Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
I SERAPHIM Studies in Education and Religion in Ancient and Pre-Modern History in the Mediterranean and Its Environs Editors Peter Gemeinhardt · Sebastian Günther Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler · Florian Wilk Editorial Board Wolfram Drews · Alfons Fürst · Therese Fuhrer Susanne Gödde · Marietta Horster · Angelika Neuwirth Karl Pinggéra · Claudia Rapp · Günter Stemberger George Van Kooten · Markus Witte 13 II III Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World Edited by Irene Salvo and Tanja Susanne Scheer Mohr Siebeck IV Irene Salvo, *1982. 2005 Degree in Classics and Anthropology of the Ancient World at the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore. 2011 PhD in Ancient History at the Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa. 2015–2019 Post-doc at the Georg-August-Universität Göttin- gen, DFG-funded SFB 1136 Bildung und Religion. Presently, A.G. Leventis Research Associate in Hellenic Studies at the University of Exeter. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9501-682X Tanja Susanne Scheer, *1964, Degree in Ancient History, Classical Archaeology, and Medieval History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. 1992 PhD dissertation and 1998 Habilitation at the LMU München. 2004–2011 Professor of Ancient History at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg; since 2011 Professor of Ancient History at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9568-0667 ISBN 978-3-16- 159881-4 / eISBN 978-3-16- 159882-1 DOI 10.1628/978-3-16- 159882-1 ISSN 2568-9584 / eISSN 2568-9606 (SERAPHIM) T he Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2021 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com T his book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. T his applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations and storage and processing in electronic systems. T he book was typeset by computersatz Staiger in Rottenburg, printed on non-aging paper, and bound by Hubert & Co. in Göttingen. Cover image: The Apotheosis of Homer. Marble relief c.225 BCE-205 BCE. London, The Bri- tish Museum no. 1819,8012.1. © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved. Printed in Germany. V Acknowledgements In what ways were education and religion interrelated in the Greek-speaking world of the ancient Mediterranean? T his research question has been developed within the inspiring interdisciplinary environment of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1136 Bildung und Religion in Kulturen des Mittelmeerraums und seiner Umwelt von der Antike bis zum Mittelalter und zum Klassischen Islam at the Georg August University of Göttingen. It was the focus of the conference “Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World,” which we organised within the sub-pro- ject C01 “Aufgeklärte Männer – abergläubische Frauen? Religion, Bildung und Geschlechterstereotypen im klassischen Athen” on the 25th and 26th of October 2017 at the Georg August University of Göttingen. T he present volume results from this conference. We are grateful to the colleagues who contributed to the success of the confer- ence. All the attendees have enriched the discussion from the perspectives of an- cient history, classical philology, and history of religions, offering a wide-ranging view of the topic. We thank our colleagues for having published their results in this volume and for sharing their expertise, notwithstanding the several commit- ments of academic life. We sincerely thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Göttin- gen Centre Orbis Orientalis et Occidentalis (CORO) for financially supporting the conference. T he DFG has also sponsored the publication of the present volume. We are warmly grateful to the Editorial Board of the SERAPHIM series, espe- cially Peter Gemeinhardt, for accepting the volume in the series. Marte Zepernick and Balbina Bäbler have contributed with unfailing and meticulous assistance in the preparation of the manuscript for the press. At Mohr Siebeck, we would like to thank Tobias Stäbler, Susanne Mang and the program director Elena Müller for their careful help. We are most grateful to all of them for their generous support. Göttingen/Exeter, August 2020 Tanja S. Scheer and Irene Salvo VI VII Table of Contents Acknowledgements . V Abbreviations . IX I. Introductions Irene Salvo/Tanja S. Scheer Greek Religion and Education: Key Concepts and Aims . 3 Josine Blok Educating Citizens: Knowledge, Competence, and Values in Greek Poleis ������ 19 II. Actors and Models Irene Salvo T he Pedagogical Function of Cult Associations in Late Classical Athens �������� 35 Eftychia Stavrianopoulou Female Role Models in the Hellenistic Period: T he Evidence of Religious Norms . 