Dr Sofia Kravaritou: List of publications

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From Alkestis to Archidike: Thessalian Attitudes to Death and the Afterlife

August 2018
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Chapter
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Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition. Visits to the Underworld from Antiquity to Byzantium
The aim of the chapter is to offer a regional perspective on the issue of Underworld journeys in Antiquity by tracing Thessalian attitudes to Hades from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. What do we know of the beliefs regarding the Underworld in Thessaly, a land where one of the most famous and successful katabaseis occurred? Our starting point will be the most famous Thessalian ‘round trip’ to Hades, that of Alkestis, portrayed through Athenian eyes in Euripides’ tragedy and Plato. This will allow us to discuss eschatological beliefs reflected in fifth-century bce Athenian literary works and address some of the stereotypes about Thessaly, as both are linked to the questions under discussion. We will then turn to Thessaly itself and exam- ine a variety of relevant evidence pertaining to cults of deities linked with passages and human destiny, the gold lamellae from Pherai and Pharsalos, funerary epigrams from the region echoing themes attested in the lamellae or revealing a concern with or a belief in the possibility of a blessed afterlife or for a ‘round trip to the Underworld’ and last but not least, the evidence from contemporary Thessalian necropoleis. As will be seen, the Thessalian evidence, although of a complex and often disparate nature, is suggestive of a heightened interest in the safe journey to the Underworld or a blessed afterlife.
Thessaly, Greek Religion, funerary customs

Cults and rites of passage in Ancient Thessaly

July 2018
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Conference paper
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Proceedings of the international conference Βορειοελλαδικά held in International conference in honour of Miltiades B. Hatzopoulos
The aim of the paper is to reanimate the discussion on Thessalian rites of passage, in the light of supplementary epigraphic evidence, directly or indirectly related to local age-classes and pertinent ritualized attitudes. Focusing on age-classes is conditioned by the fact that their existence in a given society is a prerequisite for the performance of age-changing rites of passage. Archaeological evidence will be taken into consideration as well, in particular groups of votives from Thessalian sanctuaries dedicated to kourotrophic deities, who presided over the passage between the various stages of the human biological and social life. Lastly, attention will be paid to legendary narrations, which recount attitudes as well as feats of young Thessalian heroic figures.

Ενεπίγραφες επιτύμβιες στήλες από το Κάστρο – Παλαιά του Βόλου

March 2018
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Journal article
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Tekmēria
Four new inscribed funerary stelai of the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods are published in this article, found re-employed in the forti cation walls of the site ‘Kastro – Palaia’ in Volos. Two of them preserve relief scenes and one of them would have originally carried painted decoration, which is no longer visible to the naked eye. The inscriptions are of simple formulas and the relief scenes present no grand artistic merits, nonetheless, the mon- uments have been accorded detailed discussion, as they bear upon a number of questions, which have either not yet been discussed in a systematic way or call for further investigation: the question of the original provenance of the tombstones in connection with the question of the identi cation of the set- tlement at ‘Kastro – Palaia’ and its relations to the neighbouring Macedonian royal foundation of Demetrias and its prosopography; the Attic and atticizing tradition and trend of the funerary monuments of the area; the relief scenes of the reclining banqueters, their character and relation to the painted scenes with the same subject from Demetrias; the question of the heroization of the ‘common dead’; and, last, the re-appropriation of the theme in the Roman Im- perial period.