Marios Kamenou

The Appropriation of Meter in Western Asia Minor during the Hellenistic Period: The Agency of Relations in Religious Transformations

This dissertation studies the phenomenon of religious appropriation by investigating the spread of the goddess Meter, or Mother of the Gods, in the Greek world after the conquests of Alexander. Known from the Archaic age, in the Hellenistic period the goddess enjoyed an unprecedented diffusion in the Greek world and was embedded in different local and regional contexts, in particular in Asia Minor. This process personifies some of the main religious trends of this dynamic age of connectivity and cultural interaction, in which the socio-political conditions favored innovation and experimentation - the reconceptualization of religious actors and embedment of old and new deities in a wide network of relationships. The present research approaches the topic by focusing on the question of how Meter was appropriated in the local pantheons, and applying novel theories and methodologies to the study of ancient religion and society. Five case studies are examined (Ephesus and Dionysopolis, Pergamon, Pessinus and Rome, Cyzicus, and the spatial network of the Ionian cities) in order to highlight common practices in the process of appropriation and trace individualizations in addressing specific Meters. Both the strategies and the agents of appropriation are examined in each case, by addressing the questions of how and why the appropriation took place, what practices were ascribed to the cults, and how the relations between individuals, cities, and empires enhanced and channeled the appropriation of the goddess. The study incorporates the available literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources, with specific priority given to the literary and epigraphic information because of their potential to reveal eloquently the relationship between human and divine actors.

 

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