Session: #188

Content:

In ancient Greece, some cults were commonly transferred from one locale to another with the appropriate adaptations to fit into the new context. Such transfers occurred from the Dark Age, when cults were moved from Balkan Greece to Asia Minor, during the Archaic period, when they were transplanted from metropoleis to apoikiai, and throughout Greek history, among communities engaged in synoecism. Even the cults of divinities worshipped under local epithets could undergo this process. When scholars examine these transferred cults, they tend to focus on the similarities between the new and the old sets of practices more than the changes that inevitably occurred. The modalities of cult transformations which occurred in different historical and cultural situations, in particular, the differences between changes in rituals and beliefs, resulting from population movements during the Dark Age, Greek colonization, and other historical periods, are to be put into focus. The aim of the present panel is to help fill this gap in the research by considering the impact of mobility on the transformation of cult practices in the Greek world from the Geometric to the Classical period, focusing on archaeological evidence.
The participants will address the following questions:
1) What types of changes occur when cults are transferred?
2) What kind of practices persisted in the locale to which a cult was transferred?
3) What material and epigraphical evidence are there for these changes?
4) What factors inspired and affected these changes?
5) How were cults adapted to the new territories that Greeks occupied in the Mediterranean?
6) How did the cults of divinities and heroes interact with the local pantheons when they were transferred to colonial communities?
7) Which elements of the original cults were retained, and what new elements did the local cultural and physical environment contribute?

Session: #188

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