#cover2cover

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1. Beginnings Prehistory-900 BCE | "Greece's Earliest Cultures"

Chapter one starts out talking about the two cultures people tend to think of as the "precursor" or "ancestor" cultures of Ancient Greece— the Bronze Age Minoans & Mycenaeans.

By the start of the Early Bronze Age (c. 3200-2050 bce), distinct regional and cultural identities had emerged on Crete, on the Greek mainland, and in the Cyclades. (page 16)

Something I hadn't realized about these two cultures was how far apart they were despite being similar. As you can see on the timeline the first Minoan palaces are built c. 2000 bce while Mycenaean palaces started around c. 1470 bce. In fact, multiple Minoan palaces had been destroyed by natural disasters prior to the Mycenaeans even constructing theirs.

Both cultures had a palace-centered society and economy which is probably why I didn't think of the time difference.

Minoan palaces— the centers of consumption, storage, production, administration, and ritual that emerged around 2050 bce at places such as Knossos, Phaistos, and Malia... (page 16)

If the palace is a store house, government center, and religious center then it is easy to see how a natural disaster wiping one palace out could spell the downfall of that entire settlement. I also ponder about the hierarchy of the palace system; it seems almost like the ultimate wealth disparity— the palace has it all and the "commoners" are at its mercy. The book doesn't mention much more about the palace system yet. It's clear from table of contents it will (probably) elaborate.

Mycenaean culture was indebted to the Minoan model and to the weaponization of Minoan culture by competing mainland elites pursuing power and status. Organized societies emerged around 1420 bce, as competition abated with the consolidation of authority among a successful few groups, such as those occupying Mycenae, Tiryns, and Pylos. The palace centers that developed at these sites and elsewhere housed an administrative hierarchy with a ruler, or wanax, at its head. The system endured for around 200 years before implicit vulnerability and external pressure—likely from natural disasters, problems with long-distance trade, and opponents of the palace system—brought about its downfall. (page 16)

In this map I love how it differentiates Minoan palaces and Mycenaean Palaces it gave me a good visual conception of the palace system "spreading". I also didn't know the Minoans had a presence on mainland Anatolia in Miletus.

I think the trade lines—if you tilt your head to read them each—really showcase how the eastern Mediterranean Sea flanked by Greece and Anatolia (as well as Levant and Africa off map) really were a trading center of multiple major civilizations and the "crossroads" of Afro-Eurasia.

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🏺Introduction Section🏺

[The] impetus for [this art] was provided by the Greeks' love of storytelling, as first evidenced in the Homeric epics, with their tales of the Trojan War, and in stories of gods and goddesses, heroines and heroes, and men and women that were retold again and again in later poetry, drama, and prose. Storytelling in visual form often required the use of name labels to help identify specific characters in vase and wall paintings, alongside the development of an iconographic language of costume and attributes, so we can recognize, for example, the god Poseidon by his trident, and the hero Heracles by his lion skin and club. (page 9)

.🔸.

The wealth of the surviving material culture, alongside literature and inscriptions, allows us to reconstruct a great deal of the story of ancient Greece. And new discoveries and new interpretations are adding to our knowledge, particularly of groups poorly represented in the world of Greek literature, such as women, children, and disabled people. (page 9)

Image: This red-figure painting on the inside of a cup from around 420 BCE depicts Athena, the goddess of war, and the hero Theseus, who is shown dragging the defeated Minotaur behind him.

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I'm not enjoying this Athena book as much as I thought I would. Maybe it's because of its focus on the academic "structuralist" approach? I didn't have any expectations (since this is the first book of the series I'm actually reading) so it's not like its 'letting me down' or anything. 😕 It's only 156 pages so hopefully I can finish it.

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The result of this survey is a picture of Athena as a multifaceted goddess with numerous functions including seamanship, horse-manship, craft and war. Our discussion has shed further light too on the nature of Athena's metis, which is capable of transforming things that are raw, dangerous and elemental into useful objects, including such unlikely raw materials as the dead body of Pallas and the wool she was carrying when Hephaistos attempted to have sex with her. Through our investigation of her role within the pantheon, she has emerged as a power of technology and creativity who promotes creativity and order, but with another side to her power, that of the storm bringer and warmonger.

