asia Minor. It uses a compare-and-contrast methodology to highlight differences between these sets of votives, exploring the implications for our understandings of how beliefs about the body changed across classical antiquity. The book also looks at how far these ancient beliefs overlap with, or differ from, modern ideas about the body and its physical and conceptual boundaries. Central themes of the book include illness and healing, bodily fragmentation, human-animal hybridity, transmission and reception of traditions, and the mechanics of personal transformation in religious rituals.

Many of the votive offerings which survive from antiquity were purpose-made for dedication. These include things like anatomical votives, figurines, temple models, and sculpted reliefs bearing scenes of sacrifice or healing. Other types of votive offering were not purpose-made for dedication but had served other functions before being brought to the sanctuary, such as jewellery, tools, mirrors, cups, clothes and children’s toys. Such ‘recycled’ (or, perhaps more accurately, ‘non-purpose-made’) votives arguably give us our most direct glimpses of individual agency in a religious context, since they not only bypass the intermediary figure of the craftsman but also relate closely to the worshipper’s own body and biography. This article considers the archaeological and literary evidence for such ‘non-purpose-made’ offerings, particu- larly those related to illness or healing – the theme of this special issue. I consider how these boundary-crossing objects differed conceptually from purpose-made votives like the anatomicals, for instance by entangling the different spaces (the house, workshop, sanctuary) in which ancient religion was experienced. Ultimately, I argue that the appropriation and re-use of household objects or medical parapher- nalia as votives enabled the individual to respond quickly and creatively to illness and other crises, creating deeply personal narratives of healing and transformation from the layered associations and memories that these objects embodied.

Keywords: votives, souvenirs, memory, illness, healing, Asclepius, Greek, Roman, ritual

This opening essay introduces the term 'material religion' and gives a brief account of this academic field and its history. It considers how and why classicists and classical archaeologists have not yet fully engaged with the debates around material religion and indicates some of the reasons why it might be important to do so.

"This book investigates one of the most characteristic and prominent features of ancient Greek literature – the scene of debate or agon, in which with varying degrees of formality characters square up to each other and engage in a contest of words – and sets out for the first time to trace its changing representations through Homeric epic, historiography and tragedy. Combining literary dialogic theory with sociological approaches towards structure, it makes the claim that debate is best understood in relation to an institutional framework, in which issues of authority and dissent are variously set out and worked through. Intersecting with key recent scholarship, it shows that the Homeric poems establish, and scrutinise, the assembly as an institution which accommodates dissent, in line with an understanding of epic narrative as foundational; that the historians’ marginal status as writers in an oral culture manifests itself in their representing debate as a challenge to the utility of public institutions; and that tragedy marks the formal institutionalisation of dissent in its adversarial structure with an onus on speaking back, which offers a new way of thinking about tragic politics in terms of the process by which dissent is enacted and managed.

Aimed at both scholar and student, including anyone interested in the origins of political thought, this book demonstrates not only the fundamental importance of debate to these genres, but also the ways representations of debate construct an agonistic mentality which intersects with and informs the broader cultural construction of a citizen community.
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In this paper we analyse Oedipus’ appearance during Odysseus’ tale in book 11 of Homer’s Odyssey in order to outline and test a methodology for appreciating the poetic and thematic implications of moments when ‘extraneous’ narratives or traditions appear in the Homeric poems. Our analysis, which draws on oral-formulaic theory, is offered partly as a re-evaluation of standard scholarly approaches that tend to over-rely on the assumed pre-eminence of Homeric narratives over other traditions in their original contexts or approaches that reduce such moments to instances of allusions to or parallels with fixed texts. In conjunction with perspectives grounded in orality, we emphasise the agonistic character of Greek poetry to explore the ways in which Odysseus’ articulation of his Oedipus narrative exemplifies an attempt to appropriate and manipulate a rival tradition in the service of a particular narrative’s ends. We focus specifically on the resonance of the phrases algea polla and mega ergon used by Odysseus as a narrator to draw a web of interconnections throughout Homeric and Archaic Greek poetry. Such an approach, in turn, suggests to what extent the Homeric Oedipus passage speaks to the themes and concerns of Homeric poetry rather than some lost Oedipal epic tradition and illustrates the importance of recognizing the deeply competitive nature of Homeric narratives vis-à-vis other narrative traditions.