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The culture of ancient Greece was thronged with personifications. In poetry and the visual arts, personified figures of what might seem abstractions claim our attention. The Greeks, in Dr Johnson's phrase, 'shock the mind by ascribing effects to non-entity'. This study examines the logic, the psychology and the practice of Greeks who worshipped these personifications with temples and sacrifices, and beseeched them with hymn and prayers. Dr Stafford conducts case-studies of deified 'abstractions', such as Peitho (Persuasion), Eirene (Peace) and Hygieia (Health). She also considers general questions of Greek psychology, such as why so many of these figures were female. Modern scholars have asked, "Did the Greeks believe their own myths?" This study contributes to the debate, by exploring widespread and creative popular theology in the historical period.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Conventions
1. Personification, Allegory and Belief
2. Themis: Archaic Personification and the Epithet Theory
3. Nemesis: 'Myth Into Logos?'
4. Peitho: The Seductive Power of Rhetoric
5. Hygieia: 'Not a Goddess But a Gift of God'?
6. Eirene: Propaganda and Allegory
7. Eleos: The Athenian 'Altar of Pity' and Its God
8. Conclusion
Appendix: Bibliographic Note
Bibliography
Index
Description
The culture of ancient Greece was thronged with personifications. In poetry and the visual arts, personified figures of what might seem abstractions claim our attention. The Greeks, in Dr Johnson's phrase, 'shock the mind by ascribing effects to non-entity'. This study examines the logic, the psychology and the practice of Greeks who worshipped these personifications with temples and sacrifices, and beseeched them with hymn and prayers. Dr Stafford conducts case-studies of deified 'abstractions', such as Peitho (Persuasion), Eirene (Peace) and Hygieia (Health). She also considers general questions of Greek psychology, such as why so many of these figures were female. Modern scholars have asked, "Did the Greeks believe their own myths?" This study contributes to the debate, by exploring widespread and creative popular theology in the historical period.
