Kernos, supplément 32 (2018)

Jan-Mathieu CARBON & Saskia PEELS-MATTHEY (eds), Purity and Purification in the Ancient Greek World. Texts, Rituals, and Norms
372 pages. Prix : 30 €
ISBN : 978-2-87562-159-7

Purity, and its converse, impurity, formed a versatile metaphor in the ancient Greek world. Constructing a multifaceted investigation, with both complementary and contrastive approaches, the thirteen papers collected in this volume explore the range of these ideas, from Archaic and Classical Greece to the Roman Near East. Different declensions are readily manifest: purity could be defined as a traditional norm or by institutional law, impurity expressed as a substantive crime or as rhetorical slander. A key debate revolves around the ethical sense of purity and impurity: how early and widely was this notion applied; how did it complement concrete ritual practices of purification and abstention; in other words, in a perspective of continuity and change, how were the inner/mental and outer/corporeal dimensions of purity harmonised ?

The present volume celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of Robert Parker’s seminal work Miasma: Pollution and Purification in early Greek Religion. Analysing a wealth of documents—inscriptions, papyri, literature—both old and new, the authors reveal compelling case-studies, draw out innovative conclusions, and point in fruitful directions for future research.

Table des matières

Jan-Mathieu CARBON, Introduction: Probing the ‘Incubation Chamber’

Concepts, Continuities, and Changes

Robert PARKER, Miasma: Old and New Problems
Angelos CHANIOTIS, Greek Purity in Context: The Long Life of a Ritual Concept, or Defining the Cs of Continuity and Change
Pierre BONNECHERE, Pureté, justice, « piété » et leurs contraires : l’apport des sources oraculaires
Saskia PEELS-MATTHEY, Moral Purity in the Athenian Theatre

Homicide, Morality, and Society

Hannah WILLEY, Social-status, Legislation, and Pollution in Plato’s Euthyphro
Anne-Françoise JACCOTTET, La pureté des tyrannicides ou quand la démocratie lave la souillure
Irene SALVO, Blood Pollution and Macedonian Rulers: Narratives between Character and Belief

Rituals, Behaviour, and Abstinence

Stella GEORGOUDI, Couper pour purifier ? Le chien et autres animaux, entre pratiques rituelles et récits
Marie-Claire BEAULIEU, Θεῶν ἅγνισμα μέγιστον : la mer et la purification en Grèce ancienne
Ivana and Andrej PETROVIC, Purity of Body and Soul in the Cult of Athena Lindia: On the Eastern Background of Greek Abstentions

Contacts and Boundaries, Demons and ‘Magic’

Athanassia ZOGRAFOU, Être pur pour réussir : le conditionnement de l’efficacité rituelle dans les « papyrus magiques grecs »
Miriam BLANCO CESTEROS and Eleni CHRONOPOLOU, The Irresistible Attraction of Purity: Accusations of Religious Transgression in Magical Texts from Late Antiquity
Moshe BLIDSTEIN, Demons and Pollution in the Ancient Mediterranean: Interactions and Relationships

List of Contributors

Abbreviations and Bibliography

Index locorum