Unit POLITICS, RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE GREEK WORLD
- Course
- Archaeology and history of art
- Study-unit Code
- A002657
- Curriculum
- Generico
- Teacher
- Massimo Nafissi
- Teachers
-
- Massimo Nafissi
- Hours
- 36 ore - Massimo Nafissi
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2025/26
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Storia antica e medievale
- Sector
- 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.
Re. Part I
M. Nafissi, Il ritorno di Licurgo. Gli agoni di Artemis Orthia e la storia dell’educazione spartana, Perugia: Morlacchi editore 2024. (available for free download at the link https://www.academia.edu/126529130/M_Nafissi_Il_ritorno_di_Licurgo_Gli_agoni_di_Artemis_Orthia_e_la_storia_dell_educazione_spartana_Perugia_Ed_Morlacchi_2024
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, 1-24 DOI: 10.4000/mythos.1868.
• Study of the booklet on the lessons, to be issued and uploaded in Unistudium at their end.
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)
(The above essays, to the extent that they do not contravene copyright law, will be uploaded to Unistudium)
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
- The course aims to highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of antiquity in understanding political events and structures, cultural phenomena, and monuments, through examples relevant to Greek history and art history.
Knowledge:
- Greek religion: basic elements.
The history and religion of Sparta.
Education, religion and athletics in Sparta.
Elements of Greek mythology and the interpretation of myth in archaic figurative monuments.
Skills and competences:
An interdisciplinary approach to the study of Greek culture, including the analysis of literary tradition, the interpretation of literary and epigraphic sources, and the analysis of monumental and figurative complexes.
The ability to relate and evaluate historical and artistic phenomena in relation to historical and cultural events and contexts for a comprehensive understanding of the past and its communication.
The use of appropriate language when analysing and summarising complex phenomena with reference to historical, historical-artistic, cultural, religious and anthropological dimensions. - Prerequisites
- It is useful, but not necessary, to have taken exams of Greek History and Greek Archeology.
Knowledge of Ancient Greek is only required for students attending the Civiltà e cultura dell’antico course. - Teaching methods
- Lectures. Reading sources and documents in Italian translation.
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.
Students with disabilities and/or DSA may request, in consultation with the lecturer, any teaching materials in accessible formats (presentations, handouts, workbooks), provided if necessary in advance of the lectures, as well as the use of other technological tools to facilitate study. For general information, please consult the University Services at https://lettere.unipg.it/home/disabilita-e-dsa and contact the Departmental Contact Person (Prof. A. Di Pilla).
For the 2025/2026 academic year, the University of Perugia has admitted 11 categories of students to distance learning. Students who may be interested are invited to check the possibility of attending lectures in DAD on the website Procedura DAD - Università degli Studi di Perugia (unipg.it) - Other information
- Beginning, schedule and room of the lessons, see https://easyacademy.unipg.it/agendaweb/
- 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.
All students are tested on their knowledge of all the three topics covered in the course.
- Evidence of competence: ability to express oneself orally, in particular with regard to the concepts necessary for the description of social, political, religious and cultural institutions and phenomena and of historical development, of archaeological, monumental and figurative realities, as well as historiographical and mythical narratives. Ability to provide a clear picture of situations; ability to express complex concepts and hypotheses and to organise information in a hierarchical, logical and synthetic manner; for students of Classical Literature, the ability to translate from Greek, to contextualise and comment the texts proposed during the course.
The assessment will take into account the breadth and depth of knowledge, the ability to express oneself at a conceptual and argumentative level, the logical rigour and personal character of the exposition, and, when required, the knowledge of the Greek of the passages examined and the ability to contextualise and comment on them.
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. - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile