Wednesday, October 21, 2015

 

Rite of Passage

François Lissarrague, "The Athenian Image of the Foreigner," tr. Antonia Nevill, in Thomas Harrison, ed., Greeks and Barbarians (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 101-124 (at 116):
To become a citizen means assuming all the panoply, as is confirmed by the Cretan rite of passage from the statues of ephebe to adulthood: the young man simultaneously received 'military equipment, an ox, a goblet',51 the sign of his status as a full warrior, participant in sacrifices and the symposium.

51 Strabo, 10.4.21.
For statues read status. Here is the passage from Strabo (= Ephorus, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 70 F 149; tr. Horace Leonard Jones):
The boy is released after receiving as presents a military habit, an ox, and a drinking‑cup (these are the gifts required by law).

ἀφίεται δ᾿ ὁ παῖς, δῶρα λαβὼν στολὴν πολεμικὴν καὶ βοῦν καὶ ποτήριον (ταῦτα μὲν τὰ κατὰ τὸν νόμον δῶρα).

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