The papers in this volume are based on an international conference organized by Jesper Tae Jensen, 9-10 January 2004 at the Department of Classical Archaeology, together with the Centre for Studies of Antiquities, University of Aarhus. They illustrate the interplay between the studies of classical archaeology, religion, history, and musicology. The eight papers by the young scholars and their Nestor, Richard Hamilton, offer a fresh look at various aspects of ancient Greek cult, including the use of the word cult in the academic disciplines of Archaeology and the History of Religion, the introduction of Asklepios to Athens, and a detailed study of the topography and early architecture of the same god's sancturary on the south slope of the Athenian Akropolis. The book also contains an innovative study of the sculpture and architecture of the Philippeion at Olympia as a proto-type for Hellenistic royal ideology and portraiture. Other papers include a statistical approach to the illustration of baskets on Classical votive reliefs, a theoretical study of the role of music in ancient Greek cult, and analysis of the use of the chorus as one of the most important expressions of ancient cult in Sparta.

Introduction

Lisbeth Bredholt Christensen

"Cult" in the Study of Religion and Archeology

Richard Hamilton

Basket Case: Altars, Animals and Baskets on the Classical Attic Votive Reliefs

Bronwen Wickkiser

Banishing Plague: Asklepios, Athens, and the Great Plague Reconsidered

Vanda Papaefthymiou

Der Alter des asklepieions von Athen

Michaelis Lefantzis and Jesper Tae Jensen

The Athenian Asklepieion on the South Slope of the Akropolis: Early Development, ca. 420-360 B.C

Peter Schultz

Divine Images and Royal Ideology in the Philippeion at Olympia

Tore Tvarnø Lind

Music and Cult in Ancient Greece: Ethnomusicological Perspectives

George Hinge

Cultic Persona and the Transmission of the Partheneions

Index

Contributors