WEBVTT

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So, according to Pindar and Herodotus,
settlers from Sparta, together with some

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descendants of the Argonauts
from Lemnos, founded

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the city of Thera under the
eponymous hero Therese.

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The Theraeans later founded Cyrene.

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Whatever the historicity of these events,
the Doric dialect of the island and the

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local cults leave little
doubt that Thera shares a

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common cultural background
with Sparta and Cyrene.

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In particular, one of the main cults in
the city is that of Apollo Carneus,

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who had a sanctuary at the south of the
city.

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In the area of the so-called Agora of the
Gods, where many are played graffiti named

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after the gods, there are a variety of
deities.

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So, Apollo Carneus is
honored in Sparta and Cyrene,

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but also in other Doric
areas such as Rhodos and Kos.

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The Oscurii are also named in the archaic
graffiti of the Agora of the Gods,

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and they are, of course, closely
associated with Sparta.

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And in the same area, we have,
for example, another cult connected to

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Laconia, that of Apollo
Maleates, who probably owes

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his name to the mountain
Malea in northeast Laconia.

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So, from these cults, we
can see a strong Dorian and

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perhaps more particularly a
Spartan component on the island.

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However, some connections with Ionia and
Crete have also been noted.

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And there is some evidence
of the presence of roughly

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groups of foreigners of the
island in the archaic period.

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For example, Domenico Muscanisi has
recently argued that Zeus Ficesios,

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attested by a few graffitis in the archaic
period, is not the Zeus of supplicants,

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as is usually thought,
but that in the archaic

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period he was understood
as the Zeus of foreigners.

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And he also notes that the dedications
were made using different alphabets,

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suggesting a variety of origins for the
worshippers.

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And already in the first half of the... or
the middle of the fourth century,

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we can see foreign cults on the island,
since we have a boundary stone belonging

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to the mother of the gods, so who's a
Phrygian deity, and who's called...

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and the cults started to spread in the
Greek world around the sixth century.

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And on Thera, Arctitia has a cult that is
attested until the imperial period.

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After this mainly archaic phase,
we don't know much about

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the island in the classical
and early Hellenistic period.

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And the real change occurs with the
arrival of a Ptolemaic garrison in the

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first half of the third century,
probably under Ptolemaeus II.

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When Thera became
one of the main places that

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hosted the Ptolemaic
fleet in the Aegean.

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So I would like to have a deeper look at
the Ptolemaic presence, what it means for

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the religious life on the island,
for the ancient cults, the new cults that

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were introduced, how they were received by
the local population, what happened to

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them after the departure of the Ptolemaic
garrison around the mid-second century.

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So first of all, it should be noted that
Thera continued to...

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function as a normal city despite the
Ptolemaic presence on the island.

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We find all the usual institutions of a
regular polis.

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And for most of its internal affairs,
the city was relatively independent.

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So the Ptolemaic presence didn't have a
major impact on local cults.

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Apollo Carmelius is attested throughout
the Hellenistic and the Imperial period.

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And we also know, for example,
from archaeological sources, that a

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sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Damatrios at a
location called Christulaki seems to have

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been used from the Archaic period until at
least the second century BCE.

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So despite my title, local cults and
foreign cults, I won't say much about the

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local cults today and
focus instead on the new

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cults introduced in
the Hellenistic period.

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So first of all, unsurprisingly,
we have a new cult

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dedicated to Isis, Serapis
and Anubis in the city.

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We have five dedications to Isis and her
circle found in the sanctuary or nearby.

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One is an inscription from the third
century, a dedication to Serapis,

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Isis and Anubis by Diocles and the
Basilicae.

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The Basilicae are an association known
from a few inscriptions in Egypt and

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elsewhere, always in places connected to
Egypt.

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For instance, in Lymyra and Lycia,
the man who was at the head of the

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Ptolemaic garrison and the other
Basilicae, who are probably mercenaries,

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celebrate a festival in honor of Ptolemy V
every year.

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So in Thera II, the Basilicae were probably
some soldiers of the Ptolemaic garrison.

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We also have another dedication
that is very fragmentary, but

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its content can be restored
with a certain degree of comfort.

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It is a dedication made to the Egyptian
deity on behalf of the Ptolemies by

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Ammendios, a man from
Mindos in Caria, a city that

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was under Ptolemaic
rule in the third century.

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And as we've already
been suggesting, it's likely

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that he's a soldier in the
service of the Ptolemies.

