The 'Seated Woman' of the Adorants Fresco from Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, Thera: Female Initiation or Non-Narrative Absorption?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216275%3A25210%2F24%3A39922500" target="_blank" >RIV/00216275:25210/24:39922500 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/catalog/book/1309/chapter/19822" target="_blank" >https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/catalog/book/1309/chapter/19822</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1309.c19822" target="_blank" >10.11588/propylaeum.1309.c19822</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The 'Seated Woman' of the Adorants Fresco from Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, Thera: Female Initiation or Non-Narrative Absorption?

Original language description

Beginning with Nanno Marinatos (1984) and Ellen Davis (1986), the Adorants Fresco from Xeste 3 at Akrotiri, Thera, has long been interpreted as a depiction of a female rite of passage, or as a representation of different age stages of girls and adolescent females participating in an initiation ritual (Rehak 2007; Günkel-Maschek 2014, 2021). My critical view is based on three arguments. First, the rite of passage, as well as initiation into a cult, is transformative and thus a narrative-analytical model, which does not formally correspond to the non-narrative representative devices used on the Adorants Fresco. Second, even though initiation into adulthood is often assumed to be culturally universal, it does not correspond to some thematic restrictions present in Minoan visual culture: the absence of representation of male-female pairs, of women taking care of children, or of marriage. Third, the often-cited ‘historical’ evidence for the existence of Cretan rites of passage as preserved by Ephorus, which influenced Pierre Vidal-Naquet’s model of the Athenian ephebe as a Black Hunter (1986), follows the specific cultural agenda of the milieu of the Athenian Academy, and Vidal-Naquet’s method of structuralist substitution does not allow for assuming the historical existence of all the particular components. Based on these arguments, we cannot exclude the historical existence of Minoan rites of passage, but we can challenge their depiction on the preserved visual material, including the Adorants Fresco. As an alternative, I propose to focus more closely on representative devices, especially the impression of the Seated Woman’s absorption, and the suggested simultaneity of temporal relationships in the fresco.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60304 - Religious studies

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Gesture, Stance, and Movement : Communicating Bodies in the Aegean Bronze Age : Acts of the International Conference at the University of Heidelberg, 11-13 November 2021

ISBN

978-3-96929-271-6

ISSN

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e-ISSN

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Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

119-127

Publisher name

Propylaeum

Place of publication

Heidelberg

Event location

Heidelberg

Event date

Nov 11, 2021

Type of event by nationality

WRD - Celosvětová akce

UT code for WoS article

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