Athenian Myths and Festivals: Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

by Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood, Robert Parker (Editor)

Overview

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, the late Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. She studies the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. Sourvinou-Inwood also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. Her book, brought to completion by Robert Parker, displays all the attention to detail and the concern for methodological rigour that have made her an iconic figure among students of Greek religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199592074
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/08/2011
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

I. Festivals and Gene: Reconstructions, Problematik, MethodologiesII. Cultic Myths and Others: Aglauros, Erichthonios, Erechtheus, Praxithea1. Reading cultic myths2. Aglauros3. Erechtheus, Erichthonios and others4. Reconstructing cultic myths: a summary of the conclusionsIII. Reading a Festival Nexus: Plynteria and Kallynteria5. Thargelion 25: Day One of the Plynteria6. Aglauros, Aitia, Plynteria and Kallynteria7. Thargelion 26: Day Two: the procession to Phaleron8. Kallynteria: Thargelion 27 and 28: the return to the Acropolis and the reopening of the temple9. Washing the new woolIV. Athena at the Palladion and the Palladion MythsV. Athena Polias, Panathenaia and the PeplosVI. City Dionysia and the Cult of Dionysos EleuthereusVII. Gene and Athenian Festivals: Some Conclusions