Age of Athena - a follow up event to Athena: Sharing New Research

A few months ago this blog, which was initially started to report on aspects of the progress of a book I'm writing, was taken over by something highly relevant to that book - a conference I was organising at Roehampton on Athena. Since then, I've been discussing several possible follow-up events and activities, even including a tour of Athena-related sites throughout Europe.

 

One thing that emerged in the planning of the event was that two of the booklet contributors, Olivia Huntingdon-Stuart ("The Age of Athena") and Houman Sadri ("Synthesising male and female aspects of war in Azzarello and Chiang's Wonder Woman"), were engaging in Athena-related research with lots of interfaces - and from different disciplinary starting-points. Olivia is now planning a follow-up event, titled *The Age of Athena* which will explore gender norms and non-binary concepts via the vehicle of Athena.

Olivia is co-ordinating a meeting to discuss this event next month at Roehampton, on ***21 October***, in the Convent Parlour of Digby Stuart College. If anyone would like to join us, let me know. Or - if anyone would like to suggest possible discussion ideas (including those based away from London...), do get in contact. I'm aware that a trip to SE London in October might simply not be do-able for lots of people... Here’s the programme:

11.00: meet for coffee in Hive Café, Digby Stuart College

11.30-12.45: Introduction of scope of event; participants set out research and other relevant interests leading into informal presentations from Olivia Huntingdon-Stuart and Houman Sadri

12.45-1.45: Break for Lunch (the Hive Café and Digby Diner serve a range of moderately-priced options)

1.45-3.00: Further informal presentations including by Tony Keen. Other contributions welcome! Presentations to lead into discussion of where to go next - conference? activism?

3.00 onwards - wind down with coffee

Possible topics for this initial event and for future exploration are:

Gender norms and non-binary concepts in:
- Classical myth and culture (e.g. gods, divine attributes, parthenogenesis.)
- Medieval, early modern, modern and contemporary cultures
- Pop culture (e.g. Wonder Woman, Xena, advertisements.)
- Literature and art (e.g. Romance Literature, Shakespeare.)
Religion: ancient and modern
Philosophy (e.g. gender and ontology, gendering Plato’s theories.)Thanks for reading this far – let me know if you’d like to join us on 21st - or if anything here chimes with your own interests.

Athena Sharing - Conference Booklet

This morning I've made the final changes to the conference booklet and posted it online here. I've also started a discussion session about the work presented in the booklet.

Booklet blurb:

This one-day conference will share current research on a deity that has been a topic of interest since the dawn of classical scholarship and through its various ‘turns.’ The event will appraise various ways to approach the goddess by drawing together current researchers from the following seven (a good Athena-related number…) countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. The event takes place at a time of a resurgence of interest in the goddess evidenced, for instance, by the latest edition of the journal Pallas devoted to Athena-related papers. The event will both reflect and appraise this renewed interest. The Pallas volume will be on show, as will an Athena-related treasure owned by the University of Roehampton.

This booklet contains the conference programme and abstracts. You will also find details of Athena-related work from Roehampton researchers and from scholars in Sri Lanka, Sweden and Switzerland.

 

Ingo Schaaf - Kyria Athenais. Transformations of Pallas and Parthenon in Late Antique Athens

And now for the final of the abstracts for the Athena event on Friday 3 June - from Ingo Schaaf, of the University of Konstanz

Kyria Athenais. Transformations of Pallas and Parthenon in Late Antique Athens

“In the whole history of the transformation of Ancient cult names and sanctuaries into Christian ones, there is no example of such an easy and total permutation as it is the one of Pallas Athena and the Virgin Mary” (Gregorovius 1889: 64). Statements like these are paradigmatic for approaching the Athenian goddess in her Late Antique urban environment (see also Kraus 1950). However, it is far from granted that ‘the Lady of Athens’ (cf. Marin. Procl. 30) – still a city of high cultural appeal to Pagans and Christians alike (Wenzel 2010) – handed over her residence that smoothly. In fact, as recently shown, one cannot exclude more violent forms of transition in the case of Athena’s temple on the Acropolis (Pollini 2008).

