Papers by Juliane Zachhuber
Kernos, 2018
This article questions the assumed prevalence of priestesses in Greek Hellenistic religion, often... more This article questions the assumed prevalence of priestesses in Greek Hellenistic religion, often considered to put them on equal footing with men in this sphere, through the particular case study of Rhodes, a state whose religious organisation appears entirely dominated by male priests. It suggests that it is time to revise some of the general assumptions about women and Greek religion by placing greater emphasis on regional variations. Consequently, it argues that certain local elements and the epigraphic habit likely played a role and examines in detail the small amount of evidence that does survive for Rhodian priestesses. Do these appear in particularly “feminine” cultic contexts? Can we find any evidence for the “gender-rule” of priesthoods? Finally, the article asks what implications we might draw for the role of women in Hellenistic Rhodian society.
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The discovery and subsequent publication of a fragmentary decree from Bargylia was seized on by s... more The discovery and subsequent publication of a fragmentary decree from Bargylia was seized on by scholars due to the evidence it seemed to provide for the existence of the much-debated 'secret pact' between Antiochus III and Philip V over the territories in western Asia Minor. In the process, little attention was paid to the rest of the text. After careful study of the photograph and squeeze, I presented several new readings to the Oxford Epigraphy Workshop, which point to several other areas of interest, concerning the local situation of Carian communities in this period. Most significant is the inclusion of a third group in the synoikism process referred to.
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Conference Presentations by Juliane Zachhuber
Religion and Cult in the Dodecanese during the first millennium BC, 2018
Marking out shared time was of obvious importance to newly founded or synoikised states in the Gr... more Marking out shared time was of obvious importance to newly founded or synoikised states in the Greek world. That this often happened on a religious level is clear from examples of newly drafted sacrificial calendars in the wake of synoikisms on Kos and Mykonos. In Rhodes, the establishment of a new eponymous priesthood of Helios indicates a similar concern; yet the evidence for a revision of the synoikised state’s sacrificial calendar is much more elusive. Instead of a single document, our epigraphic evidence has provided us with a number of short and unusual inscriptions, which list sacrifices to specific deities on specific dates.
Focusing on the differences rather than similarities of these texts, I suggest that they should be contextualised within local epigraphic culture and serve as an expression of sub-polis religious identity.
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Local Horizons of Greek Religion, University of Sydney, 2018
In 408 BC, the three Rhodian cities of Ialysos, Kameiros, and Lindos synoikized. The island’s tri... more In 408 BC, the three Rhodian cities of Ialysos, Kameiros, and Lindos synoikized. The island’s tripartite division was retained in the new state’s tribal division, but nonetheless it became a single polis. This political unification was mirrored, and possibly prefigured, in the religious sphere, especially through the cult of Helios, already celebrated as the island’s patron deity by Pindar. This cultic and mythological dimension was a crucial constituent of the Rhodian polis’ creation and unity.
Just over a hundred years later, in 304 BC, we find significant divergence in the responses to the incorporation of the peraia by the Lindians and the Kameirans. While the Kameirans are eager to include the new territories allocated to their tribal division, increasing the number of officials and inscribing the additional ktoinai in their local sanctuary of Athena (Tit.Cam. 109), the Lindians pursued a policy of exclusion, with particular reference to the location of and participation in their traditional local hiera – that is, excluding citizens of the same polis (IG XII 1, 761). Crucially, although these ‘Lindians’ bear the same name as the inhabitants of what used to be a separate polis and have links to its traditional cults and sanctuaries, they are members of the very same Rhodian state whose centralizing policies they are, in this context, objecting to.
The Lindians’ defence of ‘local’ religious matters in the centuries after the synoikism thus complicates the picture of polis religion substantially. It shows that tensions existed among citizens of the same state - and thus religion - and reveals important counter-currents and alternative religious identities.
Using the decrees from 304 BC as a starting point, this paper will explore the divergence between Kameiran and Lindian religious attitudes, and ask what this meant in practice: why did individuals identify with their tribal association in these contexts, and how should we understand this sub-level of religious identity? What was the significance of ‘local’ religion to Lindian Rhodians, and how did they conceptualise it?
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The Telchines were mythical craftsmen and mischievous sorcerers, particularly associated with Rho... more The Telchines were mythical craftsmen and mischievous sorcerers, particularly associated with Rhodes, although they also appear in connection with other places. Accounts of them differ, crediting them now with exceptional craftsmanship, now with the invention of metalworking, and at other times with powers to incite storms, rain and hail. The confusion over their mythical roles is mirrored in the confusion over their appearance: sometimes seeming similar to other dwarf-like daimones in Hephaestus’ wake, sometimes possessing the evil eye and several other frightening aspects, they are eventually even described by Suetonius as amphibious creatures, snake-like and fish-like, with webbed hands and feet and able to change their appearance at will. Frustratingly, despite the rich literary evidence, there are no certain artistic representations.
How, then, were the Telchines visualised? Their depiction touches on several themes: the stereotypical image of blacksmiths in antiquity; the general suspicion of metalworking and its association with sorcery; the categorisation and comprehension of these and related groups of daimones. To what extent are they (and other groups of smithing daimones) typecast by their association with metallurgy? All these considerations can hopefully move us closer to an idea of their shape.
Finally, these conceptions must be related back to the specific context of the Telchines as Rhodian mythological figures and deities: do the Rhodian accounts conform to the other representations? And lastly, can we construct for ourselves an idea of what these creatures looked like?