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What is also interesting is that in a
church near the sanctuary of the Egyptian

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god, we found another
inscription that names

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Arsinoe Philadelphos,
the wife of Ptolemy II.

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And it is thought to come from the
sanctuary of the Egyptian gods,

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since scholars have already noted a close
connection between the content of the

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Egyptian deities and the ruler cult on
Thera.

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So we have an inscription coming from
members of the Ptolemaic army,

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but the soldiers were not the only
worshippers of the Egyptian deity.

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In another inscription, a
man and his wife dedicated the

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statue of their son to Serapis
and Isis and the other gods.

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And here we notice the
private character of the

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dedication made for
the benefit of their son.

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And we can dig a little deeper
by looking at the onomastics,

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since the dedication is made by
Hymerophon, son of Hymerthos.

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And both of these anthroponyms are
typically Theraean.

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Probably a little later than our
inscription, at the end of the third

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century or the beginning
of the second, the

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eponymous ephor of
Thera was named Hymerthos.

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We know this from the well-known
inscription of the familial cult of

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Epicteta, who is a wealthy woman who
donated 3,000 drachmas to create an

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association honoring the
Muses and her family after

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the death of both her
husband and her two sons.

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But more than the name alone, the name of
the ephor, what is interesting in this

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inscription, is that one
of the members of the

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association is called
Hymerthos, son of Hymerophon.

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So he's probably related to our
Hymerophon, son of Hymerthos.

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And we know that the
members of Epicteta's

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association are probably
wealthy members of the elite.

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And so our own Hymerophon is probably a
member of the Theraean elite himself.

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We have a last dedication to...

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of a couple from the well-being of Thera.

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Here, we have the name of their sons.

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Here, the onomastics are less specific, but
we know that the woman is called Aristippa.

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This is a reference to horses,
which has an aristocratic flavor,

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although it doesn't necessarily mean that
Aristippa belonged to the Apoclapses.

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So in the end, besides the member of the
Ptolemaic garrison, it seems that the

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Theraean elite also worship the Egyptian
gods.

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But for now, there is no indication of a
broader participation in the cult.

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But of course, we don't
have any archaeological

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material, so it's
complicated to know.

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And we don't know anything about what
happened to the cult after the end of the

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Ptolemaic crisis on the islands around the
mid-2nd century.

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But it's probably no coincidence
that all the inscriptions

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mentioning the Egyptian gods
are dated to the Ptolemaic period.

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So if the cult survived,
it probably became less

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prominent after the
departure of the charism.

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So, moving on, the most famous Hellenistic
cult-precept in Thera is that of

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Artemidorus of Pergie,
here, probably dated to the

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second half of the 3rd
century under Ptolemy III.

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It's a rock called Temenos with altars and
dedication to a series of deities,

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with the name of the founder, Artemidorus,
absolutely everywhere in the inscriptions.

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We don't know who he was.

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He's also known from a
dedication to the Ptolemaic cult

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to the three Ptolemies
here in the south of the city.

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So the grandfather, the father,
and the son in a rock called Prisic.

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And we generally assume that they are the
first three Ptolemies.

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We also know that he
received a crown at the

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local Arsinoea festival
in honor of Arsinoe.

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So he seemed to have a
close tie to the Ptolemies, and

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he may have been an important
member of the Ptolemies.

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He may have been part of the Ptolemaic army
or administration, but we can't be sure.

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Anyway, he founded the
Prisic on a very conspicuous

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location along the main
road leading to the city.

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And so when we enter the Prisic from the
north, going towards the city,

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we first see inscriptions.

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We don't hear all this.

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Here are inscriptions naming Hecate and
Priapus.

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Then we have here the Dioscuroi,
represented with caps and stars,

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which is typical of their iconography.

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And then around the central altar naming
Homonia, the Concord, we have different

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deities, the great gods
of Stamathrace, other

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goddesses whose name
is not preserved, Tyche.

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And finally, we have three deities,
each associated with an animal,

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Zeus Olympios with a needle.

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Poseidon Pelagios with a dolphin.

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And Apollo Stephanophorus with the lion.

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Much has already been said about this
Prisic, but I only want to dig deeper into

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some of the codes.

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As has already been noted, several gods
have a link with the sea.

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Poseidon Pelagios, of course, the Stamathracian
gods, also protector of navigation.