 

Reviewing the textual narratives and the archaeological record pertaining to Athena and her most prominent cult site eventually turned into a “Christian Parthenon” (Kaldellis 2009), the paper investigates the goddess’s shifting role in her city, thus contributing to the larger discourse on Ancient mythology in Late Antique contexts (Leppin 2015).

 

Works cited

Gregorovius 1889 Gregorovius, F., Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter 1, Stuttgart 1889.

Kaldellis 2009 Kaldellis, A., The Christian Parthenon. Classicism and pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens, Cambridge 2009.

Kraus 1950 Kraus, W., s.v. Athena, RAC 1 (1950), 870-881.

Leppin 2015 Leppin, H., Einleitung: Antike Mythologie in christlichen Kontexten der Spätantike, in: idem (ed): Antike Mythologie in christlichen Kontexten der Spätantike (Millennium-Studien 54), Berlin-Munich-Boston 2015, 1-18.

Mango 1995 Mango, C., The conversion of the Parthenon into a Church: The Tübingen Theosophy, DCAE 18 (1995), 201-203.

Pollini 2008 Pollini, J., Christian desecration and mutilation of the Parthenon, MDAI(A) 122 (2008), 207-228.

Wenzel 2010 Wenzel, A., Libanius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the ideal of

Athens in Late Antiquity, JLA 3 (2010), 264-285.

 

Marianne Kleibrink and Elizabeth Weistra - Cult in context: an early Athena in Calabria?

I'm delighted, now, to present the next abstract for Friday's Athena conference, from two scholars,

Marianne Kleibrink and Elizabeth Weistra, both of whom are based at the University of Groningen

Cult in context: an early Athena in Calabria?

In the 6^th century BC the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta at Francavilla Marittima, Calabria, was devoted to Athena, as evidenced by a bronze votive inscription and numerous terracotta figurines. Largely abandoned in the 5^th century BC, the site continued to receive the latter
dedications. In these centuries the main identity of the venerated goddess, Athena, is clearly
recognizable, as opposed to the 8^th and 7^th centuries BC, in which the cult on the Timpone della Motta already flourished.

The Groningen excavations (1991-2004) of the large 8^th c. BC apsidal timber Building V.b. supplied data of large-scale feasts, of sophisticated textile production and of divine or substitute-divine anthropomorphic couple figurines. Besides possibly ritual weaving, another link to Athena is formed by the ever-increasing evidence that Francavilla Marittima may be identified as ancient Lagaria, the town founded by Epeios, constructor of the Trojan horse, who dedicated his tools in an Athenaion along the Ionian coast.

The late- 8^th to mid-7^th c. BC sanctuary, with its large timber buildings, abundant votive gifts and fascinating iconography, is the focus of this paper. By means of contextual and iconographical analyses of two of the most eye-catching objects: a matt-painted sherd with a dancing couple and a terracotta pinax known as the ‘Dama di Sibari’, it will be argued that the 7th c. BC cult and identity of the goddess comprise earlier traditions that continue into the 6^th c. BC. Aim of this paper is to decide whether or not the venerated goddess may be regarded as an Athena before the 6^th c. BC.

Christopher Lillington-Martin - Symbolism of Athena, and her metamorphoses, by means of the olive, in Homer’s Odyssey and Procopius’ Wars

I'm pleased, now, to present the next abstract, from Christopher Lillington-Martin, a scholar with several academic identities, at: University of Reading, Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity, and Summer Fields, Oxford!

