Lilian de Angelo Laky
- Type: Doctoral thesis
Title: A apropriação e consolidação do culto de Zeus pela cidade grega: moedas e santuários, política e identidade em época arcaica e clássica
Year: 2016
Publication: Tese de doutorado
Keywords: Greek identity; Polis; Sanctuaries; Coin types; Zeus
Abstract: This study sets out to examine the role played by the cult of Zeus in legitimising political groups and regimes in the Greek poleis, as well as in building networks of Greek identity in the context of the polis. We seek to offer valid explanations of the political and social factors that led to the emergence of the cult of Zeus in the Greek polis at the end of the 7th century BC; to the appropriation of his cult from the 6th century BC onwards – the period in which the polis reached its first peak of urbanisation and in which the first increase in civic sanctuaries of the god (in the territory and in the urban area) and in the use of the eagle image on Greek coins took place –; and to the proliferation of sanctuaries and of coin images of Zeus and the thunderbolt in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, when the cult became consolidated in the Greek city. Our basic documentation will be: 1) all the components of all the Greek sanctuaries dedicated to Zeus known archaeologically, from the Bronze Age to the Classical period (up to 345/44 BC); and 2) all known coins with images of Zeus and his attributes, the thunderbolt and the eagle, minted from the Archaic period up to 345/44 BC. Coins and sanctuaries make up the documentation because they share the official character and identity of the Greek city: both types of document come from the same political entity, the polis. This research will offer a general overview of the cult of Zeus in the polis over the long term, as well as a regional approach highlighting the most significant cases in both types of documentation relating to the deity in the Peloponnese, Crete, Sicily and southern Italy.
Access - Type: Master's dissertation
Title: Olímpia e os olimpieia: a origem do culto de Zeus Olímpio na Grécia dos séculos VI e V a.C.
Year: 2011
Publication: Dissertação de Mestrado
Keywords: Olympia; Olympian Zeus; Olympieion; Tyranny; Greekness
Abstract: This research aims to study the temples dedicated to Olympian Zeus, called Olympieia, built between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, in the Archaic and Classical periods. Our intention is to understand to what extent the sanctuary of Olympia in mainland Greece was responsible for the origin and spread of the cult of Olympian Zeus in the rest of the Greek world. We also intend to understand the character assumed by this cult in the various parts of the Greek world. We are particularly interested in studying in depth the relationship of this cult with political power in the Archaic and Classical periods, above all with regard to its possible political manipulation. To this end, we surveyed the cities that consecrated temples to this deity in order to map its cult and, working with contextualised archaeological data in association with the textual sources, we discuss topics such as: 1) the use of the epithet Olympios and of the name Olympieion; 2) the spatial configuration of the sanctuaries of Olympian Zeus and the relationship of sacred space with society; 3) the relationship between the cult and tyrannical government; 4) and the role of the cult in the construction of Greek identity.
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