On behalf of the Director of the Institute of History and of the Chair of the Department of Ancient History, University of Warsaw, we are pleased to announce the following special seminars held at the Institute of History to introduce the research grant Greek aristocratic culture (8th-5th centuries B.C.): the life-styles and the systems of values, funded by the National Science Center (NCN grant no. 2016/21/B/HS3/03096):
Tuesday, 14 November 2017 at 15:00 (seminar room of the Department of Ancient History, room 101, Institute of History):
Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spano’ (the Director of the Institute of History): Opening remarks
Marek Węcowski (PI of the research project), Towards a definition of the Greek aristocratic culture
Xenia Charalambidou (assistant professor/post-doctoral researcher for the project), Greek aristocratic culture: the life-styles and the systems of values. Towards an assessment of Greek aristocratic culture
The aim of this presentation is to discuss methodological and interpretative issues that relate to the current scholarly debate in defining Greek aristocratic culture. This debate can be summarized in a key question addressed by Hans van Wees and Nick Fisher (2015, 1): “What does it mean to label an elite group an ‘aristocracy’ or a social idea or value ‘aristocratic’?”. Examples to feed this discussion will be sought in archaeological evidence in the ancient Greek world, mainly from the 8th to the 5th centuries BC, in order to assess aristocratic and/or other élite kinds of behavior in various contexts, i.e. their expression in domestic, cult and funerary settings as well as in forms of trade.
Cameron Pearson (assistant professor/post-doctoral researcher for the project), Panhellenism at the Ptoion
The sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios in Boiotia, also known as the Ptoion, is an example of a sacred landscape that contained local particularism as well as a Panhellenic flavor. A close reading of a dedication (IG I3 1469 = CEG 302) made by Alkmeonides, the son of the Athenian Alkmeon and the brother of the famous Megakles, reveals that it was possible to gesture toward a Panhellenic audience even in a local sanctuary. I situate this dedication with its long inscription and its relatively small statue (which was never found) as in dialogue with the poetic theme of kleos’ relationship to monuments in archaic Greece. I then argue that the inscription drew ancient viewers to meld looking, moving, and hearing into a celebration of its dedicant’s achievement and that this reperformance connected the monument to the authority of oral poetry.
Wednesday, 15 November 2017 at 18:00 (room “B”, Institute of History):
Cameron Pearson, Newly Discovered Rupestral Inscriptions from Attica.
Marek Węcowski (PI of the research project), Towards a definition of the Greek aristocratic culture
Xenia Charalambidou (assistant professor/post-doctoral researcher for the project), Greek aristocratic culture: the life-styles and the systems of values. Towards an assessment of Greek aristocratic culture
The aim of this presentation is to discuss methodological and interpretative issues that relate to the current scholarly debate in defining Greek aristocratic culture. This debate can be summarized in a key question addressed by Hans van Wees and Nick Fisher (2015, 1): “What does it mean to label an elite group an ‘aristocracy’ or a social idea or value ‘aristocratic’?”. Examples to feed this discussion will be sought in archaeological evidence in the ancient Greek world, mainly from the 8th to the 5th centuries BC, in order to assess aristocratic and/or other élite kinds of behavior in various contexts, i.e. their expression in domestic, cult and funerary settings as well as in forms of trade.
Cameron Pearson (assistant professor/post-doctoral researcher for the project), Panhellenism at the Ptoion
The sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios in Boiotia, also known as the Ptoion, is an example of a sacred landscape that contained local particularism as well as a Panhellenic flavor. A close reading of a dedication (IG I3 1469 = CEG 302) made by Alkmeonides, the son of the Athenian Alkmeon and the brother of the famous Megakles, reveals that it was possible to gesture toward a Panhellenic audience even in a local sanctuary. I situate this dedication with its long inscription and its relatively small statue (which was never found) as in dialogue with the poetic theme of kleos’ relationship to monuments in archaic Greece. I then argue that the inscription drew ancient viewers to meld looking, moving, and hearing into a celebration of its dedicant’s achievement and that this reperformance connected the monument to the authority of oral poetry.
Wednesday, 15 November 2017 at 18:00 (room “B”, Institute of History):
Cameron Pearson, Newly Discovered Rupestral Inscriptions from Attica.