Religious Interactions in the Hellenistic World International Conference -18-19/03/2017, Oxford (Eng
Connecting people or promoting diversity? Endorsing diplomatic affinities among empires and local communities by forging social bonds between ethnically and culturally diverse people, or instigating social conflicts based on varied group identities within major urban centres? What was the driving force in communicating and sharing heterogeneous cult practices and beliefs among the populations of the Hellenistic World? The conference will discuss how and whether religious interactions helped achieve a successful operation of institutions and whether they contributed to the cohesion of the peoples in the Hellenistic empires. The area covered stretches from Sicily and Italy to Bactria.
The issues that will be addressed include: the role of cult practices and religious beliefs in the emergence and development of the socio-political and cultural interface of the Hellenistic World; how and whether rulers promoted religious interactions in order to achieve social cohesion; what were the major effects of the social policies and initiatives related to cult affairs that were implemented by non-royal social agents; the development of shared cult practices among ethnically and culturally diverse agents and cult participants as a key factor in acculturation processes in metropoleis and smaller communities; the evolution of religious institutions and sacred spaces both in local and regional socio-cultural contexts; the role of interconnectivity and communication networks; religious diversity and modes of exchange between Greek and non-Greek traditions of religious practice and thought; the nature and motivation behind the wide distribution of certain deities and cult practices; the role of private groups and associations; one’s gods and the gods of the others ̶ perception of self and the ‘other’ as a medium of self-representation within the Hellenistic cosmos.
FECHA/DATE/DATA: 18-19/03/2017
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Lecture Threatre, The Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford (England)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Dr Sofia Kravaritou; Dr Maria Stamatopoulou
INFO: PDF - sofia.kravaritou@classics.ox.ac.uk ; maria.stamatopoulou@classics.ox.ac.uk
INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE:
Miembros de la Universidad de Oxford, trabajadores y estudiantes / Oxford university members, staff and students/ Membri Oxford University, lavoratori, studenti: gratis/ free /gratuito
No miembros de la Universidad de Oxford /Non-Oxford University members / Non membri Oxford University: £8
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
Provisional programme
Saturday, 18 March
9:15 Welcome and introduction
9:30 Manuela Mari (Cassino): Local and 'national' cults in Macedonian kings' letter and diagrammata.
10:00 Rolf Strootman (Utrecht): The Marriage of Antiochos and Nanaia: Seleukid participation in local cults and the globalization of Hellenistic religions
10:30 Discussion and Coffee
11:30 Frances Reynolds (Oxford): Continuity and change at Hellenistic Esagil
12:00 Vito Messina (Turin): Religious interactions at Seleucia on the Tigris: the archaeological evidence
12:30 Discussion and lunch
14:00 Laurianne Martinez-Seve (Lille): Cults and religious practices at Ai Khanoum (Bactria)
14:30 Julietta Steinhauer (UCL): The social dynamics of religious associations in Western Asia Minor
15:00 Discussion and Coffee
16:00 Kyriakos Savvopoulos (Oxford): (Alexandria) title tbc
16:30 Tessa Rajak (Reading): The Alexandrian torah translation and the paradoxes of acculturation
17:00 Discussion
17:30 Drinks Reception
19:00 Dinner for speakers and chairs
Sunday, 19 March
09:00 Christy Konstantakopoulou (London): The social dynamics of dedication in the third-century Delian inventories
09:30 Christina Williamson (Groninger): Panhellenic politics. Festivals as multi-scalar tools of cohesion in the post-classical world
10:00 Corinne Bonnet (Toulouse): Does Hellenism rhyme with Imperialism? Greek and Phoenician religious networks in the Hellenistic middle ground
10:30 Discussion and Coffee
11:30 Milena Melfi (Oxford): Gods and civic communities in the late Hellenistic period: Towards the creation of an uninterrupted religious history
12:00 Sofia Kravaritou (Oxford): The new Thessalian mystery cult and its transcultural background
12:30 Discussion and lunch
14:00 Ilias Arnaoutoglou (Athens): Hellenistic Athenian private cult associations. A privileged space of religious interactions?
14:30 Stella Skaltsa (Copenhagen): Rhodes: a melting port? Associations and religious interactions
15:00 Discussion and coffee
16:00 Massimo Osanna (Naples): (Pompeii ) title tbc
16:30 Chris de Lisle (Oxford): The Priest-Kings of Hellenistic Sicily. Negotiating between the Local and the Global
17:00 Discussion
17:30 Final discussion/concluding remarks
19:00 Dinner for speakers and chairs