Abstract

Processions in the Greek East were organised according to a clear visual schema, which helped to impose order and provide meaning. This demarcation was primarily enacted materially, with ritual roles frequently defined by the carrying of objects or accoutrements. This article focuses on the diversity and local particularities of roles terminating in -phoros during the Hellenistic and imperial periods, as evidenced by the epigraphic record. It explores how intrinsic these material dimensions were to the processional experience in the Greek world, probing what they contributed to the aesthetics of procession and how they were ‘read’, both by participants and observers.