Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and ReligionThis is the first history of epiphany as both a phenomenon and as a cultural discourse within the Graeco-Roman world, exploring divine manifestations and their representations, in visual terms as well as in literary, historical and epigraphic accounts. Verity Platt sets the cultural analysis of epiphany within a historical framework that explores its development from the archaic period into the Roman empire. In particular, a surprisingly large number of the images that have survived from antiquity are not only religious, but epiphanically charged. Verity Platt argues that the enduring potential for divine incursions into mortal experience provides a structure of cognitive reliability that supports both ancient religion and mythology. At the same time, Graeco-Roman culture exhibits a sophisticated awareness of the difficulties of the apprehension of deity, the representation of divine presence, and the potential for the manmade sign to lead the worshipper back to an unmediated epiphanic encounter. |
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Aelius Aristides agalma ancient aniconic anthropomorphic antiquity Aphrodite Apollo Apollonius archaic Artemidorus Artemis artistic Asclepieion Asclepius Athena Athenian Callimachus century BCE Chaniotis claims classical cognitive context cult images Damis Damophon deity Demeter demonstrated depicting Dionysus discussion in Chapter divine form divine presence dream visions ekphrasis Elsner emphasises enargeia Endymion epigram epigraphic epiphanic encounter epiphany example experience Figure function funerary god’s goddess gods Greece Greek culture Hellenic Hellenistic Heracles Hermes heroes Heroicus Homeric Hymns human iconography Imagines inscription kaª Knidia Koch Piettre Lapatin literary Lykosoura manifestation material Memnon mimesis mimetic mortal myth narrative nature object Olympian oneiric paideia Palladion Parthenos Paus Pausanias Petridou phantasia Phidias philosophical Philostratus Plutarch Polias portrait Praxiteles present Protesilaos relationship religious representation ritual role Roman sacred images sanctuary sarcophagus sculpture Second Sophistic sense Sichtermann statue’s suggests techn¯e temple tomb tradition viewer viewing visual votive reliefs worshippers Zanker and Ewald Zeus