Nel nome di Apollo e di Artemide. Sangue, miasma, e trasmissione del sapere rituale nella Grecia antica

Abstract

This paper explores notions of impurity around human blood in ancient Greek world, with the intent to show how the knowledge and praxis concerning its miasma were transmitted. It will focus on the pollution and purification around blood shed in homicide as well as women‟s blood discharge. The polluting power of blood and the necessity to undertake purifications emerges in connection with death and birth. It is argued that given the exact knowledge and accurate ritual procedure needed in case of pollution, it was crucial to transmit to the members of the civic community this religious expertise and ritual knowledge, using a variety of pedagogical tools and learning strategies. The divinities of Apollo and Artemis as healers and purifiers offer the mythological background that harmonises the selection of literary and epigraphical sources here discussed.