Blakely S. (ed.). Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice. Lockwood Press,2017. — 371 p.. 2017

The “material turn” has been part of the landscape of the humanities since the 1980s, yielding a rich array of frameworks for approaching objects as agents, as socially constituted and constituting, as subjectively perceived and affectively experienced (Hicks and Beaudry 2010; Gell 1998). The roots of these interests run much deeper, however, than the late twentieth century (Taylor 2009; D. Miller 2005; Fogelin 2007). In the nineteenth century Locke and Tylor debated the boundaries between the material world and the human soul (Taylor 2009, 299). Hegel declared that engagement with the material world is a fundamental property of being human. Marx argued that the measure of a man is often the extent to which he transforms, commodifies, and accumulates the material world (Hegel 1807). In the mid-twentieth century, Merleau Ponty’s phenomenology outlined the role of the embodied and the experiential human interaction with the world, rather than the merely cognized (Merleau Ponty 1945). Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, affirming the role of society in concept formation and response to the material world, may be traced back to Herodotus’s declarations on the role of environment in the shaping of social character (Bourdieu 1977; Taylor 2009; Lloyd 1978). The depth of the topic is matched only by the breadth of its use across disciplines, from philosophy to economics, and that are focused on objects as diverse as fine art and inorganic waste (Meskell 2005; D. Miller 2005; Lange-Berndt 2015; Gregson and Crang 2010; Dant 2005). These disciplines and topics meet in a growing number of journals, scholarly handbooks, and collections of essays devoted to “materiality.”1

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Contents

Abbreviations

Contributors

Chapter One

Sandra Blakely Object, Image, and Text: Materiality and Ritual Practice in the Ancient Mediterranean

From Goods to Gods: The Material Turn and Ritual Studies

Synopsis of Chapters

Themes

Bibliography

Section 1 From Image to Context: Iconography and Polysemnit

Chapter Two Annewies van den Hoek Divine Twins or Saintly Twins: The Dioscuri in an Early Christian Context

The divine twins Castor and Pollux have had a venerable and persistent cult tradition in the Greek and Roman world.

The Myth

The Dioscuri on North African Ceramics

The Dioscuri and Their Roman Identification

Divine Twins or Saintly Twins?

Bibliography

Chapter Three Sheramy D. Bundrick Altars, Astragaloi, Achilles: Picturing Divination on Athenian Vases

Chapter Four Eric R. Varner Incarnating the Aurea Aetas: Theomorphic Rhetoric and the Portraits of Nero

Section 2 Reading the Gods: Texts and Gift

Chapter Five J. Bert Lott No More Than One Candle, Torch, or Wreath: Private Citizens and the Commemoration of L. Caesar at Pisa

In 2 CE, Lucius Caesar, the younger of Augustus’s two adopted sons, died en route to his first command Spain.1

The Pisan Decree

Public inferiae for Lucius

Private Citizens and the inferiae for Lucius

Candle, Torch, or Wreath

Conclusion

Bibliography

Chapter Six Jill E. Marshall The Cadence of the Language of Magic in Greek Curse Tablets and First Corinthians

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the term ανάθεμα, “curse,” twice. He begins his discussion of prophesying and praying in tongues:1

Curses and Petitions for Justice from Megara, Knidos, and Corinth

Anathema and Inspired Speech in 1 Corinthians 12:3 and 16:22

Conclusion

Bibliography

Chapter Seven Isabel Koster Sacred Objects, Material Value, and Invective in Cicero's Verrines II 4

In 70 BCE Cicero took on the prosecution of Gaius Verres, who had been the governor of the Roman province of Sicily from 73 to 71.

The sacrarium of Heius

The Candelabrum of the Sons of Antiochus

The Hercules of Agrigentum

Conclusion

Bibliography

Section 3 Implements and Image

Chapter Eight Seung Ho Bang, Oded Borowski, Kook Young Yoon, and Yuval Goren Local Production and Domestic Ritual Use of Small Rectangular Incense Altars: A Petrographic Provenience Analysis and Examination of Craftsmanship of the Tell Halif Incense Altars

Small rectangular incense altars found in the southern Levant have been considered as a diagnostic cult object (Albertz and Schmitt 2012, 70-71).

Contexts of the Rectangular Limestone Incense Altars

Descriptions of the Specimens

Petrographic Analysis

Local Production of Small Incense Altars

Conclusions

Bibliography

Chapter Nine Erin Darby Judean Pillar Figurines and the Making of Female Piety in Ancient Israelite Religion

Judean pillar figurines (JPFs) remain one of the most common ritual objects from the eighth through sixth centuries BCE in Judah, the polity governing southern Israel.

Introduction to Judean Pillar Figurines

Previous Interpretations and Methodological Presuppositions

Evaluating Traditional Interpretations

New Directions

Bibliography

Chapter Ten Meghan J. DiLuzio Priestesses in Action: Ritual Instruments Employed by Roman Women

Historians have long analyzed how the Roman elite utilized images of ritual instruments to represent their status within the community.1

Ritual Instruments Used by the Vestal Virgins

Ritual Implements Used by the Flaminica Dialis

Ritual Instruments Used by Female Priestly Attendants

Conclusion

Bibliography

Chapter Eleven Susan Ludi Blevins Rhetoric, Repetition, and Identity in the Frieze of Sacred Objects on the Temple of Divus Vespasian and Divus Titus

Although the temple of Divus Vespasian and Divus Titus housed cult images and served as the site of recurring cult ritual in favor of Divus Vespasian and Divus Titus, for many modern viewers the Arch of Titus with its haunting relief of the deified emperor ascending to the celestial heavens on the back of an eagle has become a more potent symbol of Flavian imperial deification.

Visual Rhetoric

Clarity and Ornament

Ritual, Repetition, and Memory

Objects versus Figural Representation

Imperial State Religion as a Collective Project

Bibliography

Section 4 Sites and Structures: Gods, Men, and Cultural Identitie

Chapter Twelve Eric Moore Channeling Identity: The Fountain of Glauke in Corinth and Jacob's Well in John 4

What did a water source contribute to a community’s identity in Mediterranean antiquity?

The Fountain of Glauke

Appropriating Traditions