Aggelos Mefsout, Sophia Baltzoi, Andreas Athanasakis
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Time: 11:00 am EDT
On Tuesday, February 7 at 11:00am EDT, three fellows from the Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece will be visiting us in Washington, DC and giving a presentation on their research. We hope you can join us in person in House A, or on Zoom.
Speakers and Talk Summaries
Aggelos Mefsout
Multiple Cult Epithets within the Polis: Apollo Delios as a Case Study.
The presentation deals with the issue of the parallel coexistence of different cults of Apollo, with a different cult epithet in each case, in the context of the same polis. Its main focus is Apollo Delios, whose cult spread from Delos across the Aegean. A comparison with other epithets of Apollo and a rudimentary categorization of them can reveal the true meaning of this particular cult.
About Aggelos
Aggelos Mefsout is Pre-doctoral Fellow in Hellenic Studies 2022-2023. His research interests lie primarily in the area of ancient Greek religion and especially in the so-called cult epithets. He is particularly interested in the way a single deity could bear a multitude of epithets as well as in the transmission of epithets and corresponding cults throughout the Greek world. See Aggelos Mefsout’s bio.
Sophia Baltzoi
The Birth of Tragic Mask through Ritual Practices.
The proposed presentation will focus on the study of the ritual mask through bibliographic research and the examination of archaeological findings in combination with literary sources. More specifically, it will examine the places in which ritual masks have been found in the context of rituals and in honor of which gods, the common traits or non-common traits they carry, and whether they are connected to the tragic masks.
About Sophia
Sophia Baltzoi is Pre-doctoral Fellow in Hellenic Studies 2022-2023. Her research interests concern the various aspects of mask in antiquity, the ritual mask, the ritual background and practices, the revival of ancient drama, tragedy, chorus, dramaturgy, and theatrical practice as well as Performance Archaeology. See Sophia Baltzoi’’s bio.
Andreas Athanasakis
The Forma Mundi Problem and the Distance-period Relationship from Antiquity up to Early Modernity.
The presentation will focus on the platonic forma mundi problem and the first formulation of the distance-period relationship. It will highlight Plato’s influence over Capella’s adoption of a geoheliocentric system and how the Capellan system consistently implemented the distance-period relationship eleven centuries before Copernicus, who unraveled the actual structure of the cosmos fulfilling Plato’s dream.
About Andreas
Andreas Athanasakis is Pre-doctoral Fellow in Hellenic Studies 2022-2023. His research interests lie primarily in the Relationship of Archetypes, Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy in the Late Renaissance, focusing on the astronomical systems of Copernicus and Kepler. He investigates how one is philosophically legitimate to evaluate competing cosmological hypotheses which are empirically adequate. See Andreas Athanasakis’s bio.