1st Annual Research Workshop - Program and abstracts

The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: A Generic Hybrid

The aim of this presentation is to explore certain generic and literary aspects of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, which occupies a special position within the development of archaic Greek epic poetry.

Bones, our Graves, our Future: A Bioarchaeological Look at the Early Mycenaean Period

The onset of the Late Bronze Age in the Greek mainland (circa 1700 BC) saw significant changes in the mortuary customs, characterised by a gradual shift from single to collective burials, tomb re-use, and secondary funerary treatment. The changes appear to be closely associated with wider socio-political developments in the Middle to Late Helladic transition and the emergence of ‘Mycenaean’ societies.

My study focuses on the most peculiar aspect of the mortuary record, the bones themselves. The peculiarity of the bones lies in their transcending character between cultural and biological evidence. They can, thus, provide unique social information, allowing at once to assess both the identities and experiences of the dead and the historically-situated agency of the living who performed the funeral.

Through a bioarchaeological approach to human remains from two recently excavated Early Mycenaean sites, Ayios Vasileios in Laconia and Kirrha in Phokis, it is possible to reconstruct true details, rather than generic activities, of the funerary treatment. These details demonstrate a considerable and meaningful variation. By integrating mortuary theory with the biocultural analysis of empirical data, we can get closer to the complex association between treatment of the dead and social change during this vital transitional period.

The Epinician Gaze: The Poetics of Perspective on the Body in the Victory Ode

This paper aims to examine the perspective of the lyric ‘I’, the community, and the gods in the victory odes of Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar. The theoretical reflection that frames such objective is the attempt to nuance the distinctions between the subject, the object, and the relativity of perspective, as it derives from narratology, and particularly from post-Genettian critique. To do so, it suggests integrating the concept of focalization, which refers to the subject of perspective, into a broader constellation of factors consisting of multiple vantage points, their focus on aspects of a given object, and their sightline.

In this effort, the ‘epinician’ universe falls squarely in place with the relationality of the aforementioned factors of perspective, which prove power-defined and interdependent. As for their power dynamics, the gaze of the lyric ‘I’ appears to navigate the other human and the divine vantage points. As for their interdependency, the body is regarded as an exemplary case of object in that the focus on its perishability or on its imperishability depends on and constitutes the perspective of the lyric ‘I’. Hence, the factors of perspective are reconsidered as distinguishable, albeit relative.

Social Cohesion and Athletics in 5th Century Athens and Sparta

Due to my academic and research interest, I study the period of the Peloponnesian War and the way Euripides manages the relations between Athens and Sparta. For this reason, I would like to explore the way the two great rivals use sports in the context of social cohesion. Sport is one of the key cohesive links that connect the social web, not only locally but also nationally. So, the question is how this cohesion is achieved in each of the two cities, precisely because their structure is completely different, both politically and socially. Of course, it is not limited to the military, but also to the social level. Therefore, precisely because the social structure of each city is drastically different, the object of my research is the way in which the two rivals manage sports and integrate it into their political and social development. For this reason, I will study the type and level of education that the athletes of each city receive, as well as their right and criteria for participation in the games. In conclusion, the ultimate goal of this paper is to highlight the difference between the two cities and to point out that their political differentiation also has an impact on the way they perceive and manage sports as a key cohesive element of its society in the 5th century BC.

Labors on the Tragic Stage

In my contribution to this workshop, I explore how Attic tragedy employs the theme of heroic labors and adapts it to fit the specifications of the genre and the ideology of the polis. With reference to Euripides’ Suppliant Women, I will argue that at the core of most tragedies, there is a labor performed by the central character. By labor, I mean a dangerous or difficult exploit, one which demands outstanding courage and/or physical or mental effort. The characters undertake the labors either of their own free will or because the labors have been imposed on them by a god or goddess or by some authority so that a crisis, often threatening the well-being of the entire community, can be resolved. The labor may or may not be successfully brought to completion; it may be followed by, and culminate in, the performance and/or the establishment of a religious or civic ritual. All these parameters are conditioned by the ideology of the democratic polis. This approach to tragedy explains how the heroic labor is appropriated by the polis and becomes predominantly ‘poli-tical’ and how the tragic characters, who traditionally belong to the heroic age, become citizens of the democratic polis.

