|
It
is probably fair to say that from Greek
religion only the myths and the gods still
are present in modern consciousness, whereas
the ancient rituals have been long forgotten.
Yet the gods of the Greeks have hardly been
in the centre of the modern study of Greek
religion. From the most influential students
of Greek religion of the last half of the
twentieth century, Walter Burkert concentrated
on myth and ritual, in particular sacrifice,
and Jean-Pierre Vernant made his name with
studies of the psychological and sociological
aspects of Greek culture, even though his
approach to the Greek pantheon as a system
of combinations and oppositions still carries
a promise that has not yet been fulfilled.
There is room, then, for a new stocktaking
of the Greek gods in Greek society.
It
is the aim of this conference to take a
fresh look at the Greek gods in the period
from Homer until later antiquity. In this
period the place and function of the gods
in society changed, and our conference should
reflect these historical changes. Yet before
we start to speak about changes, we should
establish identities. To what extent do
cult, myth, place in the (local) pantheon,
and genre determine the nature of a divinity?
And how do the Greek gods function in their
polytheistic system? But also: how did the
Greek views change? What was the influence
of philosophy? In what way do the gods in
later antiquity differ from those in classical
Greece ? In short, the aim of the conference
is to acquire a synchronic and diachronic
view of the gods as they functioned in Greek
culture before the triumph of Christianity.
Conference
organisers:
Leventis
Visiting Professor Jan Bremmer, at Edinburgh
for Semester 1, 2007/2008
Professor
Andrew Erskine, Head of Classics.
|