Symbolism of Athena, and her metamorphoses, by means of the olive, in Homer’s Odyssey and Procopius’ Wars

Athena is present in many scenes of the Odyssey and is often portrayed as transforming characters. I shall consider some of her symbolised presences, and her metamorphosis of certain characters and argue for Homer signalling her symbolic presence by introducing forms of the olive tree (olive-wood tools, olive products and places to sleep and olive-wood tableware). These forms of presence are different from Athena’s other presences. Her presence is normally unknown to characters but I shall show that they tend to act decisively when the olive is referred to in the poem. Cases of the olive symbolising Athena will be presented, involving Odysseus, Polyphemus, Calypso, Telemachus, Nausicaa, Eumaeus and Penelope, whilst contextualising and citing metamorphosis and the presence of both Athena and the olive within the Odyssey. I shall then examine Procopius’ treatment of Homer in the Wars. Procopius’ views on paganism and Christianity are still debated and those of his readership will have been diverse. I shall argue that Procopius offers symbolism to portray the goddess Athena as present in one significant scene by referring to a unique olive tree at the siege of Naples in 536, during the wars between Justinian's armies, led by Belisarius, and the Goths, reigned over by Theodahad.

 

 

Sandya Sistac - ‘Her do thou smite’ (Il. 5.132): a preliminary study of the relationships between Athena and Aphrodite in Homeric epic

And now for the next abstract - Sandya Sistac, PhD student at Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaures.

‘Her do thou smite’ (Il. 5.132): a preliminary study of the relationships between Athena and Aphrodite in Homeric epic”

Following in the steps of Jean-Pierre Vernant, Marcel Detienne and, more recently, the studies of Gabriella Pironti on Aphrodite, a major part of my PhD (started some months ago) will focus on identifying and analysing Athena’s interactions with other Homeric divine beings. This “divine network” will hopefully bring forward clues regarding the place held by Athena’s divine puissance in the poems, which in turn may call forth an assessment of the Homeric network’s potential specificities compared to Hesiod’s for instance. From these observations, I intend to achieve an accurate characterization of Athena’s puissance as the Greeks understood it at the time of composition of the poems and as they still received it when the Iliad and the Odyssey were eventually written down. Obviously, we must never forget that this study’s frame of reference is a carefully crafted, literary one, hence the particular attention that must be given to the codes of epic literature and to the intrinsic logic of the poems at all times.

My paper will deal with the relationship between Athena and Aphrodite on which, as observed by Gabriella Pironti in her book (Entre ciel et guerre. Figures d’Aphrodite en Grèce ancienne, Kernos Supplément, 18, Liège, 2007), Diomedes’ aristeia in the fifth Book of the Iliad made a lasting impression. What can we learn of Athena from her part in these particular feats? As the openly conflictual relationship that she entertains with Aphrodite goes patently beyond a sibling quarrel, what does it tell us about the puissances in attendance? And how do they fit into the Homeric narrative and cosmic network?

Owen Rees - The disappearance of Athena from classical warrior-departure scenes

I'm pleased, now, to present the next abstract for Friday's conference - from Owen Rees, PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The presence of Athena in ancient Greek warrior-departure scenes is considered a standard adaptation of the archetypal 'departure scene'. Her presence in these scenes has influenced their interpretation by modern scholars some of whom regard them as expressions of polis ideology, with Athena naturally interpreted as the embodiment of the polis. However, this paper will explore the extent of her prolificacy, and its relative demise during the classical period. It will then discuss the growing representation of winged-women, and the automatic identification made by scholars with Nike, based upon her association with Athena. Finally, this paper shall dispute the automatic association with Nike, propose an alternative identification for the winged woman, and challenge the Athena sub-theme of departure scenes as being anomalous.

Alessandra Abbattista and Fabio Lo Piparo - The two folds of Athena’s garment: military and maternal aegis in Euripides’ Ion

I'm pleased, now, to present the next abstract for the conference on 3 June - this time from two scholars: Alessandra Abbattista of the University of Roehampton, London and Fabio Lo Piparo of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

The two folds of Athena’s garment: military and maternal aegis in Euripides’ Ion

 

