Ομιλία του Dr Renaud Gagné (University of Cambridge) με θέμα: ‘Hyperborea between Cult and Song: Theologies of Space in Archaic Greece’

Παρασκευή 26 Μαΐου 2017, ώρα 12.00 μμ, στο Σπουδαστήριο Κλασικής Φιλολογίας (745)

ΠΡΟΣΚΛΗΣΗ

Την Παρασκευή 26 Μαΐου 2017, ώρα 12.00 μμ,

στο Σπουδαστήριο Κλασικής Φιλολογίας (745) της Φιλοσοφικής Σχολής

θα πραγματοποιηθεί στο πλαίσιο των «Επιστημονικών Συναντήσεων»

του Τομέα Κλασικής Φιλολογίας

η ομιλία του Dr Renaud Gagné (University of Cambridge)

με θέμα:

Hyperborea between Cult and Song: Theologies of Space in Archaic Greece

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O διευθυντής του Τομέα Κλασικής Φιλολογίας

Νικόλαος Γεωργαντζόγλου

Συντονίστριες

Κατερίνα Καρβούνη kcarvounis@phil.uoa.gr 210-7277613

Σοφία Παπαϊωάννου spapaioan@phil.uoa.gr 210-7277380

Hyperborea between Cult and Song: Theologies of Space in Archaic Greece RENAUD GAGNE University of Cambridge ABSTRACT Greek religion is a map of songs. Hymnic geography, the fundamental vehicle for exploring the spatial and temporal imagination of cult in Greek religion, can only be properly understood through contrast, and by assessing the agency at work in each individual text. How does cult locate divine power? Greek gods come and go, and their arrivals function as powerful markers of time and space. Sanctuaries are the visible traces of their movements. Whether the moment of arrival is a point in linear time or a cyclical recurrence, divine presence remains solidly anchored in the aetiological space of cult foundation. The god’s once and future arrival is a permanent intervention in the meaning of the landscape. It traces a transformation that elevates the location of the site to a special level of significance – what I call a cult chronotope. At the heart of this significance is the weaving of local ritual space in the larger settings of divine geography. The dynamic system of Archaic and Classical polytheism makes generous use of divine trajectories to link spaces together. The god’s arrival is, more often than not, a passage from another, definite place. When it is commemorated in formalised language, the establishment of cult tends to involve a web of other locations in its marking of space. The god’s arrival, that is, positions local sacred space in a network of relations to other spaces. Considerations of centre and periphery invariably delimit that network. This paper will look at the representation of three such networks, and briefly contrast their articulations of centre and periphery. All three are ritualised texts of the 6th century BCE from the domain of Apollo: texts of the three great sanctuaries of Didyma, Delphi, and Delos. Situating the presence of the god in the sanctuary is at the heart of all three texts. All three reflect Apollo’s deep connections to the far north. By juxtaposing radically different ways of representing cult chronotopes, we can better discern the strategies and identify the patterns that shaped the theologies of space in Archaic Greece.

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