Der Lehrstuhl für Religionswissenschaft des Hellenismus,

das Seminar für Klassische Philologie,

das Institut für Klassische Archäologie

und das Studium generale laden zu folgendem Gastvortrag ein:

Dr. Aphrodite Avagianou, Mag. Litt. (Athen)

Hermes Chthonios in Thessaly

(Vortrag mit Lichtbildern)

Mittwoch, 28. April 2004, 19.15 Uhr,

Hörsaal P 3 (Philosophicum)

Hermes Chthonios is epigraphically attested in Thessaly by many tomb stelae dated to the Hellenistic time, mostly to the Roman period. The particularity of these stelae lies in the fact that their funerary elements (name and patronymic of the dead) are mingled with the dedication in honour to Hermes Chthonios. In this lecture the architectural and epigraphic elements of the stelae are analysed. They have a special meaning, like the herm, the naiskos-shape of the hermaic stelae and the expression-formula HRWS CRHSTE CAIRE written on the stele. Also, the meaning of Hermes Chthonios in the Greek Religion, his role as Hermes Psychopompos-Psychagogos, his relationship with magic and mysteries, is reviewed, in order to shed light on the dedicatory inscription ERMHI CQONIWI of the funerary stele. This study comes to the conclusion that this unique phenomenon establishes a turning point in Thessalian religiousness and marks the passage from a "superior" to a more "heroic-everyday" style of worship.

Dr. Aphrodite Avagianou graduated from Athens University in Classics, History, Archaeology and Theology. Master's degree (M.Litt.) from the Univ. of Bristol, England (Classics). Doctor's degree (Ph.D.) from the Univ. of Zurich, Switzerland, in 1990 (Classics and Philology) with the dissertation "Sacred Marriage in the Rituals of Greek Religion", published 1991. In autumn 2002 she was awarded a post-doctoral Fellowship from Ohio State University, Dep. of Greek and Latin, Epigraphy Center, in order to support her project on the Thessalian Cultic Inscriptions. She is also the editor of the book "Cults in the 'Periphery' of the Ancient Greek World", published by the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens 2002. Actually, she is collaborator Researcher in the Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity of the National Hellenic Research Foundation. The major project undertaken by her is that concerning "The Thessalian Cults on the basis of the Epigraphic Evidence (including a Corpus of the cultic inscriptions of Thessaly)" and a monograph is forthcoming.