55 Marietta Horster Sacred Personnel as Role Models in the Post-classical Period . 77 III. Performing Knowledge Susanne Gödde Learning by Suffering? ‘Education’ and ‘Religion’ in Ancient Greek T heatre . 101 Sophie Marianne Bocksberger Dancing Little Bears . 121 VIII Table of Contents IV. Skills and Media Tanja S. Scheer Conveying Religious Knowledge in Classical Athens: Imagery in Athenian Religious Discourse . 147 Aleksander Wolicki Greek Priestesses and Literacy . 183 Serafina Cuomo Numeracy in the Sanctuary . 197 V. Astrolog y, Philosophy, and Religion Ilaria Bultrighini T heōn Hemerai: Astrology, the Planetary Week, and the Cult of the Seven Planets in the Graeco-Roman World . 217 Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler Statues as T heological Treatises: Porphyry’s Approach in Peri agalmatōn in Context . 241 Contributors . 283 Index of personal names, gods, festivals, places, and key Greek terms . 289 IX Abbreviations Abbreviations of ancient authors, works, and journals follow the Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) and the Brill’s New Pauly (Leiden: Brill, 2002–2010). Abbreviations of inscriptions follow the Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Leiden: Brill 1923–). X 1 I. Introductions 2 3 Greek Religion and Education: Key Concepts and Aims Irene Salvo/Tanja S. Scheer 1. Scope of the volume Around the middle of the 5th century BCE the Athenian assembly decided that a priestess for Athena Nike was to be appointed by lot from all Athenian women. One woman, perhaps the first person to hold this office, was called Myrrhine. She had to administer the shrine (naos) and to attend to the cult image (hedos) of Athena, as we learn from her epitaph which refers to the duties associated with the priesthood.1 As a result of this selection by lot, every female Athenian citizen could suddenly face the challenge of having to hold a prestigious office. How did she know what to do? What religious knowledge and skills were re- quired for such an office? What kind of religious education did the male citizens of the People’s Assembly think they could expect from the Athenian women whom they believed were capable of carrying out this job? If we take into consideration the whole Greek-speaking area of the Mediterranean, similar questions arise. How were education and religion related in Greek cities beyond Athens? How can we define their interrelationship and mutual influence? To what extent was religious knowledge accessible across genders and social classes, and how was it conveyed? Scholarship on the Greek and Roman Mediterranean has tended to examine separately the histories of culture, education, knowledge, and religion. Since the seminal works of Marrou and Jaeger,2 that in many respects were a product of their time, studies on educational systems have flourished, especially those trying to re- construct schooling strategies and how technical and subject-specific content was taught, such as grammar, music, and sport, as well as the wider issue of whether * T his research has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the SFB 1136 Bildung und Religion, sub-project C01 “Aufgeklärte Männer – aber- gläubische Frauen? Religion, Bildung und Geschlechterstereotypen im klassischen Athen.” 1 On the priesthood of Athena Nike, see the two decrees on the same stone IG I3 35 (es- tablishment of the priesthood) and IG I3 36 (details on the salary for the office) as well as IG I3 1330 (grave epigram of Myrrhine); for further details compare, e. g. Blok 2014; Lougovaya-Ast 2006. 2 Marrou 1948; Jaeger 1934–1947. On Marrou and Jager, see Auffarth 2019. 4 Irene Salvo/Tanja S. Scheer schools in the modern sense existed at all.3 Insights into the everyday practice in ancient schools have come from the study of papyri and ostraca (inscribed potsherds) from Graeco-Roman Egypt.4 Similarly productive has been the field of childhood studies, which has examined ancient children’s upbringing and their role as social actors.5 T he investigation of how literate the wider population was in antiquity has also been an object of research interest, alongside asking on which occasions writing was used and by whom.6 T he heterogeneity of sources and con- texts which have emerged overall is far too diverse to be ascribed to a monolithic ‘Greek’ culture and education. Instead, we must take account of the wide variety of experiences which occurred across the Greek-speaking world, without privileging one typology of sources or city over the others. Greek cultures must henceforth be discussed in the plural.7 T hese studies, however, have often left aside the analysis of religious aspects of education. T he absence of this perspective is