Carolina López‐ruiz
Biographic Data
| ID | 3891129 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carolina López‐ruiz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carolina |
| FAMILY NAME | López‐ruiz |
| SIGNATURE | RUIZ C L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9472-7651 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Exploring Mediterranean Connections and Iron Age Entanglements
Despite the conventional association with sophisticated metallurgical technologies, the Iron Age has long fallen between the two academic poles of prehistoric and classical archaeology. The more recent invention of a self-consciously ambivalent terminology of ‘proto-historic’ and ‘proto-urban’ features represents an attempt by mostly European archaeologists to give the Iron Age socioeconomic substance in its own right, while at the same time also…
A Perilous Sailing and a Lion: Comparative Evidence for a Phoenician Afterlife Motif
This essay introduces new evidence for an eschatological Phoenician motif that alludes to a final sailing and its perils, represented by a monstrous lion attacking or sinking a boat. The lion-and-boat motif was, so far, only documented in a Phoenician funerary stela from late classical Athens, the Antipatros/Shem stela. Excavations at the fifth-century BCE Tartessic site of Casas del Turuñuelo in southwestern Spain has revealed a set of ivory and…
Not Exactly Atlantis: Some Lessons from Ancient Mediterranean Myths
From “Monkey Island” to “Fire Gates”: A Phoenician name for Pithekoussai
The island of Pithekoussai, modern Ischia, was the base of Euboian settlement in central Italy before the foundation of Cumae across the Bay of Naples ca. 740 BC. The general assumption, therefore, is that the island’s ancient name is Greek. But its etymology puzzled ancient writers, such as Strabo and Pliny, as well as modern scholars. The feminine ending in -oussa was often applied by Greek speakers to new places they encountered, including isl…
Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean
Long before Greeks dominated the ancient Mediterranean, Phoenicians were the lords of the sea. Setting out from their Levantine cities, they introduced their alphabet, art, technology, and gods to places as far as off as Iberia. Carolina López-Ruiz highlights the enduring Phoenician imprint, displacing the Hellenocentric model of the ancient world
The sphinx
Sphinxes of the Orientalizing period adorned vases, ivory plaques, and metal bowls sat atop columns, and were surely represented in materials that are now lost, such as textiles, wall paintings, and woodcarvings. The image of the sphinx was favored by elites across the Iron Age Mediterranean because of its association with royalty in the Near East. This chapter argues that this link is reflected in Greek mythology and language too. Most famously,…
The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East
This essay offers a new interpretive angle on a fourth-century CE mosaic from Nea Paphos in Cyprus, in which the central panel depicts the god Aion presiding over the contest between Kassiopeia and the Nereids. The mosaic, which has other mythological scenes, two of them focused on Dionysos, has been interpreted in an allegorical Neoplatonic key or else as encrypting an anti-Christian polemic narrative. Here I propose that Aion and the other cosm…
Phoenician Literature
There was, without a doubt, a Phoenician and Punic literature. Very little of it is extant, but we have enough of it to gauge the great loss. Lacking the advantage of its own manuscript tradition and later cultures devoted to it, Phoenician literature was not systematically preserved, unlike that of the Greeks, Romans, and Israelites. What we have are small pieces that surface among the Classical literary corpus. Despite these unfavorable conditi…
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Gargoris and Habis: A Tartessic Myth of Ancient Iberia and the Traces of Phoenician Euhemerism
The story of Gargoris and Habis in Justin's Epitome is usually read as a Greek-oriented version of a local myth from Iberia. The structure and motifs in the story, however, draw from Near Eastern traditions, i.e., of succession myths and “first inventors,” and a variety of euhemerism circulating in the Phoenician-Carthaginian sphere
Tartessos
Tartessos appears in the classical sources as an area in southern Iberia, with the Guadalquivir River (Roman Baetis) as its main axis, roughly comprising Huelva, Cádiz, Seville, and Córdoba in southern Spain and part of the Portuguese Algarve. In modern scholarship, the term is applied to the protohistorical culture that flourished between the eighth to sixth centuries BCE, predating the later Turdetanians. This culture is manifest through archae…
Near Eastern Precedents of the “Orphic” Gold Tablets: The Phoenician Missing Link
The Greek Gold Tablets (also called “Orphic Gold Tablets”), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead . At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora …
Greek and Canaanite Mythologies: Zeus, Baal, and their Rivals
Hesiod's Theogony is normally read as a 'hymn to Zeus', praising the victory of the Greek Storm God over the previous generations of gods (Ouranos, Kronos, and the Titans). The backbone of the Theogony is the so-called Succession Myth, widely accepted by scholars as an adaptation from the Near Eastern theme of the cosmic struggle between generations of gods, leading to the victory of the Storm God. The Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, the Hurro-Hittite …
