Cities and Priests

Cult Personnel in Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands from the Hellenistic to the Imperial Period

Marietta Horster, Anja Klöckner, Marietta Horster, Anja Klöckner

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9783110318371
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110318487
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ancient History

Cultural records such as dedications, honorific statues and decrees are keys to understanding the manifold and diverse social roles and religious functions of priesthoods in the cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands from the classical period to late antiquity. These texts and images indicate how the priests and priestesses saw themselves and were viewed by others.
The approaches in this volume are historical, religious, and archaeological, and they elucidate the religious functions that the cult personnel fulfilled for the city, and the perception of priests and priestesses as citizens of the polis. The volume focuses on developments from the Hellenistic period into Imperial times. Subjects include: gendered priesthoods and family traditions, the topography of honorary statues and the presentation of funerary monuments, federal and civic priesthoods as well as priests of private cult-foundations, benefactions and social pressure, and the religious, social and political functions of priests and priestesses within cities.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Les prêtrises mixtes : genre, religion et société
• Priests and Funding of Public Buildings on Cos and Elsewhere
• Priestly Portion vs. Cult Fee – The Finances of Greek Sanctuaries
• Priests and Cult Personnel in Three Hellenistic Families
• Commemorating Pious Service: Images in Honour of Male and Female Priestly Officers in Asia Minor and the Eastern Aegean in Hellenistic and Roman Times
• The Profits of Self-Representation: Statues of Female Cult Personnel in the Late Classical and Hellenistic Periods
• Priene: Civic priests and Koinon-priesthoods in the Hellenistic Period
• Civic Producers at Stratonikeia. The Priesthoods of Hekate at Lagina and Zeus at Panamara
• Roles of Civic Priests in Hellenistic Cos
• Elite und Priestertümer im hellenistischen Kos
• Dienerinnen der Demeter? Zu einer Gruppe von Grabreliefs aus Smyrna
• Indices