The visual display of tumulus Kasta near Amphipolis

This is a follow up paper to a four-paper sequence by this author on the subjects associated with the Great Tumulus at Kasta, in Amphipolis, Macedonia, Greece. In this paper new evidence is discussed and some new insights are offered as to the nature of this extraordinary Monument, that was originally intended for Hephaestion, built by direct order from Alexander the Great, and initially designed and built by Alexander's Architect Deinokratis. The monument was constructed in conformity with the locally prevailing Bull Cult.

The paper presents a 15-page summary of a comprehensive theory regarding the Great Tumulus at Kasta, Amphipolis, Greece. It is based on a series of six papers and their various versions, written in the period October 2014 till January 2016 on the subject of Kasta's monument initially intended for Hephaestion, as commissioned by Alexander III and carried out by Imperial architect Deinokratis. The theory ties the monument to a local version of the Bull Cult.

This is the 3rd update of the paper under the same title by the author. It contains editorial changes and some more write up on the section addressing the Artemis Tavropolos coin and Bucephalus.

This is a revised update of the same article published by the author. It contains editorial corrections from the prior update.

The origin of this volume goes back to the years of my directorship of the Finnish Institute in Rome (2003-2006). It is a custom that the director towards the end of his or her mission establishes a research group composed of some of the participants in the institute's spring courses. This is what I also did. The research subject, that is, oracles and divination in antiquity, very much reflects my personal interests, and I am glad that when I first suggested it to the seven members of our team, I could not observe any opposition on their part. Since oracles and divination are, and indeed have been for some twenty years or so, a flourishing topic in ancient studies (as is easily revealed by a look at the General bibliography), I considered it both inspiring and useful to contribute to the ongoing "oracular" discussions. Naturally, strict choices within this wide general theme were also necessary. The division of work turned out to be somewhat difficult, because there were various issues that needed consideration. In particular, the group members' educational history and personal interests could not be omitted (for example, someone studying Lactantius might be less interested in a statistical examination of Egyptian papyri, and a student of Greek drama is not likely to dedicate his or her energy to an analysis of Italian lot oracles, and so forth). Fortunately, some team members in their previous work had already acquainted themselves with subjects related to oracles and divination. Another principle was that we tried to select topics that, for one reason or another, might deserve some further attention. The result is a collection of studies that are all somehow concerned with Greek or Roman oracles and divinatory practices, but which partly deal with very different materials in terms of content, chronology and geography. The inevitable heterogeneity of the articles did not seem a well-founded reason not to publish them.

… et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique, 1990

Centre international d'étude de la religion grecque antique

The Religious History of the Roman Empire: Pagans, …, 2011

This is the first update of the paper under the same title by the author, published in academia.edu on October 27, 2015. It incorporates some additional material, and has editorial corrections.

The focus of the article is the available information about the oracles of Dionysos in ancient Thrace. After a careful analysis of the currently know sources the author states that in the ancient Thracian lands there was not only one or two (as most modern scholars assume) but several oracles of Dionysos. The author proves this point by giving a special attention to some details in the ancient information, such as the localization of the different oracles, the features of the mantic session, the officials etc. In conclusion is summed up that although the provided by the ancient writers’ more or less detailed information, oracles of Dionysos in Thrace are not yet localized. http://haemus.mk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Haemus-Journal-Vol-2-2013-Iliev.pdf