Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome

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Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome

Edited by: Vassiliki Panoussi and William Hutton

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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This book is in the series

Volume 190 | Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

About this book

The essays in this volume consider the triptych of memory, ritual, and identity in ancient Greece and Rome. The issue of identity has recently dominated the arena of public discourse with renewed urgency, and in antiquity as in the current day, identities were created through an amalgamation of multivalent views and values. Individual identities were inextricably linked to collective identifications and informed by shared memories and experiences; these in turn shaped the narratives and practices that perpetuated connections within the community. Ritual played a foundational role in this process, as a deeply felt, iterative action that brought members of a community together to form powerful memories through which they negotiated their relationships with one another and with society at large. With contributions on ancient Greek and Roman literature, politics, religion, and material culture, and with a chronological scope ranging from archaic Greece to early Christendom, this volume examines the synergy of memory, ritual, and identity from multiple disciplinary perspectives and provides both an illustration of the variety of configurations that synergy took in Greco-Roman antiquity and how they persisted and evolved over time.

Author / Editor information

Vassiliki Panoussi and William Hutton, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg VA, USA.

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Frontmatter
I

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Acknowledgments
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Contents
VII

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Abbreviations
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List of Figures
XIII

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Introduction
1
Vassiliki Panoussi and William Hutton
Part I Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Greece
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Into the Woods: Reading the Iliad with Boeotian Cult
17
Richard P. Martin
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Epinician Rituals in Pindar’s Fourth and Fifth Olympians: Shaping and Preserving Identities in Song
35
Lucia Athanassaki
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Repeat, Remember: Ritual and Literature (Horace; Sappho, Alcaeus; Homer, Sophocles, Epicurus, Callimachus, Vergil)
47
G.O. Hutchinson
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Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa
71
Brett Evans
Part II Ritual, Poetics, and the Past: Rome
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Georgics 4: Vergil on the Rites of Poetry and Philosophy at the Dawn of a New Era
97
Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides
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Horace’s Ritual Song in Augustan Rome: The Sacred Poet as an alter princeps
119
Chrysanthe Tsitsiou-Chelidoni
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Divining Identity in Seneca’s Oedipus
139
Stavros Frangoulidis
Part III Performing Identity
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Call the Witnesses: Athenian Citizenship Practice at the Crossroads of Memory, Ritual, and Identity
153
Danielle L. Kellogg
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Embodied Memory in the Panathenaia
169
Jessica Paga
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Ritual Against Memory: Managing the Ancestors in Ancient Rome
195
Greg Woolf
Part IV Trauma and Memory
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Aeneas’ tropaeum: Collective Trauma and Commemoration in Vergil’s Aeneid
213
Vassiliki Panoussi
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Broken Hospitality and Traumatic Memory in the Funerals of Vergil’s Pallas and Valerius Flaccus’ Cyzicus
237
Helen Lovatt
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Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Prudentius, Peristephanon and Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia
271
Philip Hardie
Part V Women, Ritual and Memory
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Remembering Female Names: Crisis, Ritual, and Collective Identity Formation in Ancient Greek Epic Poetry
289
Andromache Karanika
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Ritual Lament, Memory, and Identity in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy
307
Ioanna Karamanou
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Memory, Ritual, and the Politics of Closure in Tacitus, Ann. 3.76
323
Sophia Papaioannou
Part VI Places
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Treasuries, Identity, and Politics
337
Judith M. Barringer
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Ancient Greek Construction Rituals, Tradition, and the Articulation of Communal Identities
355
Andrew Farinholt Ward
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Ritual, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Theoriae
385
Ewen L. Bowie
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Pomponius Mela’s Hercules: Preserving Phoenician Ritual Memory and Identity
405
Georgia L. Irby
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List of Contributors
423
Franco Montanari and Antonios Rengakos
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Index Rerum
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Index Locorum

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

December 15, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9783111197456

Hardcover published on:

December 15, 2025

Hardcover ISBN:

9783111197319

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

14

Main content:

446

Illustrations:

