The galleries of the Onassis Cultural Center have been transformed into evocations of ancient Greek sanctuaries, each filled with artistic masterpieces assembled from international collections, for the exhibition “Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens.” Currently on view through May 9, the exhibition brings together 155 rare and extraordinary archaeological objects in order to reexamine preconceptions about the exclusion of women from public life in ancient Athens.
The story told by these objects, and experienced in the galleries, presents a more nuanced picture than is often seen, showing how women’s participation in cults and festivals contributed not only to personal fulfillment in classical Greece, but also to civic identity.
Among the treasures brought to New York for the exhibition are marble statues of the goddesses Artemis and Athena (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); a white-ground vase with an image of Artemis by the Pan Painter (State Hermitage Museum, Petersburg); a red-figure vase with an image of Iphigenia, the legendary heroine worshiped as a cult figure and seen as a model for priestesses (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara).
Also, a vase showing the Trojan priestess Theano, another model for priestesses, receiving the Greek warriors who had come to recover Helen from Troy (Vatican Museums); and a limestone grave marker (conserved with support from the Onassis Foundation) carved with the image of a young woman in bridal costume, holding a votive offering (State Museums of Berlin).
Interspersed with these and other exquisite artworks are archaeological objects that document the religious practices of classical Athens and tell the complex story of women’s roles in that society.
“Worshiping Women” tells this story in three main chapters. Goddesses and Heroines introduces the principal female deities of Athens and Attica, in whose cults and festivals women were most actively engaged: Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite and Demeter and her daughter Persephone. This first section also investigates the role of heroines, a special group of women believed to have lived in the distant past, who like Iphigenia became important figures of cult worship after their deaths.
The second chapter, Women and Ritual, explores the practice of ritual acts such as dances, libations, sacrifices, processions and festivals in which women were active in classical antiquity. Here the critical role of the priestess comes to light, specifically in her function as key-bearer for the temples of the gods.
In the final chapter, Women and the Cycle of Life, the exhibition explores how religious rituals defined moments of transition. Because the most important transition in a girl’s life was understood to be marriage, the wedding took on great significance, with its rituals depicted on a variety of vases associated with nuptial rites and wedding banquets. Death was another occasion on which Athenian women took on major responsibilities, such as preparing the deceased for burial and tending the graves of family members.
The Onassis Cultural Center is in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue, entrances on 51st and 52nd Streets. For information, 212-486-4448 or www.onassisusa.org .