The Electra in Archelaus’ Royal Court (in Macedonia)

My proposal is an attempt to date Euripides’ Electra in the last decade of the 5th century BC., and specifically after the poet's immigration to Macedonia. The main thought is based on the fragments from Euripides’ Archelaus, the information about poet’s and Macedonian king Archelaus’ lives, and also, the rare reference by Euripides to the Olympic Games and the similarities between Archelaus’ personality and the mythical Orestes. This perspective offers a different meaning of the drama, which seems to be as a work of ‘propaganda’ in favor of Archelaus. Under the hero’s mythical persona in the drama, Orestes, shines the historical personality of poet’s patron and two-time Olympic victor Archelaus.

Narrative Observations in Euripides’ Phoenician Women

The aim of this presentation is to study the complex narrative of Euripides’ Phoenician Women, using the tenets of narratology as our basic tools. Phoenician Women is an exceptionally complex play, whose plot encompasses almost every aspect of the Theban mythological saga. This presentation works towards a deeper understanding of the play’s structure by analyzing key narrative techniques, such as the use of anachronies, the remarkable combination of multiple narrative levels, the changes in the narrative rhythm, as well as the outstanding presentations of the same parts of the story by different focalizers.

Platonic Erotic Pedagogy in the Phaedrus: The Education of the Lover’s and the Beloved’s Souls

Plato humanizes the concept of eros and introduces that eros is connected to pedagogy, while pre-philosophically this dimension of eros was undiscovered. Through Socrates’s second speech in the Phaedrus, this presentation attempts to illustrate the pedagogical dimension of Platonic eros and to highlight that Plato's erotic pedagogy is an educational procedure that initiates both the lover’s and the beloved’s souls into true knowledge connecting each other so as to seek learning together. Plato educationalizes eros to the extent that its potentials become equivalent to pedagogy for the lover and the beloved, and thus, his philosophy of eros becomes imperfect without the educational principle. To unfold the argument, I will present the philosophy of eros as demonstrated in the aforementioned passage and analyze aspects of the interrelation of the lover and the beloved.

Refugees and Immigrants in Greco-Roman Myth and Literature. The case of Teucer

Teucer (Τεῦκρος), the legendary founder of Salamis in Cyprus, is not registered among the prominent figures in classical literature, though he has his moments not only in the epic tradition but also in tragedy, Greek and Roman. Τhe son of king Telamon of Salamis and Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, took part in the Trojan War fighting as a great archer alongside his half-brother Ajax against the Trojans. Having failed to stand by him after the award of Achilles’ arms to Odysseus, however, Teucer stood trial as soon as he got back home and eventually was disowned by his father and banished from his homeland. Such is, more or less, the version of his myth as we know it from ancient Greek authors, but to the Romans, it seems that Teucer was more familiar, or even cherished, as an exile/refugee, a man who was forced to abandon his native land and set out to find a new home for himself and his companions. Ηis toils and wanderings already make him a counterpart of Aeneas in the eyes of Vergil’s Dido. However, it is rather Horace’s famous lines in Ode 1.7 that associate Teucer’s myth with the themes of war, voyage, adventure, and rehabilitation in a new homeland which are discussed in the present paper as an inherent element of the Augustan poetry.

Panhellenism and Athenian Athletics

The Athenian Renaissance under Hadrian is directly connected to the foundation of the Panhellenion League, in 131 AD. Through its many and occasionally obscured activities a roman version of Hellenicity was celebrated, under the veil of a vivid antiquarianism. Being the seat of this League, Athens held a series of athletic events throughout the Antonine era not only for representers of various Greek cities but also for its own teens, the epheboi. This paper will examine the revival of the ephebic training in Athens, not only as it was demonstrated through the athletics but also under the parallel participation of the teens into the Philosophy Schools of Athens, under the spectrum of the Second Sophistic Movement. What will come as a surprise is the fact that those boys, from various cities of the Panhellenion, are not acting as ‘reenactors’ but they are trained for an actual military service, under the Roman Empire. This is something that becomes clear through archaeological and textual evidence of Panhellenion and Athens. After their examination, we can interpret the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind Hadrian’s initiative and the reasons why those activities declined after the Severan dynasty.

