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04/13 Jeremy McInerney (Penn): “The Arta Polyandrion: Recreating Memory in the Landscape”

Colloquium, Department of Classical Studies
 
Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 4:45pm to 6:15pm

402 Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th St.

*4:15-4:45 pm: Coffee and cookies in Cohen Hall 2nd Floor Lounge. All are welcome. 

Since its first publication in 1992, the epigram inscribed on a monumental polyandrion in Arta has been studied in detail. The most recent work, Estrin 2020, has properly emphasized the monumentality of the structure as a component of how the funerary epigram was experienced. In this paper I develop the idea of experiencing the elegy further, to suggest that every time we encounter the inscription we do not just read it; we reperform the original commemorative act. Furthermore, while the inscription draws on aristocratic conventions of asserting worth and claiming recognition, it also illustrates the dawning of a communal practice in which service to the state, the patris, on behalf of the citizens, the politai, begins to appropriate aristocratic conventions. Accordingly, the three lines and ten verses of the funerary inscription perfectly encapsulate the Archaic period.