Sacrifice and the City: Administration and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age
López-Ruiz Carolina. Sacrifice and the City : Administration and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. In: ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, n°8, 2013. pp. 59-82
How to Start a Cosmogony: On the Poetics of Beginnings in Greece and the Near East
In this essay I explore the beginning lines of the most relevant cosmogonies from the eastern Mediterranean, focusing on the Enuma Elish , Genesis 1 and Hesiod’s Theogony . These opening lines reveal some of the challenges faced by the authors of these texts when committing to the written word their version of the beginning of the universe. Hesiod’s Theogony will be treated in more length as it presents an expanded introduction to the creation ac…
Danaans
Phoinix (2)
Kythera
Agapenor
Kadmos
Sidon
K inyras
Phoenicians
Mopsos and Cultural Exchange between Greeks and Locals in Cilicia
Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations
Situating ancient Iberia within Mediterranean colonial history and establishing a theoretical framework for approaching encounters between colonists and natives, these studies exemplify the new intellectual vistas opened by the engagement of colonial studies with Iberian history
Phoenicians and the Making of the Mediterranean
Long before Greeks dominated the ancient Mediterranean, Phoenicians were the lords of the sea. Setting out from their Levantine cities, they introduced their alphabet, art, technology, and gods to places as far as off as Iberia. Carolina López-Ruiz highlights the enduring Phoenician imprint, displacing the Hellenocentric model of the ancient world
Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations
Situating ancient Iberia within Mediterranean colonial history and establishing a theoretical framework for approaching encounters between colonists and natives, these studies exemplify the new intellectual vistas opened by the engagement of colonial studies with Iberian history
New light on the warrior stelae from Tartessos (Spain)
The famous stelae from the Tartessos region of southern Iberia are compared with new discoveries from the Levant. Similarities of theme and iconography endorse the Phoenician connection, but show it to be more a cultural dialogue between east and west than an imposition by colonists
Exploring Mediterranean Connections and Iron Age Entanglements
Despite the conventional association with sophisticated metallurgical technologies, the Iron Age has long fallen between the two academic poles of prehistoric and classical archaeology. The more recent invention of a self-consciously ambivalent terminology of ‘proto-historic’ and ‘proto-urban’ features represents an attempt by mostly European archaeologists to give the Iron Age socioeconomic substance in its own right, while at the same time also…
Phoenician Literature
There was, without a doubt, a Phoenician and Punic literature. Very little of it is extant, but we have enough of it to gauge the great loss. Lacking the advantage of its own manuscript tradition and later cultures devoted to it, Phoenician literature was not systematically preserved, unlike that of the Greeks, Romans, and Israelites. What we have are small pieces that surface among the Classical literary corpus. Despite these unfavorable conditi…
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Near Eastern Precedents of the “Orphic” Gold Tablets: The Phoenician Missing Link
The Greek Gold Tablets (also called “Orphic Gold Tablets”), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead . At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora …
Some Oriental Elements in Hesiod and the Orphic Cosmogonies
This paper examines the oriental background of the so-called Orphic cosmogonies of ancient Greece. The first section explores the relationship between the motif of Zeus' swallowing the phallus of Uranos and a corresponding feature in the Hurrian-Hittite Song of Kumarbi. The second section examines the complex figure of Kronos, arguing all aspects of his personality can be understood better if we take account of the figure of El in Ugaritic mythol…
Micah’s Mother (Judg. 17: 1– 4) And a Curse from Carthage (KAI 89): Canaanite Precedents for Greek and Latin Curses against Thieves
Micah’s Mother (Judg. 17: 1– 4) And a Curse from Carthage (KAI 89): Canaanite Precedents for Greek and Latin Curses against Thieves
Some Oriental Elements in Hesiod and the Orphic Cosmogonies
This paper examines the oriental background of the so-called Orphic cosmogonies of ancient Greece. The first section explores the relationship between the motif of Zeus' swallowing the phallus of Uranos and a corresponding feature in the Hurrian-Hittite Song of Kumarbi. The second section examines the complex figure of Kronos, arguing all aspects of his personality can be understood better if we take account of the figure of El in Ugaritic mythol…
Love Rejected: Some Notes on the Mesopotamian "Epic of Gilgamesh" and the Greek Myth of "Hippolytus
New light on the warrior stelae from Tartessos (Spain)
The famous stelae from the Tartessos region of southern Iberia are compared with new discoveries from the Levant. Similarities of theme and iconography endorse the Phoenician connection, but show it to be more a cultural dialogue between east and west than an imposition by colonists
Response
The authors kindly agreed to respond to these comments.
