MINOAN SEMINAR
FRIDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2004 AT 19.30 - DANISH INSTITUTE
METAXIA TSIPOPOULOU

A NEW LATE MINOAN IIIC SHRINE AT HALASMENOS, IERAPETRA, EAST CRETE.

The Late Minoan IIIC site of Halasmenos is situated on a steep-sided hill of some 240m just to the south of the Ha gorge, near the village of Monastiraki, at the north end of the Ierapetra Isthmus. The investigations started in 1992, under the direction of the speaker and the late William Coulson. The settlement belongs to a dense pattern of occupation, known from sites excavated or located by survey. Its size suggests that it was of major importance to the area. The buildings have not suffered extensive damage through ploughing and reuse of construction materials. Consequently, this excellent state of preservation offers a unique opportunity for determining room function, construction techniques, and spatial relationships between buildings and streets.
The settlement consists of three separate areas, A, B and C. Excavation has been conducted in all three sectors for a total of almost 3000 m2. In Sector B the single-storey plan is agglomerative. Sector A, which is divided by a road in two parts, has larger rooms and more complex plans. In A Lower the architecture comprises three megara, parallel to each other. On top of the largest one a rectangular oikos was built in the second half of the 8th century BC.
In Sector C, situated on a slightly lower plateau, a public shrine of the so called «goddess with up raised arms» was discovered and excavated. The data from the excavation will be presented, and an attempt will be made at integrating the shrine within the framework of the other similar finds in the area. Also the issue of the provenance of this type of cult place (Mycenaean or Minoan) will be addressed.
The shrine has a megaroid plan and is freestanding. In it more than 9 large female clay figures of the type conventionally called "goddess with up-raised arms" came to light. The group of cult vases included at least 8 more or less complete "snake-tubes". The shrine contained also 11 plaques or pinakes with double horns on the upper part. The amount of pottery in the building was limited, the most important vessels being three large pithoi.
In order to understand the position of the shrine of Halasmenos in the wider framework of the Mirabello-Ierapetra area, the reasons of the foundation of these settlements, at the beginning of Late Minoan IIIC or slightly later, should be explored. The presence of Gournia, which was a Late Minoan IIIB center, in the immediate vicinity of Halasmenos and of at least another three important settlements, namely Kavousi-Kastro and Vronda and Vassiliki-Kephala, two of them equipped with a shrine of the «goddess with up raised arms», is of particular importance. Furthermore, the issue of the origin of the large female idols found in these shrines is a contentious one. Alexiou in his old and still valid study suggested the most plausible explanation.
Halasmenos, with a well organized urban arrangement, and the hierarchical organization of its buildings, offers the possibility for a re-assessment of the character of the Late Minoan IIIC settlements, in the Aegean in general, and Crete in particular.

METAXIA TSIPOPOULOU
24th Ephoreia for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Archaeological Museum, Agios Nikolaos Crete 72.100 Greece  -  metaxiat@ier.forthnet.gr

WILL ALL THOSE WISHING TO ATTEND PLEASE INFORM US BY EMAIL SECRETARY@MINOANSEMINAR.GR OR BY TELEPHONE (DANISH INSTITUTE, HEREFONDOS 14, PLAKA, ATHENS) 210 3244644 BETWEEN 09.00 AND 13.30 MONDAY TO FRIDAY.  FAX: 210 3247230

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::Sunday, September 26, 2004 1:27:37 PM::

Neoplatonic Myth and Poetics

A Panel to be held at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association in Montreal, January 2006 (Sponsored by the International Society of Neoplatonic Studies) Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Florida State University, organizer

The stories that Plotinus tells about Rhea, Cronus, Zeus, Aphrodite, or Eros are not usually the first passages that come to mind. And yet, the images of Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Lynceus, Prometheus, or Apollo remind us vividly of the power of Neoplatonic myth. The compliment which Plotinus pays to Porphyry in the Vita Plotini (15.5-6), i.e., that Porphyry ³has shown himself at once a poet, philosopher, and expounder of sacred mysteries,² is equally relevant for any Neoplatonist. Both Plotinus and his successors are particularly eager to demonstrate how inherently Neoplatonic the works of the early poets and Plato are. The studies of V. Cilento and J. Pepin have already opened the discussion of the Neoplatonic adoption and adaptation of the literary and mythological tradition with a survey of Plotinus¹ poetic sources in the Enneads. The aim of the current panel is to reopen the dialogue on the nature of myth and poetics in the Neoplatonic literature, defined broadly.

Authors are welcome to send abstracts of 500-800 words, double-spaced, for papers requiring 15-20 minutes of presentation to Svetla Slaveva-Griffin via post mail addressed to the Department of Classics, Florida State University, 205 Dodd Hall, Tallahassee, 32306-1510, e-mail at sslaveva@mailer.fsu.edu <mailto:sslaveva@mailer.fsu.edu> , or faxed at (850) 644-4073, attn: Slaveva-Griffin. The author's name should appear only on the cover letter. The deadline for receiving of submissions is February 1, 2005. A committee of two anonymous reviewers will referee the abstracts. The panel organizer will notify the authors about the committee¹s decision and will provide feedback on the submissions.

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::Sunday, September 26, 2004 1:17:23 PM::

Roman Virtues and Vices

Organizers: Karla Pollmann, St Andrews; Eric Casey, Sweet Briar College; William Harris, Columbia University; Brad Inwood, University of Toronto; Robert A. Kaster, Princeton; David Konstan, Brown University; Irmgard Männlein-Robert, Würzburg; Matt Roller, Johns Hopkins; David Wray, University of Chicago.

The cultural centrality and conceptual rigor of ancient "virtue language" provides a rich ground for exploring notions, representations and transformations of ancient virtues and vices. In the last decade or so, "virtue ethics" has become an increasingly prevalent avenue of investigation in modern ethical reflections, focusing on aretaic concepts of excellence and (in fewer cases) their opposites, and on the moral character and motives of actions. This new departure within ethical philosophy, which is influenced by Aristotle but has so far hardly taken any Latin texts into account, will provide the questions to be considered in the panels of the proposed colloquium and may also be challenged by papers. The colloquium focuses on Roman culture, from the beginnings of Latin literature through Late Antiquity, including early Christianity. It aims at contextualizing the academic conversation about virtue ethics in a new way by paying more attention to ancient social contexts-for example, through examining and questioning the specific "Romanness" of given ethical values, as well as their relation to Greek culture. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, especially those involving philosophy, history with its subdisciplines, as well as linguistic and literary investigations. Junior scholars are welcome.

For the APA meeting in 2006 we solicit papers on the following topic:

Roman Virtues, Vices & Their Transformation The panel will explore the development of Roman morality in all periods through Late Antiquity.  We invite authors to ask the following questions by using a diachronic approach and/or comparing contemporaneous cultures in contact with one another: how stringent are the demands of 'Roman' morality through time? what is the good life as opposed to the bad life, and what part do virtues and vices play in it? how do human needs and economic, social, and political changes interrelate with virtues and vices?

For the APA meeting in 2006, abstracts (no more than 800 words) are due by February 4, 2005. Submit abstracts, by email (preferred) or as hard copy with disk, to Eric Casey (ecasey@sbc.edu), Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA, 24595. Abstracts will be judged anonymously by two referees.

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::Sunday, September 26, 2004 1:15:12 PM::