The paper aims to investigate the gendered meaning of the aegis of Athena in and around Euripides’ Ion. With particular attention to the passages related to the aegis, the analysis will focus on the contradictory treatment of this garment, between danger and protection, in the text. The Euripidean version of the origin of the aegis from the Gorgon, the monster that was killed by Athena during the Battle of the Giants, portrays the figure of the goddess as promachos, the androgynous mistress of war. This aspect is embodied by Creusa in her failed attempt to kill her son with the poisonous blood scattered from the Gorgon’s body, beheaded and deprived of its skin. Furthermore, the snaky border and the gorgoneion in Ion’s swaddling cloth woven by Creusa suggest an accurate reproduction of its model, the real aegis. The use of the woven aegis in the exposition of Ion merges the motifs of the birth and the delivery of Erichthonius to the daughters of Cecrops by his foster mother Athena, a moment carefully replicated and ritualised by Creusa. This adds nurturing and child-caring features to the aegis and therefore to the two figures who bear it. Just as Athena, the tragic heroine appears both male/promachos and female/kourotrophos. References from Homer to lexicographers, as well as iconographic depictions on Attic vases, will demonstrate the gender conflation beyond the aegis in the Euripidean tragedy.

 

 

 

 

 

Amanda Potter - Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Knitting: Athena in the Popular Imagination

And now for the next of our abstracts for Friday's conference - from Dr Amanda Potter of the Open University, UK.

Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Knitting: Athena in the Popular Imagination

My doctoral research on classical myth on television included an audience study focussed on the character of Athena in Xena: Warrior Princess episode ‘Amphipolis Under Siege’ (5.14).  My research was not only into viewers’ reactions to the character of Athena in the episode, where Athena is on the opposing side to the hero, Xena, but also on their knowledge of the goddess Athena before they watched the episode.  Viewers were ask to summarise all that they knew about the goddess, and where they obtained their information.  This allowed me to build up a picture of what fans of Xena and other members of the general public think about the goddess, when compared with the knowledge held by classicists, who also took part in my study.  What I found was that respondents are engaging with the goddess in different ways, including the pagan who prays to the goddess, and the viewers who think of Athena as a goddess who stands for women.  In this paper, drawing on both my doctoral research, and a shorter audience study conducted at the Petrie Museum in 2013, I will share my findings on what Athena can mean to us today.

Manon Champier - Athena in official images in the French 19th century

With the Athena event now just a few days away, I'm pleased to present the next abstract - from Manon Champier, doctoral student at Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaures

Athena in official images in the French 19^th century

During the 19^th century, France went through many political changing. Monarchies, republics or empires succeeded each other, at the whim of revolutions, coups and wars. New governments needed to find some legitimacy and abundantly used images and symbols to affirm their power and identity, in reaction to or in agreement with what was done before. Antiquity was a prestigious reference and a model for art. Among the numerous Greek figures, Athena was very popular with both artists and public discourse. Why this goddess in particular? Why and how is she used in a period far from Antiquity, when polytheist cults do not exist anymore? What does her reinterpretation by the 19^th century artists say about their vision of Antiquity? We will try to go through these questions by analyzing the reception of the goddess in the different fields such as war, science and fine arts. We will compare how monarchies, empires or republics decided to use the goddess and enlighten differences or permanent features.

Bartłomiej Bednarek - Bringing stools to Athena?

Now for the next of the abstracts for the Athena event on 3 June - from Bartłomiej Bednarek of Jagiellonian University, Krakow
 
Bringing stools to Athena?

A handful of passages from old comedy, along with scholia and lexica, mention a category of ritual acolytes called diphrophoroi. As the etymology suggests, the word must have referred to someone whose role involved (but was not necessarily was limited to) carrying stools (diphroi). Some nineteenth century scholars associated diphrophoroi with some of the figures represented on the east side of the Parthenon frieze, on which, among others, two girls with stools on their heads are approaching a bearded man. Since the publication of Ziehen's Panathenaea entry to RE, however, this identification has been rejected by most scholars on the basis, as I would like to argue, of some false assumptions. In most of the modern works in which the subject matter is addressed (e.g. in commentaries on the Aristophanic comedies), diphrophoroi are said to have been metic girls who accompanied the kanephoroi during the Panathenaea in order to serve them, not the goddess. Most scholars, therefore, claim that their ritual role was marginal and social status was low. Thus they maintain that the girls shown on the frieze must not be identified as diphrophoroi. In my paper I would like to address this problem, trying to explain why there seems to have been a very good reason for bringing stools to Athena. Seeing that the phenomenon lies at the intersection between the religion and public manifestations of ethnic and gender identity, I would like to touch upon also these matters, while arguing that there is no reason to believe that the status of diphrophoroi was necessarily lower than that of kanephoroi.
 