Religious Coexistence and Confrontation at Messene in the Times of Constantine

Messene in the southwestern Peloponnese was one of the most important cities of the region during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Its description by Pausanias in the second century captured the image of an ancient religious center with a multitude of monuments. The fourth century would mark for the city and its inhabitants a series of radical changes and innovations that transformed the city center in the context of new and renewed uses. The archaeological investigation of domestic and public buildings, that at this time change use in order to meet the needs of a shifting society, now offers researchers a much better understanding of wider transformations occurring across the empire. Prominent among these new buildings is the construction of a Christian assembly hall, perhaps in use as early as the third century. At the same time, the creation of new statues, both imperial and cultic, continued, which now found space inside the luxurious residences of the city's dignitaries. The aim of this paper is to describe and help to understand this new relationship between Christians and Pagans within the built space of the city.

The Ideological Function of Color in Greek Historiography (5th c. BC – 7th c. AD)

The presentation will examine the perception of color in Greek historiography from Herodotus (5th c. BC) to Theophylact Simocatta (7th c. AD). Apart from their aesthetic function, colors convey ideological connotations bound not only to specific historical figures and events but also to changes in the cultural, political, and religious belief system of the ancient and the late Roman world. Since language verbalizes people’s mindset, so does the evolution of a language of color. Even though the works examined reflect very different historical conditions, as they cover a time span of twelve centuries, they demonstrate that their common axis, the Greek language, continually adjusts to historical change.

Athens 1821-1827 in the Diary of Cesare Vitali

Of Italian origin, Cesare Vitali went to Athens in the very first years of the nineteenth century. He served as the vice-consul of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for the Sublime Porte in Athens and he is known to Greek historiography mostly for having written a medical report in Italian for the death of Odysseas Androutsos. His Athenian activity and the different relationships he had with numerous Greek personalities during the years of the Revolution can, however, be reconstructed also on the basis of a rich and unknown documentation. In the General Archives of the Greek State furthermore is preserved the unpublished manuscript of his Diary: set in Athens, it covers the revolutionary years from April 1821 to May 1827. Written in Italian, Vitali's Diary is a unicum of its kind for its chronological extension and the meticulousness of the historical facts reported.

The Reception of American Literature in Greece in the Long 1960s and the Perception of Greece in the Poetry of the Beats

The presentation aims to present the reception of American culture in Greece during the 1960s. Due to the Cold war geography and the fact that Greece bordered the Iron Curtain, American culture was received politically. On one hand, United States institutions, such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom, encouraged the translation of contemporary American literature. On the other hand, the presence of the Beat poets in Greece in the early 1960s facilitated the reception of their work and enabled the revival of the Greek avant-garde, leading to a reappraisal of historical avant-gardes and shaping the canon. The interaction of the American Beat poets with their Greek counterparts is obvious in the avant-garde periodicals of the period. The 1967 dictatorship resulted in an even wider and more political reception of the Beat writers. Moreover, the perception of Greece by the Beat poets within the framework of both an orientalist and a classical outlook shows the complex mappings and representations of the country.

International Olympic Academy and the Institutional Environment of the National Olympic Academies

Within the present framework of the Olympic Charter (2019) the International Olympic Committee (IOC) supports educational issues through the International Olympic Academy (IOA), the National Olympic Committees (NOCs), and the National Olympic Academies (NOAs). However, there are several de facto variations in the arrangements adopted in different national settings. This presentation seeks to label the organizations within the institutional environment of the NOAs and how these determine the strategy and the decisions made by NOAs. How does the environment affect the effective operation of the IOA, and of the NOAs in the Olympic academy system? To address this question, an archival research along with a set of exploratory semi-structured interviews has been conducted with 20 key stakeholders from the IOC (4), IOA (2), NOAs (9), Academics (5).