Charting the ROles of crowns in Ancient Greece

forthcoming

CoROnA (Charting the ROles of crowns in Ancient Greece) conducts a comprehensive study of ancient Greek crowns (stephanoi) from the 8th to the 1st century BCE, chiefly in Athens. By integrating thorough philological, epigraphical, and visual analyses of both textual and material evidence with contemporary theoretical frameworks such as New Materialism and New Institutionalism, CoROnA offers the first methodologically informed exploration of crowns as a pervasive symbol in Greek society, providing new insights into the diverse uses of crowns in both ‘Soft Institutions’—e.g., religious practices, symposia, and athletic competitions—and ‘Hard Institutions,’ i.e., honorific crowns. The project’s objectives are threefold: i) to map the uses of crowns by compiling a database of literary and epigraphical references, as well as a dossier of notable artefacts and images on vases/sculptures, and to record their specific functions and contexts; ii) to analyse the intersections between Soft- and Hard-Institutional uses, particularly how crowns used in Soft Institutions influenced their use as public honours, serving as tokens of the reciprocal relationship between the individual and the community; iii) to address the inherently intersectional meanings of crowns in Classical Greece, as these served to symbolise not only the civic worth of male citizens (an honour conferred not only for specific and outstanding political and financial benefactions but also to reward magistrates for undertaking their ordinary duties, e.g., as councillors) but also the worth of women and enslaved persons. Through this analysis, CoROnA reconsiders the crown’s role in expressing Greek honour and ethos, offering new perspectives on the connections between honour and democratic ideology. It also vindicates crowns as intersectional symbols capable of transcending traditional social and gender hierarchies, thus challenging prevailing hierarchical assumptions about ancient Greek institutions and society.