Ellie Mackin - Weaving Athena: An object-focused study of girls and women approaching Athena as a poliadic deity

I'm delighted to share the third of the abstracts for the Athena event on 3 June - by Dr Ellie Mackin of King’s College London

Weaving Athena: An object-focused study of girls and women approaching Athena as a poliadic deity

This paper will present an ethnographic study of the lives of the girls and women who were involved in the annual adornment of Athena Polias at the Panathenaia. This will include both those who wove the peplos and members of the wider Athenian community who participated in the festival. Therefore, this study will include the young arrhephoroi, the Ergastinai (‘weavers’) who were maidens of marriageable age, the Priestess of Athena Polias, and the Athenian and metic girls who participated in the procession – in other words, a representation of every female belonging to the Athenian population. Through this study, I will discuss what the physical act of worship (the production of a specific object and the act of processing) can tell us about how individuals approached Athena as the goddess of their city, and how this was expressed specifically for women and girls. This study will articulate the specific influence that Athena had, both as a ‘female god’ and a poliadic divinity, in the lives of the individual females who were involved in her worship. Thus, it will comment on Athena as a living goddess to her worshipers.

Maciej Paprocki - Trickster Athena as a granddaughter of Okeanos and Tethys

I'm please to share the second of the abstracts for Athena: Sharing New Research on 3 June, by Dr Maciej Paprocki of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München:

Trickster Athena as a granddaughter of Okeanos and Tethys.

Athena, the sovereign mistress of cunning intelligence, has many an opposite number among Greek deities: for example, Vernant and Detienne in their Cunning intelligence in Greek culture and society observe and discuss functional similarities and contiguities between Athena, Metis, Thetis, Hephaistos and Hermes—archetypal trickster deities, deft at binding magic (1991/1974: 140-144, 181-183, 300-305). In this presentation, I build on Detienne and Vernant’s observations and postulate that such deities form a fuzzy ‘trickster’ class in the Greek pantheon, linked by their shared matrilineal genealogy in Hesiod’s Theogony, descending them from Okeanos and Tethys.

Shadowy, sly shapeshifters learned in magical arts, (great-)grandchildren of Okeanos comprise some of the craftiest and grandest trickster gods of Greece: into their group one may include descendants by birth (Kalypso, Maia, Hermes, Athena, Prometheus, Kirke, Medea, Metis, Thetis) and descendants by adoption (Hera through Tethys and Hephaistos through Thetis and Eurynome). In the Theogony, Hesiod’s obliquely expresses his theological convictions through carefully planned divine marriages and resultant offspring. I argue that the poet instinctively understood functional similarities between trickster-type deities and thus traced their descent from Okeanos and Tethys, primordial gods of transformation and change: transcending Hesiod, the Okeanos trickster genealogy lingers in later Greek works, with authors conceptually juxtaposing these deities in their works.

Selected bibliography:

BRACKE, E. (2009), “Of Metis and Magic. The Conceptual Transformations of Circe and Medea in Ancient Greek Poetry”, PhD, Department of Ancient Classics, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

CATALIN, A. (2009), “On the Mythology of Okeanos”, Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 143–150.

DELCOURT, M. (1957), Héphaistos ou, la légende du magicien, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'Université de Liège, Vol. 146, Paris.

DETIENNE, M., VERNANT, J.-P. (1991), Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society, J. LLOYD (trans.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago [first published as Les Ruses de l’intelligence: La Mètis des Grecs in 1974].

KONSTAN, D. (1977), “The Ocean Episode in the "Prometheus Bound"”, History of Religions, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 61–72.

