Enchantment Technologies of Ancient Greek Religion

Tatiana Bur joins me in the Lesche to discuss her new book Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge University Press 2025). 

Ancient texts

• Homer, Iliad 18 (on Hephaestus and his self-moving tripods) 
• Many Athenian tragedies and comedies that made use of the μηχανή or κράδη (in comedy)
• Aristotle, Poetics (on the theatrical ‘crane’/μηχανή) 
• The Aristotelian/Peripatetic work Mechanical Questions (Μηχανικά)
• Philo of Byzantium, Μηχανική Σύνταξη 
• Works on mechanics by Hero of Alexandria 
• Polybios, History 12.13, on the mechanical snail in the procession at Athens 
• Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists 2.5, on Herodes Atticus’ mechanical Panathenaic ship
• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai 196a-203c, on the πομπή of Ptolemy Philadelphus

Modern bibliography

• Eric Csapo's work on ancient theater
• Alfred Gell’s work on art agency, particularly "technologies of enchantment"
• Susan Harvey, 2006. Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination. Berkeley, Ca. 
• Verity Platt, 2011. Facing the Gods: Epiphany in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature, and Religion. Cambridge.
• Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, 1997. Toward a History of Epistemic Things: Synthesizing Proteins in the Test Tube. Stanford, CA.

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Thanks for joining us in the Lesche!

Podcast art: Daniel Blanco
Theme music: "The Song of Seikilos," recomposed by Eftychia Christodoulou using Sibelius

This podcast is made possible with the generous support of Brown University’s Department of Classical Studies and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study.

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