The Athenian Adonia in Context : The Adonis Festival as Cultural Practice / Laurialan Reitzammer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reitzammer, Laurialan, author.

Series:

Wisconsin studies in classics.

Wisconsin studies in classics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rites and ceremonies--Greece--Athens.

Rites and ceremonies.

Festivals--Greece--Athens.

Festivals.

Athens (Greece)--Social life and customs.

Athens (Greece).

Adonis (Greek deity)--Prayers and devotions.

Adonis.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (282 p.)

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ancient sources and modern scholars have often represented the Athenian festival of Adonis as a marginal and faintly ridiculous private women's ritual. Seeds were planted each year in pots and, once sprouted, carried to the rooftops, where women lamented the death of Aphrodite's youthful consort Adonis. Laurialan Reitzammer resourcefully examines a wide array of surviving evidence about the Adonia, arguing for its symbolic importance in fifth- and fourth-century Athenian culture as an occasion for gendered commentary on mainstream Athenian practices. Reitzammer uncovers correlations of the Adonia to Athenian wedding rituals and civic funeral oration and provides illuminating evidence that the festival was a significant cultural template for such diverse works as Aristophanes' drama Lysistrata and Plato's dialogue Phaedrus. Her fresh approach is a timely contribution to studies of the ways gender and sexuality intersect with religion and ritual in ancient Greece.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-235) and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780299308230

0299308235

OCLC:

950196698