Looking for convergence, not for divergence Olympia Panagiotidou To write about the ways in which... more Looking for convergence, not for divergence Olympia Panagiotidou To write about the ways in which neurocognitive research and the philosophical school of Ludwig Wittgenstein can find a common ground for collaboration was a challenge for me, given the fact that philosophical theories often support neurocognitive research findings, while modern cognitive theories sometimes update philosophical views and perspectives. Although my special area of research is history and particularly the history of the ancient Greek and Graeco-Roman cults, I have a special interest in neurocognitive approaches to religion, and to past religions in particular, and I have extensively combined neurocognitive research findings with philosophical theories in my research. Therefore, I suggest that the examination of whether the philosophical work of one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century can complement and enhance neurocognitive research may have mutual benefits for both fields. Writing this chapter, my intention is to highlight points...
Journal of Cognitive Historiography Vol. 6 No. 1-2: (2020–2021), 2021
Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales, composed in the 2nd century CE, is considered a unique literary w... more Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales, composed in the 2nd century CE, is considered a unique literary work, in which the author claimed to have recorded the dreams he had received from Asclepius over a long period of time. Modern historians explore the value of the Sacred Tales both as a literary work and as a personal oneiric record of actual dreaming experiences. In this article, I take into account the modern insights offered by the embodied human cognition paradigm in order explore the possible long-term influence and repercussions of the Sacred Tales on the readers’ imagination and dreaming experiences. In particular, I suggest that Aristides’ oneiric descriptions would have been meta-represented in the readers’ minds upon reading the text, priming specific images, representations, mental, and emotional states as well as expectations about potential divine revelations during the ritual of incubation. Later, those readers who would find themselves in similar bodily, mental, and emotional conditions like the ones experienced and described by Aristides, could have implicitly used the primed representations for meta-representing a personal epiphany of Asclepius. Thereby, the Sacred Tales would have provided the raw material to feed the readers’ imaginative simulations and to elicit a personally meaningful divine revelation.
The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World Edited ByDiana L. Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello, Karen Polinger Foster, 2021
The Asclepius cult was popular for the ritual of incubation, during which the divine physician wa... more The Asclepius cult was popular for the ritual of incubation, during which the divine physician was supposed to perform therapeutic treatments in his supplicants’ sleep. Incubation took place at the abaton, an isolated place within the asclepieia where the patients/incubants entered expecting to receive a divine revelation. Literary and epigraphic evidence reports many cases of supplicants who received a dream or vision of Asclepius during incubation. Although these experiences were not ecstatic in the strict sense of the word, they were extra-ordinary and imply an alteration of consciousness within the abaton. In this paper, I explore the impacts of the wider perceptions within the asclepieia on the emotional and mental states of the patients before they entered the abaton. Then I take into account neurocognitive theories to suggest the possible cognitive processes which would have mediated the alteration of consciousness in the sensory-deprived environment of the abaton and would have shaped the extra-ordinary experiences reported by supplicants. In particular, I suggest that emotional arousal before the incubation and sensory and perceptual deprivation within the abaton would have induced perceptual anomalies and perhaps hallucinations as the supplicants shifted from wakefulness to sleep. These abnormal perceptions would have been interpreted as experiences of the divine in the wider context of the Asclepius cult.
Abstract
Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patient... more Abstract Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patients suffering from various diseases resorted to his sanctuaries, the so-called asclepieia, looking for cure. Many inscriptions preserve stories of supplicants who slept in the abaton of the temples and claimed that they had been healed or received remedies from the god. The historical study may take into consideration modern (neuro)cognitive research on the placebo effects in order to examine the possibilities of actual healing experiences at the asclepeiea. In this paper, I take into account the theoretical premises of the placebo drama theory suggested by Ted Kaptchuk in order to explore the specific factors, including the personality of Asclepius, his patients’ mindsets, the relationship between them, the nature of the supplicants’ impairments, the employed or prescribed treatments and the ritual settings of the cult, which could have mediated health recovery, and contributed to the phenomenal success of the Asclepian therapies via the activation of patients’ placebo responses.