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In theory, they are called gods who listen
to the sea.

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They listen to those who pray.

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Probably the people who pray when they
travel at sea.

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But Carlos will tell us more about these
gods this afternoon.

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And already in the archaic period,
the deoscuroi are also honored as

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protector of sea travels and other things.

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And here the expression is very similar.

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They are helpers of those who pray to
them.

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So, besides this link with
the sea, we also have also

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noticed a link between some
of the codes and the Ptolemies.

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First of all, we have the great gods of
Samothrace and the deoscuroi.

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In Samothrace, both
Ptolemy II and his wife

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Arsinoe II made monumental
dedication to the gods.

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And the Samothracian gods were usually
identified with the deoscuroi.

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And Arsinoe's association with both the
Samothracians, the Samothracian gods and

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the deoscuroi continued until
after her death, when she was

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associated also with Helen,
the sister of the deoscuroi.

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We know that Ptolemy had an interest in
the region of Samothrace as it was located

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at the gate of the Hellespont leading to
the Black Sea.

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And there are several indications of the
involvement of Ptolemy II in Byzantium,

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the Black Sea in general.

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The later Ptolemies didn't make any
dedications.

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In the sanctuary, but a Ptolemaic official
under Ptolemy III made a dedication.

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And he was a strategos of
Thrace and the Hellespont

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that were two regions
conquered by Ptolemy III.

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From the same area of the Hellespont,
we have the cult of Priapus.

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Artemidorus calls him Lampsakinos,
so from Lampsakos, at the entrance of the

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Hellespont when one comes from the
Propontis.

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His presence in the sanctuary probably has
something to do with the presence of

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Ptolemy II and III in the area of the
Hellespont.

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At the time, Priapus is not really well
known outside of this region.

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Before the third century, he's only known
by a play by a certain Xenarchos,

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an author of the Middle
Comedy, who together with

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other Ithiphalic gods
gave his name to a comedy.

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He's just one of several Ithiphalic gods
from the region around the Northeast Aegean.

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And despite the fact that he's a minor god
outside of his city of origin,

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he was part of the great procession
organized by Ptolemy II in Alexandria,

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probably in the 270s or 60s.

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Among his varying domains, Priapus is a
protector of navigation.

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We have an epigram
of the Greek Anthology

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calling him also the
protector of navigation.

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So in Lapsakos, he guards the access to
the Black Sea or the Hellespont,

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which may explain why Ptolemy II was
interested in his cult.

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And so in the inscription,
Priapus first appears

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in the third century in
three inscriptions only.

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One is a Seraian inscription.

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Another is a dedication
made by Herodian in

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Solo in Cyprus, following
an order by Serapis.

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The dedication is made
in the sanctuary of the

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Egyptian gods, where the
Ptolemies were also honored.

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So in this case, too, we have a strong
link with the dynasty.

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And the final dedication is from Therion
in Arcanania.

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It was made by a man from Crete and
addressed to Priapus and Pat.

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And I think we could possibly
see a link to the Ptolemies,

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too, although there's
nothing explicitly indicated it.

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So we know that the Ptolemies had
garrisons, and that the Ptolemies had

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garrisons in Crete, and that there were
Cretans in the Ptolemaic army.

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But what is also interesting is the
association between Priapus and Pan.

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Priapus is an epiphalic deity,
and Pan can be epiphalic, too.

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But they have something else in common,
because in Egypt, Pan is a name given by

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the Greeks to the Egyptian god Min,
an epiphalic god.

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But this Pan, or Min, is
also a protector of travelers,

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mainly known by many
inscriptions from the eastern deserts.

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It is also honored as a protector of sea
travel, just like Priapus.

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And the Rhodian men in Solo, the men from
Perge in Thera, and the Cretan in

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Armoninia, all came from islands or were
present on an island.

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So they presumably traveled more or less
frequently, or more or less recently,

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when they made their dedications.

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In Thera, Artemidorus writes that Priapus
brings imperishable wealth.

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And we know from epigrams,
and the Greek anthology,

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that the god was a
protector of sea trade.

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With his erected phallus, he repelled
Phthonos, envy, and he allowed worshipers

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to enjoy abandoned goods, so aphornos,
abandoned, not touched by envy.

00:16:27.150 --> 00:16:35.150
So I think that this is how Priapus is
thought to act on and bring wealth.

