“The Lady doth process too much methinks…” Experiencing the Ritual Procession of Gaius VibiusSalutaris.
Evolving Fields Conference June 6th 2017
Dr. Abigail Graham
“The interpretation of inscriptions that describe, display, prescribe or allude to emotions means placing them in their social and cultural contexts, establishing the date and background of the composition, considering the intended audiences; studying the relation between text and monument; examining the place in which the inscription was set up. Here lie the greatest obstacles in the evaluation of inscriptions for the study of emotions”.Chaniotis (2012) 120.
- Introduction/ Context
Who was Gaius VibiusSalutaris?
- Roman Citizen
- His family owned estates in/near Ephesos with signifnicant revenues
- Succeeded under the Emperor Domitian
- Had his foundation ratified by the Boule and Demos of Ephesos in January AD 104
What was his“foundation”? Text = I.Eph27 *translation in Rogers (1991)
- Donated a lottery on Artemis’ birthday giving money to different groups of citizens
- Donated a series of 31 statuettes and images of Artemis (8)as well as local and Roman leaders and civic groups to be placed in groups of 3 on bases** above the seating wedges at the theatre.
- The foundation (with 7 different documents) was carved in stone by the Boule and Demos on a marble parodoswall at the theatre. It had 6 columnin 568 lines of Greek text. **
**These sources have survived.
Why set up this foundation?
II. Fact or Fiction: Claims of the text and Monument
“Staging of rituals takes aesthetics, order and performance into consideration. Theatricality is particular aspect of staging: in which groups construct an image that is at least partly deceiving, either a contrast to reality, or an exaggeration (distorting) reality..in an effort to gain control of emotions.. provoking specific reactions”. Chaniotis(2013) 173.
Salutaris Procession… according to the text:
- The procession will travel from the Artemision to the theatre (ca. 2 km) on festival days & assembly meetings = 35 minutes in duration; 2 times a month.
- This will include a number of civic groups, the neopoioi & the ephebes. (all 250 of the them?), who will carry the statuettes “with due dignity”.
- This foundation will be valid forever. It will never be changed, altered, invalidated, by anyone. Ever. Fine of 50,000 denarii to anyone who tries.
Can claims of control in the text be asserted in reality?
III. Viewing Salutaris Procession: as an experience of a ritual event.
How was this event coordinated? What did the procession look like?
How was the audience meant to view and participate in the event?
Reconstructing the Audience’s perspective
- Literary account of a procession: Xenophon of Ephesus: An Ephesian Tale
(1)A local festival for Artemis was underway, and from the city to her shrine, a distance of 7 stades, (2) all the local girls had to march sumptuously adorned, as did all the ephebes who were the same age as Habrocomes; he was about 16 and already enrolled in the ephebes, and he headed the procession. (3) For the spectacle there was a large crowd, both local and visiting, for it was custom at this assemblage to find husbands for girls and wives for the ephebes. (4) The procession marched along in file, first the sacred objects, torches, baskets and incense, followed by horses, dogs and hunting equipment, some of it martial, most of it peaceful <...> each girl was adorned as for a lover. (5) Heading the girls was Anthia, daughter of Megamedes and Euippe, locals,Anthia’s beauty was marvelous and far surpassed the other girls. She was 14, her body was blooming with shapeliness and the adornment of her dress enhanced her grace. (6) Her hair was blond, mostly loose, only a little of it braided and moving as the breezes took it. Her eyes were vivacious, bright like a beauty’s but forbidding like a chaste girl’s; her clothing was a belted purple tunic, knee length and falling loosely over the arms, and over it a fawnskin with a quiver attached, arrows <…>, javelins and dogs following behind (8) Often seeing her at the shrine, the Ephesians worshipped her as Artemis, as also at the sight of her on this occasion the crowd cheered; the opinions of the spectators were various, some in their astonishment declaring that she was a goddesss herself, others that she was someone fashioned by the goddess, but all of them prayed, bowed down and congratulated her parents and the universal cry among the spectators was “Anthia the beautiful”(9) As the crowd of girls passed by, no one said anything but “Anthia,” but as soon as Habrocomes followed with the ephebes, as lovely as the spectacle of the girls had been, they all forgot about them an turned their gaze him, stunned at the sight and shouting “Handsome Habrocomes, Peerless likeness of a handsome god” ”
- Reconstructing Imagery: Images of Artemis and Statuette weights
1. A Ponderous matter: using statuette weights to reconstruct size
2. Depictions of Artemis statuettes and the mythology of Iphigenia:
- Wall Painting of Iphigenia at the House of the Tragic Poet (Pompeii)
- Mosaic of Orestes and Iphigenia (Rome)
- Iphigenia and Orestes Sarcophagus (Rome).
- Coin from Philadephos
- Reconstructing the Procession: To what extent can Space, Time & Action be controlled??
Timing the procession
Arranging the procession
Viewing statuettes and the urban context: Statuette and their associations
Where was the audience meant to be ???
IV. Conclusions: Doth the Lady process too much?
“Religious festivals may aim to the virtual communication between humans and superhuman beings, but above all, they are a communication between real people, between agents and spectators.”[1]Chaniotis (2013), 170.
Are monuments true representations of individuals, legal processes or ritual events?
Were the claims of text or monument realised in the ritual event?
Bibliography
A. Chaniotis(2006) Rituals between Norms and Emotions: Rituals as Shared Experience and Memory”, in E. Stavrianopoulou (ed.), Rituals and Communication in the Graeco-Roman World (Kernos Suppl. 16), Liège: Université de Liège, 211-238.
(2007) “Theatre Rituals”, in P. Wilson (ed.), The Greek Theatre and Festivals. Documentary Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 48-66;
(2012) “Moving Stones: The Study of Emotions in Greek Inscriptions”, in A. Chaniotis (ed.), Unveiling Emotions: Sources and Methods for the Study of Emotions in the Greek World, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 91-129.
(2013) “Staging and Feeling the Presence of God: Emotion and Theatricality in Religious Celebrations in the Roman East”, in Bricault, L. and Bonnet, C. (eds.), Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Roman Empire (Brill), 169-189.
Elsner, J. (2007). Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text, Princeton
Graff, (2011). “Ritual Restoration and Innovation in the Greek Cities of the Roman Imperium” in Chaniotis, A., (ed), Ritual Dynamics in the Ancient Mediterranean: Agency, Emotion, Gender, Representation, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 105-117.
Rogers, G. (2012). The Mysteries of the Cult of Artemis: Cult, Polis and Change in the Graeco- Roman World
(1991) The Sacred Idenity of Ephesos: Foundation Myths of Roman City.
I Eph= H. Wankel, R. Merkelbachet al.,Die Inschriften von Ephesos, I-VIII (Bonn 1979-1984).
[1]Interaction between those who attended rituals (performers and spectators) is occasionally mentioned in literary sources and referred to in cult regulations (as it is in Salutaris’ foundation), but these materials have not been systematically collected or studied. SeeChaniotis (2006),211-238.