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7 - Local Variation in the Thesmophoria Festival: A Case Study of the Attic and Sicilian Thesmophoria Festivals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

By
Katherine R. L. McLardy
Edited by
Hans Beck  and
Julia Kindt
Hans Beck
Affiliation:
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
Julia Kindt
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Summary

This chapter explores the Thesmophoria as a festival that was celebrated in multiple places in the ancient Greek world. McLardy approaches this festival from a comparative perspective, investigating its manifestations at Attica and on Sicily. Through an analysis of similarities and differences in the celebrations at these two locations, she shows how the festival drew on local landscapes, myths, and histories. In highlighting the local horizon, McLardy takes issue with an approach that has focused on describing the general elements of the festival (at the price of everything else) and that has pieced them together in a composite account. In her contribution, local elements are more than mere deviations from a universal template. Rather, such local dimensions of the Thesmophoria illustrate how Greek religion remained deeply embedded in the way people lived.

Keywords

ThesmophoriaAtticaSicily
Type
Chapter
Information
The Local Horizon of Ancient Greek Religion , pp. 205 - 231
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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