Performing and Healing in Antiquity

The workshop explores the relationship between ritual and therapy in the ancient world, highlighting how diverse healing practices and rituals share a deeply performative nature.

Through gesture, voice, and collective participation, ritual acts as a medium of transformation and healing, understood in physical, psychological, and social terms. The workshop examines how the sensory and theatrical dimensions of ritual contribute to its therapeutic efficacy. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, it aims to rethink the interplay between performance, religious experience, and healing practices across the ancient Mediterranean and its cultural continuities.