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Volume 58, Issue 1-4, 2018
Further, the cognitive processes that mediate the attractiveness of secret communities and forge ... more Further, the cognitive processes that mediate the attractiveness of secret communities and forge social cohesion among members of secret groups are explored. It is argued that secrecy was a crucial aspect which would have promoted the formation of close exclusive communities of Mithraists and the development of social cohesion between the cult members.
In this paper I apply the biocultural theory of religion suggested by Armin W. Geertz (2010) to A... more In this paper I apply the biocultural theory of religion suggested by Armin W. Geertz (2010) to Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales written in the second century AD. Geertz’s theory provide crucial insights into the inextricable connection between human cognition and culture, throwing light into the influences of specific cultural settings on individuals’ mental processes, subjective experiences (e.g. dreaming) and multiple cultural manifestations. By employing Geertz’s theoretical premises, I intend to show how the wider cultural contexts of the Greco-Roman world, and of the Asclepius’ cult in particular, would have influenced Aristides’s cognitive processes and could have generated many of his dreams. In this framework, I take into consideration some of the findings of neurocognitive research on the dreaming brain in order to provide some insights into the universal cognitive mechanisms that could have mediated Aristides’ dreaming experiences, their anchoring on the wider cultural contexts of his life and their investment with personal and cultural meanings. My purpose is to provide an example of how cognitive theories may deepen our historical understanding of past people as well as of how historical studies may enrich the study of human cognition.
This article suggests a bio-cultural approach to the Asclepius cult in order to explore the attra... more This article suggests a bio-cultural approach to the Asclepius cult in order to explore the attractiveness and memorability of the religious ideas, myths, and narratives about the divine healer. The transformation of Asclepius from a mortal doctor to a divine physician is traced in mythical sagas developed in Greek antiquity. The interference of local religious, political and financial interests in the formation of myths are briefly presented. Then, the focus is shifted to the inner features that were embedded in the myths and attracted people’s attention. Following Guthrie’s theory (1992), it is suggested that the anthropomorphic perception of the ancient Greek gods was projected onto Asclepius. Boyer’s theory (1996, 2001) of counter-intuitive concepts of religious ideas is applied to the myths of Asclepius. It is suggested that his actions, rather than the portrayal of his figure and character, are what violated human-intuitive expectations about the world, grabbing the attention of supplicants and becoming conserved in memory. Further, the correlation of intuitive ontological expectations and mundane knowledge acquired through cultural conditioning is examined. The healing inscriptions from the asclepieia seem to support the findings of research conducted by Porubanova-Norquist and her colleagues (2013, 2014), according to which violations of cultural expectations have similar effects in attention and memory processes as the counter-intuitive concepts. It is further suggested that the activity of Asclepius violated cultural expectations shared by people of the ancient Greek world. This activity was particularly salient because it pertained to human experiences of illness and disease, and revealed Asclepius’ willingness to help the sick.
This paper suggests a cognitive approach to the Asclepius cult which may throw light on the suppl... more This paper suggests a cognitive approach to the Asclepius cult which may throw light on the supplicants' personal experiences of healing during the ritual of incubation. In particular, the possibility of healing at the Asclepius sanctuaries is presented as a potential result of the patients' placebo responses. The prerequisites of placebo effect as determined by Nicholas Humphrey are traced in the wider social and conceptual contexts of Greek antiquity and the specific religious context of the Asclepius cult. In this framework, it is argued that personal experiences of people, social information about the Asclepius' healing powers and the confirmation of this information by human doctors would have influenced how people " lived " an illness or a disease infliction, " appropriated " the religious beliefs in Asclepius, and experienced cures at the asclepieia. These cures could have derived from patients' self-healing mechanisms, but would have been perceived and conceptualized as " healing miracles " performed by the god. This preliminary study intends to show how cognitive approaches can enrich historical knowledge on the Asclepius cult and on supplicants' healing experiences, suggesting that such approaches may contribute to a better understanding of " lived religion " and of multiple religious experiences in various religious contexts.
This article is a preliminary attempt to investigate the way in which the initiates into the mith... more This article is a preliminary attempt to investigate the way in which the initiates into the mithraic mysteries experienced a transformation of their identities in the cultic context. This transformation expanded in the wider framework of their lives and determined new, different lines of ...
