A ritualised rethinking of what it meant to be “European” post-heroic age for ancient Greeks of the post-heroic age

Abstract

In this essay, I will highlight a ritual as described in the Heroikos of Philostratus, 52.3–54.1. Dating from the early third century CE and composed in the context of an intellectual movement commonly known as the Second Sophistic, the Heroikos is an antiquarian compendium of rituals and myths originating from the region of ancient Troy. Viewing myth as a component of ritual, I will use the term ritual-myth complex in referring to examples of connectivity between myths and rituals, including the example that I will be highlighting.