KORENJAK, M. (2000), “Die Hesperiden als Okeanos-Enkelinnen: eine unnötige Crux bei Apollonios Rhodios”, Hermes, Vol. 128 No. 2, pp. 240–242.

VERNANT, J.-P. (1970), “Thétis et le poème cosmogonique d'Alcman”, [in:] Crahay, R., Derwa, M. and Joly, R. (Eds.), Hommages à Marie Delcourt, Latomus Collection, Bruxelles, pp. 38–69.

Marion Meyer - Athena and her foster child

In the run-up to the Athena event on 3 June, I'm going to be releasing the abstracts gradually starting, today, with that from Professor Marion Meyer of the Institute for Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna.

Athena and her foster child

The tale of a boy born of the Earth and raised by Athena is the Ur-Mythos of Athens.

In early times its focus was the correlation of nature and civilization - Gaia (the Earth) comprising everything which occurred naturely (procreation, birth, growth), Athena comprising everything which needed techne (knowledge, training, education).

A later version included Hephaistos and thus broke the balance of Gaia and Athena. Erechtheus obtained a father, Gaia was reduced to the role of mortal women (giving birth after having conceived), and Athena was highlighted (as the trigger of every move).

Still later, the myth was told for a figure named Erichthonios (derived from Erechtheus). This is the version shown in images. As the new name is not attested before the second half of the 5th century, this innovation was dated to the Classical period (but actually occurred a little earlier).

In the course of time the role of Athena´s foster child changed: Erechtheus was (and remained) Athena´s prime cult associate on the Acropolis. Erichthonios, however, was the prototype of an Athenian and conveyed the notion that all Athenians were children of Athena. It is the purpose of the paper to present the varying views of Athena and her foster child as the result of a continuous process of “making” the city goddess.

Speakers and topics - Athena: Sharing Current Research

I'm delighted to announce our speakers and topics. I look forward to welcoming to Roehampton current researchers from seven (a good Athena-related number...) European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. This running order is provisional. I'm aiming to finalise the programme by 20th May.

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Marion Meyer, University of Vienna, “Athena and her foster child”     

Maciej Paprocki, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, “Trickster Athena as a granddaughter of Okeanos and Tethys"

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Ellie Mackin, King’s College London, “Weaving Athena: An object-focused study of girls and women approaching Athena as a poliadic deity”

Bartłomiej Bednarek, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, “Bringing stools to Athena?”

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Manon Champier, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, “Athena in official images in the French 19th century"
Amanda Potter, Open University, UK, “Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Knitting: Athena in the Popular Imagination"

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Alessandra Abbattista, University of Roehampton, London and Fabio Lo Piparo Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, “The two folds of Athena’s garment: military and maternal aegis in Euripides’ Ion"

Owen Rees, Manchester Metropolitan University, “The disappearance of Athena from classical warrior-departure scenes"

---

Sandya Sistac, Université Toulouse-2-Jean Jaurès, “‘Her do thou smite’ (Il. 5.132): a preliminary study of the relationships between Athena and Aphrodite in Homeric epic”

Christopher Lillington-Martin, University of Reading and Summer Fields, Oxford “Symbolism of Athena, and her metamorphoses, by means of the olive, in Homer’s Odyssey and Procopius’ Wars"

---

Marianne Kleibrink and Elizabeth Weistra, University of Groningen, “Cult in context: an early Athena in Calabria?”

Ingo Schaaf, University of Konstanz, “Kyria Athenais: Transformations of Pallas and Parthenon in Late Antique Athens”

_________________________________________________________________________________

 

Chairs: Susan Deacy, Tony Keen, José Magalhaes, University of Roehampton, London

 

 

*Athena: Sharing New Research* - booking now open

Registration is now open for the conference - which takes place a month today! Click here to sign up.

Updates on twitter @AthenaSharing
#AthenaUR

Information on speakers and topics to follow asap.
 

Call for Papers reminder

There's still time to offer a paper!

