The Athenian Adonia in Context: The Adonis Festival as Cultural Practice

282 Pages·2016·2.36 MB·English

by  Laurialan Reitzammer

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The Athenian Adonia in Context
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Publication of this volume has been made possible, in part,
through the generous support and enduring vision of
Warren G. Moon.
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The Athenian Adonia
in Context
The Adonis Festival
as Cultural Practice
Laurialan Reitzammer
The University of Wisconsin Press
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The University of Wisconsin Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Reitzammer, Laurialan, author.
Title: The Athenian Adonia in context: the Adonis festival as cultural practice /
Laurialan Reitzammer.
Other titles: Wisconsin studies in classics.
Description: Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, [2016] |
©2016 | Series: Wisconsin studies in classics
Identifiers: LCCN 2015036817 | ISBN 9780299308209 (cloth: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Adonis (Greek deity)—Prayers and devotions. | Festivals—
Greece—Athens. | Rites and ceremonies—Greece—Athens. | Athens
(Greece)—Social life and customs.
Classification: LCC DF289 .R45 2016 | DDC 292.1/36—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036817
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For
John
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations, Editions, and References xi
Introduction 3
1 Adonis and the Adonia: Trends in
Representation, Ancient and Modern 12
2 Weddings: Stairway to Heaven 30
3 Funerals: Aristophanes’s Adôniazousai 60
4 Philosophy: Gardening for Fun in
Plato’s Phaedrus 90
Conclusion 118
Figures 123
Notes 147
Bibliography 213
Index 237
Index Locorum 251
vii
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Acknowledgments
I owe a tremendous debt to many friends and colleagues for
support provided during the process of writing this book. In the early stages of this
project I received honest criticism and guidance from Margaret Conkey, Mark
Griffith, Donald Mastronarde, and especially Leslie Kurke, who has always pro-
vided me with a sense of direction at crucial moments.
Without the emotional as well as intellectual support of the “Lunch Circle”
on the steps of Doe Library, this project would never have gotten off the ground.
A number of people read drafts of all or part of the book, and to them I owe much
gratitude: David Crane, Curtis Dozier, Gloria Ferrari Pinney, Jessica Gelber, David
Jacobson, Deborah Kamen, John Oakley, Dimitri Nakassis, Ellen Oliensis, Kathryn
Topper, and Elizabeth Young. My colleagues at the University of Colorado,
Boulder have provided a welcoming and stimulating environment in which to
work, and I am grateful especially to those who read chapters: Elspeth Dusinberre,
Peter Hunt, and Sarah James. Special thanks are due to John Gibert, who read the
entire work and saved me from many potentially embarrassing errors. My students
in Boulder have continuously engaged me with many issues related to this book,
and I thank, in particular, Sidney Christman, Elizabeth Deacon, Tyler Denton,
James Faulkner, and Florencia Foxley, along with the entire Greek Mythology
and Religion seminar of fall 2013. Laurie Glover, Sarah Olsen, and Milly Powell
provided much needed help near the end of the project. I also thank Bernard
Frischer, Robert Gurval, Michael Haslam, Kathryn Morgan, and Sarah Morris for
getting me started in the field of classics.
Chapter 3 benefited from two anonymous Classical Antiquity reviewers, as well
as audiences at Wellesley College and the 2005 meeting of the American Philo-
logical Association in Boston. Chapters 2 and 4 were improved thanks to audiences
at the 2008 meeting of the American Philological Association in Chicago and at the
University of Pennsylvania. A Loeb Classical Library Fellowship during fall of 2012
allowed me to work uninterrupted on the book. I am also grateful to the anonymous
referees as well as the staff at the University of Wisconsin Press. Publication of this
volume has been made possible, in part, through a Kayden Grant and a grant from
the Center for the Humanities and the Arts from the University of Colorado,
Boulder.
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