PORTRAIT of a PRIESTESS by Joan Breton Connelly
Connelly, Joan Breton. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007.
"Priestesses serving the cult were forbidden to wear fancy dress, anything of the color purple, gold ornaments, or face powder . . . Sanctuary laws thus served to level distinctions among worshippers and to promote an atmosphere of communality in which devotion to the deity came first" (90).
"White has long been associated with a state of purity and was the required color for priestly dress at many sanctuaries. It was worn by all incubants and visitors at healing sanctuaries of Asklepios, such as at Pergamon. Indeed, Asklepios was understood to be a divinity who himself always dressed in white. On Delos, those who entered the sanctuary of Zeus Kynthios and Athena Kynthia were required to be 'pure of hand and soul' and to dress in white garments. All persons entering an unnamed sanctuary at Priene were required to wear white. The priest of Athena Nike on Kos was required to wear white at all times. . . . " (90-91).
"An inscribed epitaph informs us that Chairestrate was the priestess of the 'Mother of All Things," a goddess who worship included the beating of drums" (94).
Greek female names: Charite, Chrysina (134, 135).
"Let us turn now to the public crowning, or stephanosis, which from the late fifth century was among the highest honors a city could bestow upon an individual. That this honor was extended to priestesses underscores the high regard in which they, and their service, were held . . . The highest honor of all was that of the gold crown . . . The practice of priestly stephanosis continued well into the Roman Imperial period. A woman named Aba from Histria, in the province of Moesia, was awarded a crown by her city in the second century A.D. She held the priesthood of the Mother of the Gods, among other priesthoods, and was praised for assuming not only liturgies traditionally performed by women, but also those that belonged to men. Aba was granted the extraordinary honor of having her coronation proclaimed at all local festivals" (204-205).
"Priestesses serving the cult were forbidden to wear fancy dress, anything of the color purple, gold ornaments, or face powder . . . Sanctuary laws thus served to level distinctions among worshippers and to promote an atmosphere of communality in which devotion to the deity came first" (90).
"White has long been associated with a state of purity and was the required color for priestly dress at many sanctuaries. It was worn by all incubants and visitors at healing sanctuaries of Asklepios, such as at Pergamon. Indeed, Asklepios was understood to be a divinity who himself always dressed in white. On Delos, those who entered the sanctuary of Zeus Kynthios and Athena Kynthia were required to be 'pure of hand and soul' and to dress in white garments. All persons entering an unnamed sanctuary at Priene were required to wear white. The priest of Athena Nike on Kos was required to wear white at all times. . . . " (90-91).
"An inscribed epitaph informs us that Chairestrate was the priestess of the 'Mother of All Things," a goddess who worship included the beating of drums" (94).
Greek female names: Charite, Chrysina (134, 135).
"Let us turn now to the public crowning, or stephanosis, which from the late fifth century was among the highest honors a city could bestow upon an individual. That this honor was extended to priestesses underscores the high regard in which they, and their service, were held . . . The highest honor of all was that of the gold crown . . . The practice of priestly stephanosis continued well into the Roman Imperial period. A woman named Aba from Histria, in the province of Moesia, was awarded a crown by her city in the second century A.D. She held the priesthood of the Mother of the Gods, among other priesthoods, and was praised for assuming not only liturgies traditionally performed by women, but also those that belonged to men. Aba was granted the extraordinary honor of having her coronation proclaimed at all local festivals" (204-205).
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