I believe this case-study will highlight some of the difficulties in visualising such minor deities and perhaps remind us that, even for the anthropomorphising Greeks, images of the divine were not always straightforward.
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In the late 5th century, the Rhodian 'tripolis' underwent a synoikism, coming together to found a... more In the late 5th century, the Rhodian 'tripolis' underwent a synoikism, coming together to found a new capital on the island and a united federal state that would last for centuries. The religious outcome of this process is still poorly understood, but it seems certain that the three ancient poleis - Ialysos, Kameiros and Lindos - retained a certain autonomy and pride in their ancestral cults. One way of approaching this new arrangement and the relationship between the different poleis and communities on the now united island is by a study of the priesthoods that offered, through a sort of priestly 'cursus honorum', a great deal of prestige both in the three old cities and in the new capital of Rhodos. A comparison with the nearby island of Kos, whose synoikism in the 4th century offers an intriguing parallel to our case, and with other attestations of priesthoods in the hellenistic Greek world will help shed light on what kind of authority or power (if any) these Rhodian priests wielded in their newly formed state, and how they relate to the balance of unity and autonomy that followed the synoikism.
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Talks by Juliane Zachhuber
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Papers by Juliane Zachhuber
Conference Presentations by Juliane Zachhuber
Focusing on the differences rather than similarities of these texts, I suggest that they should be contextualised within local epigraphic culture and serve as an expression of sub-polis religious identity.
Just over a hundred years later, in 304 BC, we find significant divergence in the responses to the incorporation of the peraia by the Lindians and the Kameirans. While the Kameirans are eager to include the new territories allocated to their tribal division, increasing the number of officials and inscribing the additional ktoinai in their local sanctuary of Athena (Tit.Cam. 109), the Lindians pursued a policy of exclusion, with particular reference to the location of and participation in their traditional local hiera – that is, excluding citizens of the same polis (IG XII 1, 761). Crucially, although these ‘Lindians’ bear the same name as the inhabitants of what used to be a separate polis and have links to its traditional cults and sanctuaries, they are members of the very same Rhodian state whose centralizing policies they are, in this context, objecting to.
The Lindians’ defence of ‘local’ religious matters in the centuries after the synoikism thus complicates the picture of polis religion substantially. It shows that tensions existed among citizens of the same state - and thus religion - and reveals important counter-currents and alternative religious identities.
Using the decrees from 304 BC as a starting point, this paper will explore the divergence between Kameiran and Lindian religious attitudes, and ask what this meant in practice: why did individuals identify with their tribal association in these contexts, and how should we understand this sub-level of religious identity? What was the significance of ‘local’ religion to Lindian Rhodians, and how did they conceptualise it?
How, then, were the Telchines visualised? Their depiction touches on several themes: the stereotypical image of blacksmiths in antiquity; the general suspicion of metalworking and its association with sorcery; the categorisation and comprehension of these and related groups of daimones. To what extent are they (and other groups of smithing daimones) typecast by their association with metallurgy? All these considerations can hopefully move us closer to an idea of their shape.
Finally, these conceptions must be related back to the specific context of the Telchines as Rhodian mythological figures and deities: do the Rhodian accounts conform to the other representations? And lastly, can we construct for ourselves an idea of what these creatures looked like?
I believe this case-study will highlight some of the difficulties in visualising such minor deities and perhaps remind us that, even for the anthropomorphising Greeks, images of the divine were not always straightforward.
Talks by Juliane Zachhuber
Focusing on the differences rather than similarities of these texts, I suggest that they should be contextualised within local epigraphic culture and serve as an expression of sub-polis religious identity.
Just over a hundred years later, in 304 BC, we find significant divergence in the responses to the incorporation of the peraia by the Lindians and the Kameirans. While the Kameirans are eager to include the new territories allocated to their tribal division, increasing the number of officials and inscribing the additional ktoinai in their local sanctuary of Athena (Tit.Cam. 109), the Lindians pursued a policy of exclusion, with particular reference to the location of and participation in their traditional local hiera – that is, excluding citizens of the same polis (IG XII 1, 761). Crucially, although these ‘Lindians’ bear the same name as the inhabitants of what used to be a separate polis and have links to its traditional cults and sanctuaries, they are members of the very same Rhodian state whose centralizing policies they are, in this context, objecting to.
The Lindians’ defence of ‘local’ religious matters in the centuries after the synoikism thus complicates the picture of polis religion substantially. It shows that tensions existed among citizens of the same state - and thus religion - and reveals important counter-currents and alternative religious identities.
Using the decrees from 304 BC as a starting point, this paper will explore the divergence between Kameiran and Lindian religious attitudes, and ask what this meant in practice: why did individuals identify with their tribal association in these contexts, and how should we understand this sub-level of religious identity? What was the significance of ‘local’ religion to Lindian Rhodians, and how did they conceptualise it?
How, then, were the Telchines visualised? Their depiction touches on several themes: the stereotypical image of blacksmiths in antiquity; the general suspicion of metalworking and its association with sorcery; the categorisation and comprehension of these and related groups of daimones. To what extent are they (and other groups of smithing daimones) typecast by their association with metallurgy? All these considerations can hopefully move us closer to an idea of their shape.
Finally, these conceptions must be related back to the specific context of the Telchines as Rhodian mythological figures and deities: do the Rhodian accounts conform to the other representations? And lastly, can we construct for ourselves an idea of what these creatures looked like?
I believe this case-study will highlight some of the difficulties in visualising such minor deities and perhaps remind us that, even for the anthropomorphising Greeks, images of the divine were not always straightforward.