Looking for convergence, not for divergence Olympia Panagiotidou To write about the ways in which... more Looking for convergence, not for divergence Olympia Panagiotidou To write about the ways in which neurocognitive research and the philosophical school of Ludwig Wittgenstein can find a common ground for collaboration was a challenge for me, given the fact that philosophical theories often support neurocognitive research findings, while modern cognitive theories sometimes update philosophical views and perspectives. Although my special area of research is history and particularly the history of the ancient Greek and Graeco-Roman cults, I have a special interest in neurocognitive approaches to religion, and to past religions in particular, and I have extensively combined neurocognitive research findings with philosophical theories in my research. Therefore, I suggest that the examination of whether the philosophical work of one of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century can complement and enhance neurocognitive research may have mutual benefits for both fields. Writing this chapter, my intention is to highlight points...
Journal of Cognitive Historiography Vol. 6 No. 1-2: (2020–2021), 2021
Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales, composed in the 2nd century CE, is considered a unique literary w... more Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales, composed in the 2nd century CE, is considered a unique literary work, in which the author claimed to have recorded the dreams he had received from Asclepius over a long period of time. Modern historians explore the value of the Sacred Tales both as a literary work and as a personal oneiric record of actual dreaming experiences. In this article, I take into account the modern insights offered by the embodied human cognition paradigm in order explore the possible long-term influence and repercussions of the Sacred Tales on the readers’ imagination and dreaming experiences. In particular, I suggest that Aristides’ oneiric descriptions would have been meta-represented in the readers’ minds upon reading the text, priming specific images, representations, mental, and emotional states as well as expectations about potential divine revelations during the ritual of incubation. Later, those readers who would find themselves in similar bodily, mental, and emotional conditions like the ones experienced and described by Aristides, could have implicitly used the primed representations for meta-representing a personal epiphany of Asclepius. Thereby, the Sacred Tales would have provided the raw material to feed the readers’ imaginative simulations and to elicit a personally meaningful divine revelation.
The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World Edited ByDiana L. Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello, Karen Polinger Foster, 2021
The Asclepius cult was popular for the ritual of incubation, during which the divine physician wa... more The Asclepius cult was popular for the ritual of incubation, during which the divine physician was supposed to perform therapeutic treatments in his supplicants’ sleep. Incubation took place at the abaton, an isolated place within the asclepieia where the patients/incubants entered expecting to receive a divine revelation. Literary and epigraphic evidence reports many cases of supplicants who received a dream or vision of Asclepius during incubation. Although these experiences were not ecstatic in the strict sense of the word, they were extra-ordinary and imply an alteration of consciousness within the abaton. In this paper, I explore the impacts of the wider perceptions within the asclepieia on the emotional and mental states of the patients before they entered the abaton. Then I take into account neurocognitive theories to suggest the possible cognitive processes which would have mediated the alteration of consciousness in the sensory-deprived environment of the abaton and would have shaped the extra-ordinary experiences reported by supplicants. In particular, I suggest that emotional arousal before the incubation and sensory and perceptual deprivation within the abaton would have induced perceptual anomalies and perhaps hallucinations as the supplicants shifted from wakefulness to sleep. These abnormal perceptions would have been interpreted as experiences of the divine in the wider context of the Asclepius cult.
Abstract
Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patient... more Abstract Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patients suffering from various diseases resorted to his sanctuaries, the so-called asclepieia, looking for cure. Many inscriptions preserve stories of supplicants who slept in the abaton of the temples and claimed that they had been healed or received remedies from the god. The historical study may take into consideration modern (neuro)cognitive research on the placebo effects in order to examine the possibilities of actual healing experiences at the asclepeiea. In this paper, I take into account the theoretical premises of the placebo drama theory suggested by Ted Kaptchuk in order to explore the specific factors, including the personality of Asclepius, his patients’ mindsets, the relationship between them, the nature of the supplicants’ impairments, the employed or prescribed treatments and the ritual settings of the cult, which could have mediated health recovery, and contributed to the phenomenal success of the Asclepian therapies via the activation of patients’ placebo responses.
