Unit POLITICS, RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE GREEK WORLD
- Course
- Italian, classical studies and european history
- Study-unit Code
- A002657
- Curriculum
- Civiltà e cultura dell'antico
- Teacher
- Massimo Nafissi
- Teachers
-
- Massimo Nafissi
- Hours
- 36 ore - Massimo Nafissi
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2023
- Offered
- 2023/24
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Academic discipline
- L-ANT/02
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Spartan Issues. Myth, Religion, Society and History.
I. The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. Education, rituals and events in the history of the city.
II. The throne of Apollo at Amyclae. - Reference texts
- Students attending more than 60% of lessons.
• Study of the booklet on the lessons, to be issued and uploaded in Unistudium at their end.
And furthermore
Re. Part I
M. Nafissi, The ‘Whip Ag¿nes’ for Orthia: Education, Religion, Memory and Identity in Sparta, in S. Scharff (ed.), “Beyond the Big Four”, Tyresias Supplements Online, in stampa.
Two among the following papers or chapters of book:
• S. des Bouvrie, Artemis Ortheia. A goddess of nature or a goddess of culture?, in T. Fischer-Hansen e B. Poulsen (eds.), From Artemis to Diana. The Goddess of Man and Beast, Copenhagen 2009, 153-178.
• Bonnechère, P. Orthia et la flagellation des éphèbes spartiates: un souvenir chimérique de sacrifice humain. «Kernos», vol. 6, 1993, pp. 11-22.
• Brelich, A., Paides e parthenoi, I, Roma 1969, 126-140.
• Christesen, P., Athletics and Social Order in Sparta in the Classical Period, «Classical Antiquity» 31, 2, 2012, 193-255.
• Ducat, J., Spartan Education. Youth and Society in the Classical Period, Swansea 2006, 1-34; 249-260.
• Kennell, N.M., The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta, Chapel Hill 1995, 49-69, 70–97, 115-128.
Re. part II:
• Nafissi, M., Spartan Heroic Ancestry and Austere Virtues. Herakles, Theseus, and the Phaiakians on the Throne of Amyklai, A. Möller (hrsg.), Historiographie und Vergangenheitsvorstellungen in der Antike, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2019, 35-56.
• Nafissi, M., Gli eroi del Trono di Apollo ad Amicle tra apoteosi, immortalità elisia e destino di morte, «Mythos» 14, 2020 (Atti Convegno Diventare un dio, diventare un eroe nel mondo greco – Devenir un dieu, devenir un héros en Grèce ancienne, Bologna 20-21 settembre 2018 – Montpellier 26-27 novembre 2018),
(The above essays, to the extent that they do not contravene copyright law, will be uploaded to Unistudium)
N.B. For students attending less than 60% of lessons is furthermore required the reading of the book
• M. Lupi, Sparta. Storia e rappresentazioni di una città greca, Roma, Carocci, 2017.
or the following chapters of books:
• Cartledge, P., A Spartan Education, in Id., Spartan Reflections. London 2001, 79-90.
• Ducat, J., Spartan Education. Youth and Society in the Classical Period, Swansea 2006, 1-34.
• Kennell, N.M., The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta, Chapel Hill 1995, 49-69, 70–97, 115-128.
• Parker, R., Spartan Religion, in A. Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta: Techniques behind Her Success, London 1989, pp. 142-172 (also available in Italian translation)
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for the compensatory tools ensured by law (e.g. textbooks in digital format; teaching materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, workbooks, provided if necessary in advance of the lessons), for which consult https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
For the request, students are invited to ask the teacher, who will put them in contact with the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it) - Educational objectives
- Knowing and understanding basic element of Greek religion.
Basic knowledge of the Laconian history, and of Laconian and Spartan religion.
Greek mythology and historical significance: myth, religion, politics, society.
Applying knowledge and understanding interdisciplinary approach to the study of Greek culture: analysis and interpretation of literary, epigraphic sources, and of monuments and their decoration as means to reconstruct meaningful cultural messages.
Improvement of the students' skill of historical interpretation of the sources. - Prerequisites
- It is useful, but not necessary, to have taken exams of Greek History and Greek Archeology.
- Teaching methods
- Readings
Seminar lessons and/or paper, if requested by the students
Attendance checked by roll call.
Supplementary readings are imposed to students who attend less than 60% of lessons. Attendance by working students is not checked. - Other information
- Beginning, schedule and room of the lessons, see Department Official Pages http://www.lettere.unipg.it/didattica/calendari
- Learning verification modality
- Oral exam (ca. 30', after the course). Students of the LM-15 degree the exam are expected to show their ability to translate and comment on passages in Greek, chosen from a list among those examined during the year.
At the request of individual students, the programme can be redefined and may provide for a written paper (ca. 10, max. 15 pp.) on topics regarding the course and possibly its presentation in a seminar session.
Students with disabilities and/or with SLD who, having completed regular accreditation through SOL, have obtained access to University services, can apply for the compensatory tools ensured by law (e.g. textbooks in digital format; teaching materials in accessible formats: presentations, handouts, workbooks, provided if necessary in advance of the lessons), for which consult https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa.
For the request, students are invited to ask the teacher, who will put them in contact with the Disability and/or DSA Department Coordinator (prof. Alessandra Di Pilla: alessandra.dipilla@unipg.it) - Extended program
- I. The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. Education, rituals and events in the history of the city.
The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia represents one of the best known places in Sparta. Literary texts have transmitted to us numerous accounts of the celebrations which were held there, and important excavations have been conducted on the spot at the beginning of the 20th century, revealing i.a. a rich epigraphic documentation. These epigraphic texts sheds inter alia important light on Sparta's age class system, some aspects of which are analyzed. The youth rituals and contests that took place at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia are a reflection of the peculiar Spartan educational practices: these practices too must therefore be considered when studying Orthia and its contests. Although sometimes incomplete and cursory, the information available makes it possible to recognize an evolution of the most famous competition that took place there, and which in Roman times took the form of flagellation. We study the characteristics and the development of this peculiar agon.
II. The throne of Apollo at Amyclae
The sanctuary of Apollo and Hyakinthos was famous in antiquity among other things for the so called Throne. Apollo’s or Bathykles’ Throne (from the name of its author) was a large late-archaic structure that surrounded an oldest huge simulacrum of the god Apollo. The structure was characterized by a very rich sculpted figurative cycle, which is completely lost. Their themes, however, were listed quickly, but with substantial completeness, by the Periegetes Pausanias in the second century A.D. Without neglecting the archaeological data – the important results of new researches are still only partially published - an attempt will be made to propose an overall interpretation of the figurative cycle. A thorough review of Pausanias’ text and of the conditions in which he proposed his presentation, the constant comparison with the the archaic and classical figurative culture and literary tradition, allow to recover the religious conceptions and the ethical categories that determined the choice of the myths and their combination on the monument.