AGALMA, XOANON, KOLOSSOS

This volume will address many questions linked to the contemporary debate on Greek and Roman polytheism through three sections: how did we begin to manufacture the gods and their images in the Greek and Roman world? How is the world of gods structured in Homer? The first part is dedicated to Greece: Homeric representation as a point of reference for later poets and artists. To help us understand the pantheon, D. Bouvier studies how a Greek god may portray and create images of other gods ; G. Lentini and E. Pellizer reflect on Daimones in order to analyse the consequences of other iconographies of Homeric origin. The second part concentrates on the Roman world through dialogue with the studies of M. Bettini. M. Perfigli raises many questions: How did the Romans welcome the Greek gods and what were the consequences? How did the Greeks within the Roman world welcome the Roman gods? What happened when the gods of the Romans borrowed the name, the epiclesis, the forms and rituals of the Greek gods? The third section of the book includes two contributions by E. Villari, one on Polytheism as a 'political' object and the other on representations of the gods, that return to the Greek world in order to track current theoretical problems with attention to their difference in the Roman world, thereby honing critical reflection.