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Volume 58, Issue 1-4, 2018
Further, the cognitive processes that mediate the attractiveness of secret communities and forge ... more Further, the cognitive processes that mediate the attractiveness of secret communities and forge social cohesion among members of secret groups are explored. It is argued that secrecy was a crucial aspect which would have promoted the formation of close exclusive communities of Mithraists and the development of social cohesion between the cult members.
In this paper I apply the biocultural theory of religion suggested by Armin W. Geertz (2010) to A... more In this paper I apply the biocultural theory of religion suggested by Armin W. Geertz (2010) to Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales written in the second century AD. Geertz’s theory provide crucial insights into the inextricable connection between human cognition and culture, throwing light into the influences of specific cultural settings on individuals’ mental processes, subjective experiences (e.g. dreaming) and multiple cultural manifestations. By employing Geertz’s theoretical premises, I intend to show how the wider cultural contexts of the Greco-Roman world, and of the Asclepius’ cult in particular, would have influenced Aristides’s cognitive processes and could have generated many of his dreams. In this framework, I take into consideration some of the findings of neurocognitive research on the dreaming brain in order to provide some insights into the universal cognitive mechanisms that could have mediated Aristides’ dreaming experiences, their anchoring on the wider cultural contexts of his life and their investment with personal and cultural meanings. My purpose is to provide an example of how cognitive theories may deepen our historical understanding of past people as well as of how historical studies may enrich the study of human cognition.
This article suggests a bio-cultural approach to the Asclepius cult in order to explore the attra... more This article suggests a bio-cultural approach to the Asclepius cult in order to explore the attractiveness and memorability of the religious ideas, myths, and narratives about the divine healer. The transformation of Asclepius from a mortal doctor to a divine physician is traced in mythical sagas developed in Greek antiquity. The interference of local religious, political and financial interests in the formation of myths are briefly presented. Then, the focus is shifted to the inner features that were embedded in the myths and attracted people’s attention. Following Guthrie’s theory (1992), it is suggested that the anthropomorphic perception of the ancient Greek gods was projected onto Asclepius. Boyer’s theory (1996, 2001) of counter-intuitive concepts of religious ideas is applied to the myths of Asclepius. It is suggested that his actions, rather than the portrayal of his figure and character, are what violated human-intuitive expectations about the world, grabbing the attention of supplicants and becoming conserved in memory. Further, the correlation of intuitive ontological expectations and mundane knowledge acquired through cultural conditioning is examined. The healing inscriptions from the asclepieia seem to support the findings of research conducted by Porubanova-Norquist and her colleagues (2013, 2014), according to which violations of cultural expectations have similar effects in attention and memory processes as the counter-intuitive concepts. It is further suggested that the activity of Asclepius violated cultural expectations shared by people of the ancient Greek world. This activity was particularly salient because it pertained to human experiences of illness and disease, and revealed Asclepius’ willingness to help the sick.
This paper suggests a cognitive approach to the Asclepius cult which may throw light on the suppl... more This paper suggests a cognitive approach to the Asclepius cult which may throw light on the supplicants' personal experiences of healing during the ritual of incubation. In particular, the possibility of healing at the Asclepius sanctuaries is presented as a potential result of the patients' placebo responses. The prerequisites of placebo effect as determined by Nicholas Humphrey are traced in the wider social and conceptual contexts of Greek antiquity and the specific religious context of the Asclepius cult. In this framework, it is argued that personal experiences of people, social information about the Asclepius' healing powers and the confirmation of this information by human doctors would have influenced how people " lived " an illness or a disease infliction, " appropriated " the religious beliefs in Asclepius, and experienced cures at the asclepieia. These cures could have derived from patients' self-healing mechanisms, but would have been perceived and conceptualized as " healing miracles " performed by the god. This preliminary study intends to show how cognitive approaches can enrich historical knowledge on the Asclepius cult and on supplicants' healing experiences, suggesting that such approaches may contribute to a better understanding of " lived religion " and of multiple religious experiences in various religious contexts.
This article is a preliminary attempt to investigate the way in which the initiates into the mith... more This article is a preliminary attempt to investigate the way in which the initiates into the mithraic mysteries experienced a transformation of their identities in the cultic context. This transformation expanded in the wider framework of their lives and determined new, different lines of ...