Mopsos and Cultural Exchange between Greeks and Locals in Cilicia
Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia: Phoenician, Greek, and Indigenous Relations
Situating ancient Iberia within Mediterranean colonial history and establishing a theoretical framework for approaching encounters between colonists and natives, these studies exemplify the new intellectual vistas opened by the engagement of colonial studies with Iberian history
Danaans
Phoinix (2)
Kythera
Agapenor
Kadmos
Sidon
K inyras
Phoenicians
How to Start a Cosmogony: On the Poetics of Beginnings in Greece and the Near East
In this essay I explore the beginning lines of the most relevant cosmogonies from the eastern Mediterranean, focusing on the Enuma Elish , Genesis 1 and Hesiod’s Theogony . These opening lines reveal some of the challenges faced by the authors of these texts when committing to the written word their version of the beginning of the universe. Hesiod’s Theogony will be treated in more length as it presents an expanded introduction to the creation ac…
Sacrifice and the City: Administration and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age
López-Ruiz Carolina. Sacrifice and the City : Administration and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. In: ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions, n°8, 2013. pp. 59-82
Greek and Canaanite Mythologies: Zeus, Baal, and their Rivals
Hesiod's Theogony is normally read as a 'hymn to Zeus', praising the victory of the Greek Storm God over the previous generations of gods (Ouranos, Kronos, and the Titans). The backbone of the Theogony is the so-called Succession Myth, widely accepted by scholars as an adaptation from the Near Eastern theme of the cosmic struggle between generations of gods, leading to the victory of the Storm God. The Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, the Hurro-Hittite …
Tartessos
Tartessos appears in the classical sources as an area in southern Iberia, with the Guadalquivir River (Roman Baetis) as its main axis, roughly comprising Huelva, Cádiz, Seville, and Córdoba in southern Spain and part of the Portuguese Algarve. In modern scholarship, the term is applied to the protohistorical culture that flourished between the eighth to sixth centuries BCE, predating the later Turdetanians. This culture is manifest through archae…
Near Eastern Precedents of the “Orphic” Gold Tablets: The Phoenician Missing Link
The Greek Gold Tablets (also called “Orphic Gold Tablets”), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead . At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora …
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Not That Which Can Be Found Among the Greeks: Philo of Byblos and Phoenician Cultural Identity in the Roman East
Gargoris and Habis: A Tartessic Myth of Ancient Iberia and the Traces of Phoenician Euhemerism
The story of Gargoris and Habis in Justin's Epitome is usually read as a Greek-oriented version of a local myth from Iberia. The structure and motifs in the story, however, draw from Near Eastern traditions, i.e., of succession myths and “first inventors,” and a variety of euhemerism circulating in the Phoenician-Carthaginian sphere
Phoenician Literature
There was, without a doubt, a Phoenician and Punic literature. Very little of it is extant, but we have enough of it to gauge the great loss. Lacking the advantage of its own manuscript tradition and later cultures devoted to it, Phoenician literature was not systematically preserved, unlike that of the Greeks, Romans, and Israelites. What we have are small pieces that surface among the Classical literary corpus. Despite these unfavorable conditi…
The sphinx
Sphinxes of the Orientalizing period adorned vases, ivory plaques, and metal bowls sat atop columns, and were surely represented in materials that are now lost, such as textiles, wall paintings, and woodcarvings. The image of the sphinx was favored by elites across the Iron Age Mediterranean because of its association with royalty in the Near East. This chapter argues that this link is reflected in Greek mythology and language too. Most famously,…
The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East
This essay offers a new interpretive angle on a fourth-century CE mosaic from Nea Paphos in Cyprus, in which the central panel depicts the god Aion presiding over the contest between Kassiopeia and the Nereids. The mosaic, which has other mythological scenes, two of them focused on Dionysos, has been interpreted in an allegorical Neoplatonic key or else as encrypting an anti-Christian polemic narrative. Here I propose that Aion and the other cosm…
History (22 works) · Ancient history (19 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (18 works) · Art (15 works) · Literature (11 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (10 works) · Archaeology (10 works) · History (10 works) · Phoenician (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works)