Athena: Sharing Current Research
3rd June 2016, Adam Room, Grove House, University of Roehampton, London

If you'd like to offer a paper (of c. 20 minutes) - please send title plus c. 200-word abstract by 30 April 2016. All welcome to present/attend, esp. postgraduate students.

This conference will share current research on a deity that has been a topic of interest since the dawn of classical scholarship and through its various ‘turns.’ The event will appraise various ways to approach the goddess by drawing together current researchers from the UK, France, Italy, and, we hope, elsewhere. The event takes place at a time of a resurgence of interest in the goddess (evidenced, for instance, by the 2016 edition of the journal Pallas devoted to Athena-related papers). The event will both reflect and appraise this renewed interest.

Envisaged themes to include:

•Athena the networker – polytheism, the pantheon and the ‘Paris School’
•Athena in the city – in antiquity and beyond
•Gendering Athena
•Attributes of Athena
•Athena as warrior deity

I've had a further suggested theme: Athena in neopagan traditions. I'd certainty be happy to receive proposals along the lines of:

*Living Athenas: modern neopagan traditions

Other suggestions welcome. Programme to follow in May.

Comment below, or tweet @AthenaSharing or email s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk if you'd like to be added to the mailing list - or would like just to make contact!

Athena: Sharing Current Research - initial Notice and Call for Papers

As promised in my previous message, of yesterday, here's the notice I put out via the Classicists List, together with a few annotations.

Initial notice and cfp

Friday June 3rd 2016 (provisional times - 10am-4pm). I'll confirm these once I have a sense of how many potential speakers there are - from initial responses, we look set to have a really good number, and range of participants.

Adam Room, Grove House, University of Roehampton, London This is an ideal location for the event for reasons I'll explain in a future posting.

*All welcome, especially postgraduate students*

This one-day event will share current research on a deity that has been a topic of interest since the dawn of classical scholarship and through its various ‘turns.’ The conference will appraise various ways to approach the goddess by drawing together researchers from the UK, France, Italy, and, we hope, elsewhere. The event takes place at a time of a resurgence of interest in the goddess (evidenced, for instance, by the 2016 edition of the journal Pallas devoted to Athena-related papers). The event aims both to reflect and appraise this renewed interest.

Envisaged themes to include:

• Athena the networker – polytheism, the pantheon and the ‘Paris School’
• Athena in the city – in antiquity and beyond
• Gendering Athena
• Attributes of Athena
• Athena as warrior deity

Other suggestions welcome!

If you would like to offer a paper (of c. 20 minutes), please send title plus c. 200-word abstract to Susan Deacy (s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk) by 30 April 2016.

Also email Susan Deacy if you would like to be added to the contact list for the event.

We're tweeting

We're now tweeting about conference and other Athena-related matters as @AthenaSharing   

The time is right - announcing new direction for this blog

I'm pleased to announce a new focus for this blog - at least for the next few months. I'm currently organising a one-day conference on Athena, to take place at Roehampton on 6th June 2016. I shall use this blog for news related to the event, for example about the venue and about the contributors.

The idea for the conference came about pretty organically. I'd invited a PhD student from Toulouse working on receptions of Athena to Roehampton to give a paper. One of the current Roehampton PhD students has already written a (soon-to-be-published) paper on the goddess. Another Roehampton PhD student will be giving an Athena-related paper at this year's Classical Association conference along with a colleague from Venice. So: I was struck that there were already, potentially, four papers. Then, another PhD student wrote to me, this time from Manchester Met, to discuss an aspect of his research that bore on Athena. At this point I felt convinced that the time was right for an Athena event. When, shortly after this, a second PhD student in France contacted me, I felt even more confirmed in this thinking.

I'm arranging the event with one of our research groups at Roehampton - the Renaissance and Classical Studies Research Group. There is also a potential fit with the newly established Violence Research Group in the Dept of Humanities, and with the well-established Research Group in Sex. Gender and Sexuality.

I sent a cfp to the UK-based Classicists List last week, and this has generated most-welcome interest. I'll include the text of this Call in my next posting.

I hope to share the names of the PhD students identified above in due course - I just want to clear with them first that they're okay with this...