Inner Purity and Pollution in Greek Religion: Volume I: Early Greek Religion

354 Pages·2016·1.745 MB·English

by  Petrovic, Andrej, Petrovic, Ivana

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INNER PURITy AND POLLUTION
IN GREEk RELIGION
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Inner Purity and
Pollution in Greek
Religion
Volume I: Early Greek Religion
ANDREJ PETROVIC AND
IVANA PETROVIC
1
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1
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Preface
The impetus to pursue the topic of inner purity and pollution came to us
during the summer of 2005, while we were working in Heidelberg and
Giessen respectively. Back then, we found ourselves in the most privileged
position of enjoying the superb atmosphere of Heidelberg’s Seminar für Alte
Geschichte und Epigraphik (SAGE), which, as any reliable witness would
be happy to confirm, had something magical about it. Angelos Chaniotis,
Thomas Corsten, Eftychia Stavrianopoulou, and all the other members of
this department made sure that there was never a dull day: not only were we
surrounded by inspiring colleagues who regularly managed to turn day-to-
day departmental goings-on into thrilling intellectual adventures, but the
department was at that point also host to many exciting visitors from all
corners of the world, who have been enriching our thinking and our lives
ever since. Among them, the Heidelberg epiphanies of Henk Versnel and
Jon E. (Ted) Lendon stand out, for they both became organic parts of
departmental scholarly and social life, tirelessly providing food for thought
with their superb lectures and intellectual challenges, and good cheer both
inside and out of the department.
At that time one of the projects pursued at SAGE under the auspices of
a gargantuan Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 619) dealt with sacred
regulations. The aim of the project was to systematize this group of texts
with a view to exploring the phenomenon of ritual dynamics, and both
authors have at various points contributed to its goals. Under the direction
of first Angelos Chaniotis and then Eftychia Stavrianopoulou, we were
tasked to look into issues of agency and authority in sacred regulations.
In the process of doing so, we were surprised twice. First, we realized that
there were a number of sacred regulations written in metre and with signif-
icant literary ambition, constructing a specific type of authority. Second, we
realized that these metrical texts dealt with issues of purity, and, to be more
precise, almost exclusively with issues of inner purity and pollution. And
this is how it all started.
Our original idea was to provide an edition and a commentary for this
class of texts, and we started work on the material almost immediately, pub-
lishing a pilot study in 2006, drafting various sections, and dealing with
epigraphic bits and bobs. In 2006 we moved to Durham to take up posts at
the Department of Classics and Ancient History, and continued our work
at a somewhat slower pace, but accelerated considerably during our first
research leave, which we were lucky enough to spend together at the Center
for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC in 2009–10. During nine months of
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vi Preface
privileged existence in the CHS Elysium we realized that the material in our
hands was much more complex than we had originally assumed, and that a
commentary, such as we had envisaged, was not going to provide satisfying
results until we had acquired a much firmer grasp of the traditions which
shaped these texts, and until we had obtained a synoptic view of the topic of
inner purity and pollution.
For this reason, from one project two books have emerged: the present
volume, which provides an analysis of the material until the early fourth
century BC, and another, now in draft, which explores the sources from
Plato to Iamblichus, and which should see the light of the day in the near
future. The reasons for such an arrangement of the material are provided in
the Introduction.
Much of both volumes was drafted during our time at the CHS in
Washington—we are most grateful to both directors, Greg Nagy and Douglas
Frame, for their generosity, continuous support, and kindness during our
sojourn, as well as to all of the staff; leaving at the end of the fellowship was
one of life’s harder hits. Not just because of the scholarship, the sheer beauty
of the setting, its inspiring academic environment, intellectual (and—thanks
again, Silvia Henderson!—gastronomic) delights, but also because during
that year we gained many dear friends—in particular our co-fellows Miguel
Herrero and Andromache karanika, with their families. The many inspiring
conversations we had with Egbert Bakker and Albert Henrichs make us miss
those days often and greatly. And we have never before or since encountered
a librarian so dedicated and capable as CHS’s Temple Wright.
During our stay in the United States we were invited to deliver papers and
test our ideas before audiences at several universities, and we would like to
express our gratitude to our friends and colleagues from the United States for
their wonderful hospitality and intellectual stimulation: many thanks to the
Dept. of Classics at Washington University (Seattle), and especially to Jim
Clauss and Alain Gowing; the Dept. of Classics in Cincinnati and kathryn
Gutzwiller; the Dept. of Classics in Bryn Mawr, and Radcliffe Edmonds III
(to whom we are indebted in many ways in respect to this book); the Dept. of
Classics at Stanford, and Richard Martin and Susan Stephens.
Another important moment in the development of our thinking about
issues of inner purity and pollution came in July 2010, when Ralph Anderson
invited us to St Andrews to participate in a superb conference on Belief and its
Alternatives in Greek and Roman Religions (the volume is forthcoming with
CUP). If we might identify the point in time when we started thinking about
the notion of inner purity as a manifestation of belief, and sided with the
pro-believers, it was on this occasion, and during conversations with Ralph,
Matthew Dickie, Tom Harrison, and other participants in the conference.
In the following years we have also enjoyed opportunities to present and
discuss our work at Nottingham, Newcastle, and at Münster University,
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Preface vii
where we were invited to deliver a series of talks as part of their Exzellenzcluster
‘Religion und Politik’—we thank Alexander Arweiler, Peter Funke, and