— Athena by Susan Deacy p 58 [Emphasis mine]

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Athena by Susan Deacy. Some thoughts

I meant to write this much closer to when I read the book, and I was bad at highlighting/note taking, so this is a brain dump, apologies.

Deacy used the structuralist approach for the first part of her book, which I found unappealing and very boring. Interestingly, it seems to be an outdated methodology that the author seemed to have been defending each time she used it.

This approach, influenced by the structuralist methodology developed by the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss is highly appealing as a means of interpreting Athena. It frees us from the need to study her in terms of her prehistorical formation, and enables us to look, instead, at the particular contexts in which she was thought to manifest herself. In works by Vernant, Marcel Detienne (page 46)

But far from making us desirous of writing off structuralist methodology, our survey has demonstrated its potential to elucidate Athena's par-ticular traits. (page 50)

Eventually that faded away and I was much more interested at her explanation of the Parthenon, the mythic aspects it represents via art, the other cults that took place around it. Thats when I really got into the book and no longer felt like I was trudging through the reading. The explanation of the Parthenon can help put into perspective how the myths were absolutely important even of they were not the Word Of God sacred scripture.

I enjoy the explanation of how Athena is a Goddess of technology, (I have a post in my drafts on this but no promise it will see the light of day). I also liked that Deacy did not shy away from Athena's vindictive qualities like many other sources that try to sanitize her.

I was shocked at how different and unique Athenian religion could be compared to other regions of Ancient Greece. Which makes me pause and consider that, even though Attic Religion is the most well documented, as a neo-polytheist recon/revive I should definitely be looking at historical sources outside of Attica sources, even though it can be challenging.

For me the biggest influence might come from Peloponnese— where both sides of my Greek Ancestry are from (Papous side Arkadia and Yaiyai side Lakonia/Sparta). Which interestingly she may have been a fertility Goddess via a myth where Athena makes the land sterile in the region.

The sanctuary of Athena Alea ('shelter', 'asylum'), at Tegea in southeast Arcadia, housed one of the most celebrated cults of Athena. Among the most famous of ancient Greek sanctuaries, it played host to, among others, the Sparta kings Leotychidas and Pausanias. It housed a thriving cult site in the eighth century Bc, although evidence of earlier worship is also apparent. A large temple, constructed in the seventh century, was burnt down in the fourth century. Its successor, 'a temple both large and worth seeing' (Pausanias 8.45.4), was regarded as the most impressive in the Peloponnese. [...] The sanctuary's main source of interest for our survey of Athena cults is that it runs counter to the standard pattern of Athena worship. The cult was in a peripheral location, situated not on an akropolis but in the plain away from the urban centre.

It is Athena's response to the sacrilege [caused by the rape of Auge] that makes the story distinctive in that it gives her what might be termed 'fertility' characteristics. She was said to have brought about a plague and made the earth sterile, actions normally connected with 'fertility' deities.

...raises the possibility that, early on, Athena Alea had traits more commonly associated with Demeter than with Athena. This testifies, perhaps, to a time when the perception of Athena had not taken its later, panhellenic character. The apparent early image of the goddess might help shed light on the location of the sanctuary. Athena Alea was, perhaps, the protectress of the agricultural land rather than the urban centre. The story about Auge might suggest that Athena Alea continued to be envisaged as a 'fertility' power at least in local myth. Our examination of the sanctuary of Athena Alea has shown that we should avoid over-simple statements about the nature of Athena and her worship. (pages 130-131)

This makes me want to research Alea as early on she may have been a separate Goddess.