00:16:35.899 --> 00:16:39.545
So in our third century
sources, Priapus appears

00:16:39.645 --> 00:16:41.970
only or almost only
in a Ptolemaic context.

00:16:42.749 --> 00:16:45.750
And he can probably be seen as the
protector of all sea activities,

00:16:46.449 --> 00:16:50.790
not only linked to Ptolemaic imperialism,
but also to sea trade.

00:16:51.574 --> 00:16:57.010
And this is why in this description,
he is called both a helper for both

00:16:57.209 --> 00:16:58.330
citizens and foreigners.

00:17:00.489 --> 00:17:05.550
Among the other cults, we have that of
some female deities, whose name is lost,

00:17:05.589 --> 00:17:08.530
unfortunately, but who seem to be foreign
gods.

00:17:08.531 --> 00:17:14.349
Because they are asked to come to Thera,
perhaps from Cyrene, as two of the three

00:17:14.350 --> 00:17:17.530
possible restorations that are found,
the Theroisai and the Telesai,

00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:19.130
are deities from Cyrene.

00:17:19.929 --> 00:17:22.930
And if they are indeed from Cyrene,
it's interesting because they create a

00:17:22.931 --> 00:17:27.750
bridge between Thera and the Ptolemies,
because Cyrene was part of the Ptolemaic

00:17:27.751 --> 00:17:31.490
Empire, and at the same time was thought
to be a colony of Thera.

00:17:32.399 --> 00:17:35.330
And here they are invoked to bring a good
harvest.

00:17:36.059 --> 00:17:42.450
So we see how the Temenos, unites a number
of deities from varied origins,

00:17:42.570 --> 00:17:44.730
but also who intervene in a variety of
domains.

00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:54.170
As for Apollos Stephanophorus and the
Lyran, you may have an association with

00:17:54.294 --> 00:17:58.070
Caria, but this is very uncertain,
and I don't have the time to discuss it

00:17:58.369 --> 00:18:01.370
here, neither in the case of Poseidon
Pelagius.

00:18:02.219 --> 00:18:05.930
But all in all, the cults gathered in the
Temenos create a network with different

00:18:05.931 --> 00:18:07.501
places and regions,
more or less connected

00:18:07.502 --> 00:18:09.262
with the Ptolemaic
Empire, and the Ptolemies.

00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:12.970
And the Ptolemae may have intended to
invoke gods from different parts of the

00:18:13.094 --> 00:18:17.095
Ptolemaic world to protect
the Empire, and in particular

00:18:17.170 --> 00:18:19.850
Thera, not only its
garrison, but also its citizens.

00:18:22.070 --> 00:18:24.870
Unfortunately, from this
sanctuary, we only have

00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:27.410
rock-cut inscriptions,
and all the rest is lost.

00:18:27.669 --> 00:18:30.233
So we don't have any means
to know what happened

00:18:30.234 --> 00:18:32.270
to the cults after the
time of the Ptolemae.

00:18:33.129 --> 00:18:37.870
But the man was honored and made a hero
after his death by the people of Thera,

00:18:37.871 --> 00:18:43.130
and it's likely that the Theraeans came
frequently into his Temenos to worship

00:18:43.329 --> 00:18:47.930
these gods of various origins, and that
they continue to do so after his death.

00:18:48.754 --> 00:18:51.550
But we don't have any element proving
this.

00:18:53.089 --> 00:19:00.690
And so outside of his Temenos,
Artemidorus also created another precinct

00:19:02.479 --> 00:19:04.910
on the road leading to the city from the
north.

00:19:06.430 --> 00:19:07.130
It's a...

00:19:07.131 --> 00:19:11.810
we have a rock-cut dedication to Artemis
Vergaya, the goddess of Perge in Pamphylia.

00:19:15.429 --> 00:19:19.490
There are several inscriptions naming
Artemis in Perge.

00:19:20.209 --> 00:19:24.710
So Artemidorus probably here made a
dedication to the main deity of his home

00:19:24.711 --> 00:19:27.810
city, after whom he's probably named
Artemidorus.

00:19:28.850 --> 00:19:30.590
But we can...

00:19:30.930 --> 00:19:35.530
the cultum Thera cannot only be seen
through this lens, so this personal

00:19:35.531 --> 00:19:40.271
relationship between
Artemidorus and Perge, because the

00:19:40.272 --> 00:19:43.910
cult of Artemis Vergaya was
well known outside of Pamphylia.

