Document Type
Article
Version
Postprint
Publication Title
American Journal of Philology
Volume
127
Publication Date
2006
Abstract
To explain Strepsiades' initiation in Aristophanes' Clouds, recent scholars have referred to a thronosis ritual at the Eleusinian mysteries to describe the process wherein the initiate sits on a stool with head covered. The term thronosis, however, properly belongs to Korybantic initiation ritual, not to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Not only are the terms employed to describe the rituals different, but the iconographic representations of the ritual and the mythic paradigms are different as well. The puriticatory silent sitting of the Eleusinian initiate should not be confused with the bewildering and terrifying treatment of the enthroned initiate in a Korybantic initiation.
Publisher's Statement
© 2006 by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Citation
Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III. "To Sit in Solemn Silence? Thronosis in Ritual, Myth, and Iconography." American Journal of Philology 127, no. 3 (2006): 347-366.
DOI
10.1353/ajp.2006.0037