The Religious Life of Things
2013 Meeting of the Midwest Consortium on Ancient Religions
Friday, November 1
1:45 Welcome: Celia Schultz, Dept. of Classical Studies,
University of Michigan
2:00 Session I: Animate Things
Divine Automata and Religious Robots, Clara Bosak-Schroeder, Dept. of Classical Studies, University of Michigan
Prostitution and Pilgrimage in Aristophanes' Peace, Donald Sells, Dept. of Classical Studies, University of Michigan
Idols, not Rabbis: Irreligious Objects and Religious Subjects, Rachel Neis, Dept. of History and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan
4:30 Keynote Address
From Thing to Sacred Object: The Proprioceptive Experience of Religion in Greek Antiquity, Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Dept. of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
Saturday, November 2
9:30 Session II: Little Things
Objects of Private Devotion in Roman and Late Antique Greece: Statuettes of Asklepios from the Athenian Agora, Brian Martens, Dept. of English, Creighton University
Take It (Home?) With You: the Religious Life of Mid-Republican Pocula Wares, Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Department of Classics, Stanford University
Miniature Statues as Amulets, Chris Faraone, Dept. of Classics, University of Chicago
12:45 Session III: Kinds of Things
The Furniture of the Gods, Hank Blume, Dept. of Classics, Ohio State
University
The Religious Life of Roman Plunder, Isabel Köster, Dept. of Classics,
Washington and Lee University
Gold Has Many Uses: Further on Gold Tablets, Fritz Graf, Dept. of Classics, Ohio State University
3:15 Session IV: Symbolic Things
Omen and Anti-Omen: The Role of the Scarlet Wool in the Scapegoat Ritual of the Day of Atonement, Mira Balberg, Dept. of Religious Studies, Northwestern University
Pambo's Basket: Ascetic Gift Exchange in the Lausiac History, Beth Platte, Dept. of Classics, Kalamazoo College
4:45 Concluding Remarks: Ian Moyer, Dept. of History, University of
Michigan