25

Coloured Illustrations:

19

Tables:

2

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111197456

eBook ISBN: 9783111197456

Hardcover ISBN: 9783111197319

Keywords for this book

Ancient Greek Religion; Ancient Roman Religion; Ancient Social History

Audience(s) for this book

Scholars and advanced students in Classics, Ancient History, Art History, Archaeology, Late Antiquity, Cultural Studies

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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
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10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Abbreviations

List of Figures

Introduction

Into the Woods: Reading the Iliad with Boeotian Cult

Epinician Rituals in Pindar’s Fourth and Fifth Olympians: Shaping and Preserving Identities in Song

Repeat, Remember: Ritual and Literature (Horace; Sappho, Alcaeus; Homer, Sophocles, Epicurus, Callimachus, Vergil)

Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa

Georgics 4: Vergil on the Rites of Poetry and Philosophy at the Dawn of a New Era

Horace’s Ritual Song in Augustan Rome: The Sacred Poet as an alter princeps

Divining Identity in Seneca’s Oedipus

Call the Witnesses: Athenian Citizenship Practice at the Crossroads of Memory, Ritual, and Identity

Embodied Memory in the Panathenaia

Ritual Against Memory: Managing the Ancestors in Ancient Rome

Aeneas’ tropaeum: Collective Trauma and Commemoration in Vergil’s Aeneid

Broken Hospitality and Traumatic Memory in the Funerals of Vergil’s Pallas and Valerius Flaccus’ Cyzicus

Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Prudentius, Peristephanon and Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia

Remembering Female Names: Crisis, Ritual, and Collective Identity Formation in Ancient Greek Epic Poetry

Ritual Lament, Memory, and Identity in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy

Memory, Ritual, and the Politics of Closure in Tacitus, Ann. 3.76

Treasuries, Identity, and Politics

Ancient Greek Construction Rituals, Tradition, and the Articulation of Communal Identities

Ritual, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Theoriae

Pomponius Mela’s Hercules: Preserving Phoenician Ritual Memory and Identity

List of Contributors

Index Rerum

Index Locorum

Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Greece and Rome

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Abbreviations

List of Figures

Introduction

Into the Woods: Reading the Iliad with Boeotian Cult

Epinician Rituals in Pindar’s Fourth and Fifth Olympians: Shaping and Preserving Identities in Song

Repeat, Remember: Ritual and Literature (Horace; Sappho, Alcaeus; Homer, Sophocles, Epicurus, Callimachus, Vergil)

Ritual, Meter, and Cultural Memories of Megatheism: A New Case for Sarapis as the God of Hyssaldomos’ Verse-Inscription from Mylasa

Georgics 4: Vergil on the Rites of Poetry and Philosophy at the Dawn of a New Era

Horace’s Ritual Song in Augustan Rome: The Sacred Poet as an alter princeps

Divining Identity in Seneca’s Oedipus

Call the Witnesses: Athenian Citizenship Practice at the Crossroads of Memory, Ritual, and Identity

Embodied Memory in the Panathenaia

Ritual Against Memory: Managing the Ancestors in Ancient Rome

Aeneas’ tropaeum: Collective Trauma and Commemoration in Vergil’s Aeneid

Broken Hospitality and Traumatic Memory in the Funerals of Vergil’s Pallas and Valerius Flaccus’ Cyzicus

Memory, Ritual, and Identity in Prudentius, Peristephanon and Paulinus of Nola, Natalicia

Remembering Female Names: Crisis, Ritual, and Collective Identity Formation in Ancient Greek Epic Poetry

Ritual Lament, Memory, and Identity in Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy

Memory, Ritual, and the Politics of Closure in Tacitus, Ann. 3.76

Treasuries, Identity, and Politics

Ancient Greek Construction Rituals, Tradition, and the Articulation of Communal Identities

Ritual, Memory, and Identity: The Case of Theoriae

Pomponius Mela’s Hercules: Preserving Phoenician Ritual Memory and Identity

List of Contributors

Index Rerum

Index Locorum

Bibliographic data