00:19:44.589 --> 00:19:48.186
According to Calimachus
and his hymn to Artemis,

00:19:48.187 --> 00:19:51.030
Perge is the city that
pleases Artemis most.

00:19:52.259 --> 00:19:57.510
And the goddess is attested in various
locations outside of Perge here.

00:19:59.159 --> 00:20:02.330
Here we see that she's mainly found in the
southwest of Asia Minor.

00:20:02.769 --> 00:20:06.239
And from Perge, her cult
migrated west, and there are

00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:10.350
a few testimonies of her
cult outside of the region.

00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:13.950
One of the earliest testimonies comes from
Neocrates.

00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:16.830
It's dated to the fourth century.

00:20:17.689 --> 00:20:20.862
And given the multicultural
character of the city, her cult

00:20:20.863 --> 00:20:24.010
was probably brought to
Neocrates by people from Perge.

00:20:24.870 --> 00:20:30.670
As later in the second century BCE,
we have another dedication from the Phaeum

00:20:30.671 --> 00:20:34.070
by a group calling themselves Pamphylians
to the goddess.

00:20:34.071 --> 00:20:39.690
And interestingly, interestingly,
what is probably the earliest testimony of

00:20:39.691 --> 00:20:45.470
the cult in Asia Minor of south Perge is
an epitaph from Lorima in Caria,

00:20:46.019 --> 00:20:49.850
probably dated to the fourth century,
where the deceased is a priestess of the

00:20:49.851 --> 00:20:56.290
goddess, is an Egyptian woman married to a
man from Aspendos near Perge.

00:20:59.199 --> 00:21:01.679
Lorima is not the only city to have a
priestess of the goddess.

00:21:02.349 --> 00:21:05.685
In Halicarnassus, in the
second half of the third century

00:21:05.686 --> 00:21:09.290
BCE, the city sold the
priesthood of Artemis Pergaea.

00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:14.350
The new priestess is to choose the
location for the sanctuary, which means

00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:16.850
that it's probably the foundation of a new
cult.

00:21:17.269 --> 00:21:21.359
And the priestess has to be
a citizen, whose mother and

00:21:21.360 --> 00:21:24.590
whose father are both
citizens over three generations.

00:21:25.369 --> 00:21:27.895
So this can be seen
as a way to insist on the

00:21:27.896 --> 00:21:30.730
civic character of this
originally foreign cult.

00:21:32.299 --> 00:21:36.630
The inscription also indicates that at the
start of each month, the priestess shall

00:21:36.631 --> 00:21:39.170
perform a sacrifice for the well-being of
the city.

00:21:39.739 --> 00:21:43.450
So the goddess seems to have been honored
as a protector of the police.

00:21:44.539 --> 00:21:48.441
We also have civic
priesthoods of Artemis Pergaea

00:21:48.442 --> 00:21:51.310
in Rhodes, Lindos and
Kos in the Hellenistic period.

00:21:52.449 --> 00:21:57.790
The goddess also appears among a list of
deities who are witnesses of an oath in a

00:21:57.791 --> 00:22:01.810
treaty between four Lycian cities in the
mid-second century BCE.

00:22:01.811 --> 00:22:06.391
And we also know that the
city of Mytilene depicts Artemis

00:22:06.392 --> 00:22:09.850
Pergaea on its coin in the
beginning of the second century CE.

00:22:12.430 --> 00:22:16.290
Artemidorus introduced the cult of the
goddess to Thera more or less at the same

00:22:16.291 --> 00:22:19.070
time as its introduction in
Thalicarnassus.

00:22:19.989 --> 00:22:24.210
And it is noteworthy that Thalicarnassus,
just like Thera, fostered a Ptolemaic

00:22:24.459 --> 00:22:25.690
garrison in the third century.

00:22:27.230 --> 00:22:31.850
Moreover, even if the goddess is widely
invested in the inscriptions from the

00:22:31.851 --> 00:22:35.038
Classical and especially
the Hellenistic period,

00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.450
she is almost absent
from the literary sources.

00:22:38.269 --> 00:22:43.070
She only appears in Pseudo-Xilex in the
Periplus where it's a description of

00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:45.130
coastal settlements.

00:22:45.450 --> 00:22:47.210
So it's not surprising to find her there.

00:22:47.699 --> 00:22:53.670
And outside of this text, Kalima Hos is
the only one to mention her, but she is a

00:22:53.671 --> 00:22:55.470
poet at the Ptolemaic course in
Alexandria.