Equinox (Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion), 2022
This book follows the evidence for Asclepius’ supplicants from the moment in which they realized ... more This book follows the evidence for Asclepius’ supplicants from the moment in which they realized that they were sick until the healing experiences, which they might have had at the asclepieia. From a historical perspective, the main features of the Asclepius cult, as they were shaped mainly in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, are examined. The cult is situated in the wider political, social, cultural, and intellectual contexts of the Graeco-Roman era, in which Asclepius’ reputation as a divine physician spread. Social interactions and multiple neurocognitive processes are examined, which would have influenced supplicants’ perceptions, choices, and reasoning about health and sickness, and attracted thousands of visitors to the Asclepius temples. The influence of the cult environment on the minds and bodies of supplicants is investigated in order to show how the cult context would have prepared supplicants for the incubation ritual. Modern theories on placebo effects are taken into consideration in order to investigate the possibility of healing at the asclepieia as a result of supplicants’ self-healing mechanisms. Finally, the ways in which supplicants might have interpreted their personal experiences during incubation are examined.
This book is the first full cognitive history of an ancient religious practice. In this ground-br... more This book is the first full cognitive history of an ancient religious practice. In this ground-breaking study on one of the most intriguing and mysterious cults, Olympia Panagiotidou, with contributions from Roger Beck, shows how cognitive historiography can supplement our historical knowledge and deepen our understanding of past cultural phenomena.
The cult of the sun god Mithras, which spread widely across the Graeco-Roman world at the same time as other 'mystery cults', offered its devotees certain images and assumptions about reality. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras and participation in the life of the cult significantly affected and transformed the ways in which the initiated perceived themselves, the world, and their position within it. The cult's major ideas were conveyed mainly through its symbolic complexes. The ancient written testimonies and other records are not adequate to establish a definitive reconstruction of Mithraic theologies and the meaning of its complex symbolic structures.
The Roman Mithras Cult identifies the cognitive and psychological processes which would have taken place in the minds and bodies of the Mithraists during their initiation and participation in the mysteries, enabling the perception, apprehension, and integration of the essential images and assumptions of the cult in its worldview system.
Materials designed to support the teaching of ancient Greek religion in schools (e.g., UK GCSE an... more Materials designed to support the teaching of ancient Greek religion in schools (e.g., UK GCSE and/or 'A' Level Classical Civilisation).
The materials comprise podcasts about a number of ancient Greek rituals, as well as a scheme of work for KS3. The materials have been tested by students and teachers at KS3 and above, and are now distributed via the website of the Historical Association (HA).
The podcasts were developed by Hugh Bowden (King’s College, London), Felix Budelmann (University of Oxford), Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol), Olympia Panagiotidou (University of Thessaloniki), Robert Parker (University of Oxford), and Yulia Ustinova (Ben Gurion University, Israel), all participants in the AHRC-funded research network ‘Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience’; they were narrated and produced by Simon Brown (HA).
The book The Impact of the Roman Empire on the Cult of Asclepius, written by Ghislaine van der Pl... more The book The Impact of the Roman Empire on the Cult of Asclepius, written by Ghislaine van der Ploeg and published by Brill, comprises a significant contribution to the study of the Asclepius cult, examining the spread and flourish of the cult in the Roman Empire, which has not been subject to extensive historical research. The author traces this gap in modern literature, which mainly examines the Asclepius cult in the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and provides a thorough study of the agents and ways of dissemination of the cult in Rome and the Roman provinces as well as the forms that the cult took in different regions through interaction between regional and global elements. The increased mobility as well as the connectivity between the capital city of Rome and the periphery of the Roman provinces, which facilitated the diffusion of the Asclepius cult throughout the Roman Empire, are recurrent themes in this study, which explores the impacts of the new sociopolitical conditions on both the global development of the cult and its local differentiations. PLOEG, GHISLAINE E. VAN DER (2018). The Impact of the Roman Empire on the Cult of Asclepius. Impact of Empire XXX. Leiden: Brill. 348 pp., 117,00 € [ISBN 978-9-0043-7252-8]. Recensiones Arys, 16, 2018 [545-549] issn 1575-166x
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Papers by Olympia Panagiotidou
Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patients suffering from various diseases resorted to his sanctuaries, the so-called asclepieia, looking for cure. Many inscriptions preserve stories of supplicants who slept in the abaton of the temples and claimed that they had been healed or received remedies from the god. The historical study may take into consideration modern (neuro)cognitive research on the placebo effects in order to examine the possibilities of actual healing experiences at the asclepeiea. In this paper, I take into account the theoretical premises of the placebo drama theory suggested by Ted Kaptchuk in order to explore the specific factors, including the personality of Asclepius, his patients’ mindsets, the relationship between them, the nature of the supplicants’ impairments, the employed or prescribed treatments and the ritual settings of the cult, which could have mediated health recovery, and contributed to the phenomenal success of the Asclepian therapies via the activation of patients’ placebo responses.
