Dr Milena Melfi: List of publications

This edited collection focuses on the archaeological material of this era and how it can elucidate the complex relationship between the various forces operating on, and changing the physical space of, sanctuaries.

This edited collection focuses on the archaeological material of this era and how it can elucidate the complex relationship between the various forces operating on, and changing the physical space of, sanctuaries.

© The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This study focuses on the evidence from a coin deposit (IGCH 353) found in the Asklepieion of Corinth in order to gain fresh information on the survival and renovation of the cult place in the early colonial years. The aim is to contribute to questions such as when and where did normal civic and religious life resume in Corinth after the destruction of the city in 146 B.C., and to what extent did Roman decisions and local attitudes influence traditional cult places in newly founded Roman colonies.

The collection has recently been re-displayed and integrated.

This paper attempts to investigate the existence of performative rituals - such as processions, songs, dances, dramatic enactments of divine myths and genealogies - in sanctuaries of Asklepios during the Roman Imperial period in Greece. Because of their long life and their well-documented ritual practice, the sanctuaries of Athens, Epidauros, and Messene have been selected as case studies. Archaeological, literary, and epigraphical sources are used to identify the nature of the ritual performed, and to assign to them a topographical space within the sacred precinct. The period under consideration mostly coincides with the reign of the Antonine emperors, when the relatively peaceful environment allowed for an artistic revival, and cultural phenomena such as the Second Sophistic promoted the reappropriation of ancient Greek tradition and a renewed continuity with it, despite the historical discontinuity. Wealthy patrons belonging to the educated elite and holding the highest offices within the imperial bureaucracy were often responsible for the refoundation of sacred buildings, and of long-forgotten religious festivals. In this context, the promotion of performative spaces and rituals in the sanctuaries of Asklepios is interpreted as a product of the cultural and social environment of the second and early third centuries in Greece.