00:22:56.509 --> 00:22:59.248
So all this may lead us to
wonder if the Ptolemaic presence

00:22:59.249 --> 00:23:01.530
may have played a role
in the diffusion of the cult.

00:23:02.924 --> 00:23:07.730
Because in the first half of the third
century, Ptolemy II conquered Pamphylia.

00:23:08.459 --> 00:23:10.977
Later it was lost around the
middle of the century, but

00:23:10.978 --> 00:23:14.790
it was captured again by
Ptolemy III a few years later.

00:23:15.659 --> 00:23:20.310
So it wouldn't be surprising if the
Ptolemies fostered the cult of this local

00:23:20.311 --> 00:23:23.666
goddess in order to
capture her benevolence and

00:23:23.667 --> 00:23:26.010
to help keep Pamphylia
in the Ptolemaic empire.

00:23:27.830 --> 00:23:33.770
We don't know when the cult was introduced
by the Ptolemies, but both the city and

00:23:33.771 --> 00:23:36.670
the region belonged to the Ptolemies in
the third century.

00:23:37.329 --> 00:23:40.056
Only coasts and roads
didn't, but both had close

00:23:40.057 --> 00:23:42.430
ties to the Ptolemies
at least most of the time.

00:23:43.269 --> 00:23:47.350
So I think that the introduction of the
cult of Artemis Pargaia in Thera should

00:23:47.351 --> 00:23:52.090
not only be seen as a way for Artemidorus
to honor the main goddess of his home

00:23:52.091 --> 00:23:55.534
city, but should be
understood in a wider regional

00:23:55.535 --> 00:23:58.630
context and in relation
with the Ptolemaic empire.

00:23:59.690 --> 00:24:00.250
So we have a question from the audience.

00:24:00.270 --> 00:24:04.488
So in Thera, she may have
been evoked as a protector

00:24:04.489 --> 00:24:08.050
of the city, just like she
was in Thaliparnassus.

00:24:09.029 --> 00:24:14.310
And what is also interesting is that in
Thera, she may also have received a civic

00:24:14.484 --> 00:24:16.930
cult with a hereditary priesthood.

00:24:17.390 --> 00:24:18.970
At least this is... Oh, sorry.

00:24:19.379 --> 00:24:22.830
Suggested by an inscription, probably from
the imperial period.

00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:26.210
No, this is this one.

00:24:26.330 --> 00:24:27.330
Yeah.

00:24:28.599 --> 00:24:30.130
Well, the name is incomplete,
unfortunately.

00:24:30.131 --> 00:24:33.690
But it's likely that it's Artemis Pargaia.

00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:40.950
And if we have a hereditary priesthood
centuries after the time of Artemidorus,

00:24:41.130 --> 00:24:45.150
it shows that the cult survived for
centuries and become a civic cult.

00:24:47.469 --> 00:24:51.010
So this wouldn't be surprising, given
what we know of the cult in other cities.

00:24:51.899 --> 00:24:54.507
The fame of the goddess
would have allowed her to

00:24:54.508 --> 00:24:56.830
be widely accepted even
among the local population.

00:24:57.534 --> 00:25:01.870
And Artemidorus, as the founder and the
man of Thera, was probably considered a

00:25:01.871 --> 00:25:06.430
ritual expert, which would have given even
more prestige to the cults.

00:25:06.979 --> 00:25:09.610
So I don't have time to go into details.

00:25:09.750 --> 00:25:14.095
I wanted just to say that
there are other foreign deities,

00:25:14.096 --> 00:25:17.430
Sabazios, Parthenos, Lelias,
from the island of Leros.

00:25:17.739 --> 00:25:19.299
We don't know who made this dedication.

00:25:19.550 --> 00:25:20.550
Soldiers.

00:25:21.455 --> 00:25:22.750
We don't have any indications.

00:25:23.384 --> 00:25:28.570
But we see a whole network of places,
Egypt and Cyrene to the south,

00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:31.026
Perga to the east, Samothrace
and Lamptecos to the

00:25:31.027 --> 00:25:35.190
north, and in the eastern
Aegean, Leros, probably Caerea.

00:25:36.710 --> 00:25:40.172
The cults were mostly
introduced by the Ptolemaic

00:25:40.173 --> 00:25:42.650
garrison, but probably
not all of them were.