Asclepius was one of the most popular healing deities in Graeco-Roman antiquity. Patients suffering from various diseases resorted to his sanctuaries, the so-called asclepieia, looking for cure. Many inscriptions preserve stories of supplicants who slept in the abaton of the temples and claimed that they had been healed or received remedies from the god. The historical study may take into consideration modern (neuro)cognitive research on the placebo effects in order to examine the possibilities of actual healing experiences at the asclepeiea. In this paper, I take into account the theoretical premises of the placebo drama theory suggested by Ted Kaptchuk in order to explore the specific factors, including the personality of Asclepius, his patients’ mindsets, the relationship between them, the nature of the supplicants’ impairments, the employed or prescribed treatments and the ritual settings of the cult, which could have mediated health recovery, and contributed to the phenomenal success of the Asclepian therapies via the activation of patients’ placebo responses.
Alexandria-Messene: Economic, Cultic and Artistic Relations 1
Petros Themelis
The Egyptian Sanctuary at Marathon
Ifigeneia Dekoulakou
India and the Hellenistic World
Udai Prakash Arora
The Ivory Plaques of Eleutherna and Their Workshop
Magda Vasiliadou
Recycling the Past in Graeco-Roman Alexandria:
The Case of Pharaonica Reconsidered
Kyriakos Savvopoulos
Roman Ostia: A Scaled Space Syntax Approach to Past Built and
Non-Built Environments
Hanna Stöger
Social Identity and Status in the Classical and Hellenistic
Northern Peloponnese: The Evidence from Burials-An Overview
Nikolaos Dimakis
Divine Healings in the Temples of Asklepios as ‘Turning Points’
in the Life Narratives of Supplicants
Olympia Panagiotidou
The Archaeological Society of Alexandria: Past, Present and Future
Mona Haggag
Synagoge and Proseuche: The Jewish Institution in Hellenistic Egypt
Rana El Zalabany
The cult of the sun god Mithras, which spread widely across the Graeco-Roman world at the same time as other 'mystery cults', offered its devotees certain images and assumptions about reality. Initiation into the mysteries of Mithras and participation in the life of the cult significantly affected and transformed the ways in which the initiated perceived themselves, the world, and their position within it. The cult's major ideas were conveyed mainly through its symbolic complexes. The ancient written testimonies and other records are not adequate to establish a definitive reconstruction of Mithraic theologies and the meaning of its complex symbolic structures.
The Roman Mithras Cult identifies the cognitive and psychological processes which would have taken place in the minds and bodies of the Mithraists during their initiation and participation in the mysteries, enabling the perception, apprehension, and integration of the essential images and assumptions of the cult in its worldview system.
https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/module/8658/podcast-series-associated-scheme-of-work-an-int
The materials comprise podcasts about a number of ancient Greek rituals, as well as a scheme of work for KS3. The materials have been tested by students and teachers at KS3 and above, and are now distributed via the website of the Historical Association (HA).
The podcasts were developed by Hugh Bowden (King’s College, London), Felix Budelmann (University of Oxford), Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol), Olympia Panagiotidou (University of Thessaloniki), Robert Parker (University of Oxford), and Yulia Ustinova (Ben Gurion University, Israel), all participants in the AHRC-funded research network ‘Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience’; they were narrated and produced by Simon Brown (HA).