Participants
Director :
Dan Dana (CNRS)
Permanent Member :
Renée Koch Piettre (EPHE)
External Partners :
Ceizar Zaïn (doctorant, EPHE), Mélanie Lozat (doctorante, Genève)
Présentation
The last few decades have been marked by renewed interest in Strabo (critical editions, translations and commentaries, collective volumes). A Stoic philosopher who gives us access to the thought of Posidonius of Apamea and Euhemerism, Strabo also exhibits an openness to universal discourse, as is clear from his Geography. This completely preserved work in seventeen books, composed around the end of the first quarter of the first century A.D., covers the entire inhabited world and, both from a chronological perspective and by reason of the interest of its interpretations, stands at the heart of the research questions pursued in the CHRONOS program. In addition to political developments (the end of the Hellenistic kingdoms, the rise of Rome), it allows us to investigate potential cultural changes. The description of cult practices and actors necessitates comparison with epigraphic data, a dossier that has grown considerably.
Several research angles on this subject will be explored : the figure of the goēs in Strabo ; the role of priests ; the religious lexicon of Strabo (books 7-17), and especially the vocabulary of mysteries (e.g., use of the terms mysteria, teletai, orgia) ; the kouretai and epiphanies ; Strabo’s perspective on “barbarian” cults ; and the views of modern historiography, particularly the earliest studies in the history of religions.
Projets
Prospective workshop (2015) to establish the topic of a roundtable.