Matthias Haake very much for their kind invitation and hospitality. Gunnel
Ekroth kindly invited us in 2013 to deliver a series of talks in Uppsala, and we
have profited greatly from conversations with her, and the colleagues and stu-
dents from the History and Archaeology Departments.
Some of the ideas presented in this book were also presented at the
conference of CIERGA in Liège in 2013, which coincided with the thirtieth
anniversary of Robert Parker’s Miasma, and fittingly dealt with ‘Purity and
Purification in the Greek World: Concepts and Practices’. We are grateful
to the participants in this splendid event for their comments and sugges-
tions, and especially so to Pierre Bonnechere, Jan-Mathieu Carbon, Stella
Georgoudi, Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, and Emmanuel Voutiras.
We are also indebted to colleagues who have generously shared their
work with us: Stefan Schorn kindly shared his paper on Diodorus’ sources
for Pythagoras’ passages in advance of publication; both Radcliffe Edmonds III
and Miguel Herrero shared several drafts of their work with us. Saskia
Peels sent us her Ph.D. manuscript; Bernd Seidensticker provided off-
prints of his work; Tom Harrison shared several of his essays with us before
publication.
The book has profited immensely from comments provided by colleagues
and friends: Zara Chadha has not only read and commented on the book in
its entirety, and in many stages of the draft’s (in)completion, but she has also
repeatedly scrutinized our language, polished the argumentative structure
and exposition, and provided many superb insights—we owe her a great
debt of gratitude. Miguel Herrero and Radcliffe Edmonds III provided feed-
back on the chapter dealing with the gold leaves, and Radcliffe also provided
insights on our discussions of Empedocles and Pythagoras. Our Durham
colleague George Boys-Stones kindly read the chapters on Empedocles,
Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and the gold leaves, provided valuable comments,
and clarified many issues for us. Pierre Bonnechere, Renaud Gagné, and
Tom Harrison provided feedback on the Introduction. To Peter Rhodes we
owe thanks for his advice on several issues of legal history and for his com-
ments on the section dealing with the Oresteia.
Chris Carey has been supportive of both of us in a multitude of ways ever
since we arrived in the United kingdom from Germany, and this project was
no exception. Ted Lendon, who was there at the project’s start, was there for
the completion too, and we have profited greatly from his comments on the
concluding chapter.
We are also grateful to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Durham for
supporting our research leave in Epiphany 2014, which allowed us to com-
plete most of the draft. At OUP we are immensely indebted to Charlotte
Loveridge, who has supported this project with great enthusiasm and energy
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viii Preface
and has led us through intricacies of the process with angelic patience and
great professionalism, and to Jeff New, who acted as a copy-editor of our
manuscript and has added the final polish to it and helped us clarify many
points.
Finally, Angelos Chaniotis’ continuous support, encouragement, critique,
and insight have been following this project since its inception, and the two
of us since we first started dabbling in issues of Greek religion as Ph.D. stu-
dents. As this book travelled with its authors from Heidelberg to Durham, to
Washington, DC, back to Durham, and on to Berlin where we write these
parting lines, he has been its most generous benefactor.
The good bits in this book are much indebted to all of the people who
have supported this project; it goes without saying that the weaknesses are
exclusively ours.
We completed the manuscript in the summer of 2015; with very few
exceptions, we have taken the literature into account up to 2014. Fabian
Meinel’s monograph Pollution and Crisis in Greek Tragedy, published by
CUP in 2015 appeared after the completion of our manuscript. Meinel’s pri-
marily literary study of pollution in Greek tragedy only briefly and occasion-
ally engages with issues of inner purity and pollution, and presents a
complementary but not overlapping view of pollution in tragedy.
We are often asked about the exact way in which we write together—the
question is asked mostly out of genuine curiosity, but it is at times also
raised for purposes of various administrative exercises. We often publish
together because we enjoy discussing ideas with each other, and it is at times
impossible even for us to trace a particular idea all the way back to Andrej or
Ivana. Each of our joint publications originated during a discussion. If we
both happen to be interested in pursuing the thought further, we sit down
together, agree on the initial rough draft, work out the main strands of the
argument, and start writing. We take turns in dictating and writing down,
and often pause for further discussions, which can take a while. Once we
agree on the final outline a series of individual or joint edits ensues, which
often result in a complete rewrite of individual sections, and the process
ends only when we have reached a mutually satisfying solution. For that
reason, this book, like all of our joint outputs, represents in its entirety a
truly joint endeavour.
Clarity of thought and exposition was one of our goals, but with this book
we also hope to attract a readership beyond Classicists in the narrow sense
of the word, and every effort has been made to limit jargon to a minimum,
provide clear definitions of the discipline-specific terms, and equip a Greekless
reader with enough help to venture through the volume. The most impor-
tant Greek terms have regularly been transliterated and translated, and we
hope that the glossary, the indices, and the summaries will facilitate rapid
engagement and easy navigation.
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Preface ix
Woodrow Wilson is attributed with the following saying: ‘If a dog will not
come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and
examine your conscience.’ Over the past eight years our wonderful dog
Mr Miyagi has been inspiring us in many ways to think about inner purity.
Even though he has not penned a single word of this book, his help was
nevertheless endless. Hence, in gratitude, we dedicate this book to Mr Miyagi,
a true creature of ϕιλοϕροσύνη. Κύον πιστότατε, ϕρὴν καθαρωτάτη, σοὶ τόδε
βιβλίον τίθεμεν.
Ivana and Andrej Petrovic
Berlin, October 2015