Noel Robertson

Department of Classics

Professor Emeritus, Greek History, Greek Religion
BA (Toronto), MA, PhD (Cornell)

Mailing Address:
1101-139 Clarence St
Victoria, BC V8V 2J1 CANADA

Phone: 250-995-0451
Email: noelrobertson@shaw.ca

Research:
Noel Robertson taught Classics at Brock from 1970 to 2002 and twice served as department Chair, at the beginning and the end of this time. His special interests are the social history of the Greek city state and, as the most important element, its religion. Greek religion is a nature religion like others of the ancient world, but uniquely adapted to the city state; it supplies much of the background to Western religion and ethics. He is the author of some 60 articles and chapters and the book Festivals and Legends. The Formation of Greek Cities in the Light of Public Ritual.

Recent Publications:

• “Sacrifice to the sea: a custom prior to the ‘Olympian’ and ‘Chthonian’ categories?” Greek Sacrificial Ritual, Olympian and Chthonian, ed. R. Hägg and B. Ekroth (Stockholm 2005) 85-98.
• “Athenian shrines of Aphrodite, and the early development of the city,” Teseo e Romolo. Le origini di Atene e Roma a confronto, ed. E. Greco (Athens 2005) 43-112.
• “Anthesteria,” Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. 2 (New York 2004).
• “The Praxiergidae decree (IG 1³ 7) and the dressing of Athena’s statue with the peplos,” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 44 (2004) 111-61.
• “Pandora and the Panathenaic peplos,” The Parthenon and its Sculptures, ed. M.B. Cosmopoulos (Cambridge 2004) 86-113.
• “Aesop’s encounter with Isis and the Muses, and the origins of the Life of Aesop,”Poetry, Theory, Praxis: The Social Life of Myth, Word and Image in Ancient Greece, ed. E. Csapo and M. Miller (Oxford 2003) 247-66.
• “Orphic mysteries and Dionysiac ritual,” Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults, ed. M.B. Cosmopoulos (London 2003) 218-40.
• “The religious criterion in Greek ethnicity: the Dorians and the festival Carneia,” American Journal of Ancient History, new series 1 (2002) 5-74.
• “Athena as weather goddess: the aigis in myth and ritual,” Athena in the Classical World, ed. S. Deacy and A. Villing (Leyden 2001) 29-55.