00:25:43.910 --> 00:25:48.210
They were addressed not only to soldiers
and to the garrison, but also to the local

00:25:48.211 --> 00:25:54.530
population, as they provided protection in
various domains, such as agriculture,

00:25:55.649 --> 00:25:59.970
even though we have a particular
insistence on deities who provided

00:25:59.971 --> 00:26:05.290
protection at sea, which is not surprising
given the insular character of Thera and

00:26:05.291 --> 00:26:09.150
the fact that the Ptolemaic Empire was a
maritime empire.

00:26:10.479 --> 00:26:13.120
And from what we know, this
cult seems to have been well

00:26:13.121 --> 00:26:15.870
received by the local
population or at least the elite.

00:26:16.524 --> 00:26:20.310
And at least one of these cults,
that of Artemis Pergaea, may have become a

00:26:20.311 --> 00:26:23.239
civil cult still active
centuries later after

00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:25.450
the departure of the
Ptolemaic garrison.

00:26:26.369 --> 00:26:30.430
And one last thing we should also stress
is that while the locals adopted these

00:26:30.629 --> 00:26:35.710
foreign cults, these foreign cults were
also adapted to Theraian costumes,

00:26:36.104 --> 00:26:40.099
since they are mostly
located in rock-cut sanctuaries,

00:26:40.100 --> 00:26:43.230
which is a characteristic
of the cults in the city.

00:26:43.649 --> 00:26:45.110
Thank you for your introduction.

00:26:52.550 --> 00:26:53.600
Thank you very much.

00:26:54.989 --> 00:26:56.060
There is any question?

00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:01.500
A lot of questions about Thera in the
Middle East.

00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:06.120
So probably in this way, we have time to
wrap up.

00:27:06.819 --> 00:27:07.980
There is a room on the kid.

00:27:08.370 --> 00:27:09.380
Hi, thank you.

00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:10.420
Very interesting.

00:27:10.760 --> 00:27:14.520
I was wondering about the more general
process of fusion.

00:27:18.639 --> 00:27:25.360
So when you see the worship of a god or a
goddess, a vice in some place that wasn't

00:27:25.360 --> 00:27:29.535
there before, that presupposedly
assumed that someone came

00:27:29.536 --> 00:27:33.220
from somewhere or there was
that person and ended up there.

00:27:37.299 --> 00:27:40.900
Are there some other conditions that must
be met in that relocation?

00:27:41.719 --> 00:27:49.520
So is it enough for someone to come from
wherever they worship a particular goddess

00:27:49.521 --> 00:27:53.940
and go somewhere else, and for them,
would that privately matter for them?

00:27:55.139 --> 00:28:02.020
Or particularly in the ancient context,
would it be more...

00:28:02.021 --> 00:28:03.920
Would there necessarily have to be...

00:28:04.069 --> 00:28:08.900
Is that a social aspect in the sense of
would it make sense for me to

00:28:08.999 --> 00:28:12.560
idiosyncratic and personally worship X
god?

00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:14.920
There would have to be a community there.

00:28:17.389 --> 00:28:20.200
Well, I think that's a great question for
the round table tomorrow.

00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:22.840
Because I don't know.

00:28:23.919 --> 00:28:26.340
It's a very broad question and I don't
know.

00:28:27.379 --> 00:28:29.739
Should I say something or should we leave
that for tomorrow?

00:28:29.969 --> 00:28:31.040
I won't be there anymore.

00:28:31.041 --> 00:28:33.000
Oh, you won't be there tomorrow.

00:28:33.180 --> 00:28:35.760
So I have to be the only one to answer the
question.

00:28:37.120 --> 00:28:38.160
This one's great.

00:28:41.019 --> 00:28:42.020
Well, great question.

00:28:42.085 --> 00:28:43.880
I don't know what to say right now.

00:28:43.960 --> 00:28:48.100
I would have to think about lots of
different examples and possibilities.

00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:49.900
I'm sorry.

00:28:50.424 --> 00:28:54.380
Maybe we can address it later this
afternoon?

00:28:54.999 --> 00:28:57.320
We have a debate this afternoon,
maybe.

00:28:58.669 --> 00:29:00.480
That's a good question for all of us.

00:29:00.481 --> 00:29:01.561
I don't know what to think.

00:29:04.820 --> 00:29:05.820
No.

00:29:06.380 --> 00:29:07.256
Stop it.