Also intresting feature in Sparta

An intriguing feature of worship at the temple is attested, namely the use of bells, of which a large number have been excavated, around 120 in total, mostly in terracotta and others in bronze, predominantly from the classical period. As far as is known, this type of object is unique in the worship of Athena: at no other site are bells known to have been dedicated to her. We can arrive at a guess as to their purpose from examining uses of bells in other contexts in the ancient Greek world, including to guard cities and to ward off enemies in battle. The most plausible explanation is an apotropaic one, with the noise of ringing bronze serving to ward off evil. If so, Athena Chalkioikos may have functioned as a specialised version of Athena Poliouchos, with her protective role linked with the clanging sound of the bells! (page 127)

Something that bugged me is Deacy mentions multiple times that Athena has a complicated relationship with gender and was definitely seen in feminine forms at times

Athena has a similar downward gaze on another image from this period, the so-called 'Mourning Athena' from around 460 where, barefoot and aegis-less, she leans on her spear, looking down at an object before her. This object probably provides a key to interpreting the image, except that what it is remains unclear: a casualty list of the war dead perhaps, or a boundary stone setting out the limit of her sanctuary, or perhaps even the chest containing Erichthonios. Whichever is the case, it enables us to underscore the point that has been a recurrent feature of this chapter. In her role as Akropolis guardian, Athena was more than solely a warlike figure. In addition to her standard warlike image, she was envisaged as a caring and feminine, not to mention maternal, figure. (page 108)

However, the first half of the book, where her "structuralist approach" is heaviest Deacy very much paints a picture of Athena being The Goddess of Patriarchy,

While the Amazons as a race, and individual women like Klytaimnestra, threaten male domi-nation, however, Athena is consistently the upholder of patriarchy, trusted by her father more than any other deity and even given access to his thunderbolt (Aeschylus, Eumenides 827-8; Euripides, Women of Troy 78-93). This made her an appealing figure to use as a means of exploring gender norms, as one odd and ambiguous but ultimately aligned with order and patriarchy. (page 31)

Even if Deacy later on in the book explored Athena's gender roles it seemed, having been so early in the book, that her stance is one of "Athena was patriarchy". In the section of the book on post-Christianity/Modern Athena she showcases how Athena is viewed as either: 1.) a Powerful Goddess representing women's strength and myriad capabilities or 2.) a gender traitor who served the patriarchal ideals of ancient Greece. From my personal perspective as an enby I can't conceptualize her as either but that is beside the point.

When it comes to metis (cunning) I love the idea of Athena being conceived by Metis but birthed from Zeus, but thats just a personal interpretation.

This may be a bad post brain dump but overall if you want to know more about Athena, or worship Athena this is an excellent book to read. I wish so much that her section on Athena outside of Athens had been greatly expanded but it was only 156 page book. Some books in the series are longer so it could have been longer but alas I was not the author and that is what her "further reading" section is good for. And it truly looks like a treasure trove of new information I just haven't explored it

It is also a good book to read for the section of Athens' religion to realize why looking outside Attica can be helpful for developing modern Hellenic Thriskeía.

@/Ombrokharis's Google Drive has a pdf of full book for free LINK, as well as the other Greek books in the series.

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"We know about Zeus from myth, from cult and from art. The three fuse together to form the Zeus that Greeks constructed in their imaginations and revered.

Myth wraps religious sites in an ambience of gods and heroes, and presents the origins in the past of current religious life. It is told from childhood onwards, forms the subject of performances - whether epic, drama or hymns danced out - and is at the core of ancient education and life.

Cult is the unceasing recognition of the supremacy of the gods and our dependence on them: it embraces the home, the city and its countryside, and defines what it is to be Greek. Time itself is created by the rhythm of the festivals during the year, the spans of years between, for instance, Olympic festivals, and the ceremonies that highlight life stages, from birth to death.

Art gives visible shape and its own sense to the ideas we have of the gods and to their mythology; it does much more than decorate temples and shrines: it is a vehicle for religious ideas to penetrate the whole world."

— Zeus by Ken Dowden pg 4

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"Their close associations in Athens reflect the importance of craft in the city, particularly their connection at the Hephaisteion above the Agora, where Athena was even known as Hephaisteia ('of Hephaistos'). The Chalkeia, in honour of both gods, was the festival of smiths. It was also the occasion when the loom was set up for the Panathenaic peplos. In other words, male craft and women's work were jointly honoured in the cult of Athena and Hephaistos."

— Athena by Susan Deacy pp 52-53

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I finished a full book in 2024!

The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East by Mark Cohen of 481 pages is completely finished!

So one in 2023, one in 2024.... maybe one in 2025?