“Take, Skamandros, My Virginity”: Ideas Of Water In Connection With Rites Of Passage In Greece, Modern And Ancient

Håland, Evy Johanne

doi:10.1163/ej.9789004173576.i-538.20

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…24 Skamandros, giver of life and ceremonial purifier of virgin women, personified the river once known as the Scamander in modern-day Turkey. 25 Mother of the world's chief rivers and goddess of freshwater was the titaness Tethys; her consort and brother was Oceanus, personification of the great encircling waters of the known world. To engage with these local deities was to establish a personal and communal civic and spiritual relationship with the body of water that sustained society and gave it life.…”

Section: Divine Agency and The Water Of Antiquitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management

Morgan¹,

Smith²

2013

Radical History Review

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It has become a truism to observe that the world faces a "water crisis." 1 Since the early 1990s, scientists and commentators have studied and debated the myriad socioeconomic, geopolitical, and ecological problems that have contributed to, and will result from, our state of "peak water." Already in some parts of the world, water consumption exceeds the amount of water that is naturally replenished each year. 2 According to the 2009 edition of The World's Water, nearly two out of three people in the world could be living under conditions of water stress in the year 2025. 3 This frightening situation, which has resulted from the (mis)management of the world's waterways, looks set to worsen over the decades ahead as climate change and other pressures take their toll. Governments, activists, and scholars have produced many potential solutions to the world's water crisis. Activist Maude Barlow in her important book The Blue Covenant argues for a global covenant on water that is centered on the premise of the inalienable human right to clean water. Under this covenant, people and their governments would protect and conserve the world's water supplies, ensure water for those in both the global North and the global South, and seek the peaceful resolution of disputes regarding water between states. 4 Scientists Meena Palaniappan and Peter H. Gleick advocate a "soft path for water," which combines water resource management with an emphasis on efficiency, productivity, equity, and community participation. 5 Others, meanwhile, have advised governments to leave the problem

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Section: Divine Agency and The Water Of Antiquitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management

Morgan¹,

Smith²

2013

Radical History Review

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Regional Ways of Seeing: A Big-Data Approach for Measuring Ancient Visualscapes

Susmann

2020

Adv. archaeol. pract.

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Archaeologists have long acknowledged the significance of mountains in siting Greek cult. Mountains were where the gods preferred to make contact and there people constructed sanctuaries to inspire intervention. Greece is a land full of mountains, but we lack insight on the ancient Greeks’ view—what visible and topographic characteristics made particular mountains ideal places for worship over others, and whether worshiper preferences ever changed. This article describes a data collection and analysis methodology for landscapes where visualscape was a significant factor in situating culturally significant activities. Using a big-data approach, four geospatial analyses are applied to every cultic place in the Peloponnesian regions of the Argolid and Messenia, spanning 2800–146 BC. The fully described methodology combines a number of experiences—looking out, looking toward, and climbing up—and measures how these change through time. The result is an active historic model of Greek religious landscape, describing how individuals moved, saw, and integrated the built and natural world in different ways. Applied elsewhere, and even on nonreligious locales, this is a replicable mode for treating the natural landscape as an artifact of human decision: as a space impacting the siting of meaningful locales through history.

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Offerings, Ritual, and Water: The Case of the Sacred Spring at Corinth

Kopestonsky¹

2019

Ancient Waterlands

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Corinth, a polis known for being “well-watered” in antiquity according to Simonides, encompasses several springs associated with ritual activity from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods. While the Peirene Fountain may be the most well-known fountain, the Sacred Spring is the most significant example of a water-related cult site in Corinth. Located in the Upper Lechaion Road valley, the Sacred Spring began as a natural source, which was improved from the 8th century BCE, its area developing into a sanctuary that likely continued in use until 146 BCE. Its position in the heart of the polis suggests that it may have had an important civic as well as religious role. The small finds, which include articulated female figurines, standing and seated female figurines, loomweights, jewelry, animal figurines, and a few bronze arrowheads, have not been systematically studied until now. This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the small finds, especially the terracotta figurines, in order to establish dedicatory tendencies and possible rites. When compared to similar assemblages and water-related cult sites, objects from the area of the Sacred Spring indicate that the source sanctuary was especially important to women and may suggest that transitional rituals, possibly female maturation rites, were conducted there.

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“Take, Skamandros, My Virginity”: Ideas Of Water In Connection With Rites Of Passage In Greece, Modern And Ancient

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management

Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management

Regional Ways of Seeing: A Big-Data Approach for Measuring Ancient Visualscapes

Offerings, Ritual, and Water: The Case of the Sacred Spring at Corinth

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