00:29:07.280 --> 00:29:08.280
Yeah.

00:29:09.050 --> 00:29:10.100
Go ahead.

00:29:10.549 --> 00:29:11.640
Just a short question.

00:29:12.449 --> 00:29:17.240
Do we have any clue about these heroines
who were there?

00:29:19.719 --> 00:29:27.620
The problem is that we only have that
side, the end of the name.

00:29:27.780 --> 00:29:33.280
So I tried to find what it could be
because we have who published the

00:29:33.281 --> 00:29:40.180
inscriptions in the beginning of the 20th
century said that they were the heroines

00:29:40.629 --> 00:29:42.140
who are known from Thera.

00:29:42.919 --> 00:29:48.080
But actually, that could be the Teresai or
Anasai also fits.

00:29:48.419 --> 00:29:50.720
I didn't find any other word that fits.

00:29:51.194 --> 00:29:54.300
At least I looked in the map database and
they are the only possibilities.

00:29:55.039 --> 00:29:57.400
So two of the third possibilities are from
Cyrene.

00:29:58.520 --> 00:29:59.276
Really?

00:29:59.300 --> 00:30:00.300
Yeah.

00:30:00.460 --> 00:30:01.700
I don't know why.

00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:10.240
And Anasai seems a bit too general.

00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:15.460
So I will tend to think that there are
more goddesses from Cyrene.

00:30:15.600 --> 00:30:17.968
But we also could
think of local goddesses

00:30:17.969 --> 00:30:20.360
who have a name that
is not otherwise tested.

00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:23.959
But I don't think so because they are
supposed to come from outside.

00:30:24.549 --> 00:30:28.039
And in Cyrene, I didn't
look very well into it

00:30:28.040 --> 00:30:31.080
because I didn't know if
they were the heroines.

00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:36.304
For example, in Thera,
we do not have heroines,

00:30:36.305 --> 00:30:39.840
female heroes in
only a mass of heroes.

00:30:40.229 --> 00:30:43.820
Also, we don't say that there are warriors
from Thera.

00:30:44.579 --> 00:30:50.000
Because let's say because in the Secret
Rebellion they appear together and some of

00:30:50.001 --> 00:30:52.780
those have said that probably there is a
link between them.

00:30:53.009 --> 00:30:54.140
But it's only a hypothesis.

00:30:54.854 --> 00:31:00.020
We don't have, probably, an object or an
epigraph or something that hey,

00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:01.016
we have this.

00:31:01.040 --> 00:31:03.160
We don't have it.

00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:04.599
So it's only a hypothesis.

00:31:04.989 --> 00:31:06.540
I was curious.

00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:09.720
I assumed that you saw that.

00:31:09.780 --> 00:31:14.500
I was looking at the epigraph of Cyrene
meanwhile you were speaking.

00:31:14.924 --> 00:31:20.380
Because I'm trying to find some of the
inscriptions in which they are mentioned.

00:31:20.929 --> 00:31:24.840
So if I have in the debate, we'll talk
about that.

00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:27.520
But I want to have the text.

00:31:27.780 --> 00:31:28.536
Okay.

00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:31.900
I don't want to embarrass myself saying
something stupid about them.

00:31:32.269 --> 00:31:37.220
But for the telesay some people have
suggested that they may be Demeter and

00:31:37.221 --> 00:31:40.480
Cori which would fit this inscription
well.

00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:44.600
So... And they do say too
with the Secret Rebellion of...

00:31:44.601 --> 00:31:52.300
Sacred Law of Cyrene where they are
mentioned together with Zeus, Athena,

00:31:52.800 --> 00:31:56.760
Paul, Arne... Could
it be a general idea?

00:31:56.860 --> 00:31:57.860
Yes.

00:32:01.659 --> 00:32:03.180
I don't know.

00:32:03.280 --> 00:32:04.136
It's very specific.

00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:05.300
It is in the Temenos.

00:32:05.560 --> 00:32:06.560
So...

00:32:07.460 --> 00:32:08.276
I don't know.

00:32:08.300 --> 00:32:08.696
Maybe.

00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:09.720
But...

00:32:09.859 --> 00:32:10.900
We just don't know.

00:32:11.540 --> 00:32:12.540
It's unfortunate.

00:32:14.139 --> 00:32:15.179
Well, thank you very much.

00:32:15.380 --> 00:32:16.380
Thank you.