One god, two goddesses, three studies of South Indian cosmology /
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One, God, Two Goddesses presents three studies, one of Tamil myths of the god Murugan and two of goddess rituals: Gangamma in Tirupati and Paiditalli in Vizianagaram, both in Andhra Pradesh. All three essays search for lineaments of the cosmos that these deities inhabit and shape. These cosmoi are characterised by the dynamism of their incessant interior movement. Should they become still, they would die. Deities activate and regenerate such a cosmos. The dynamism of Murugan's cosmos eliminates the chaotic. Through ritual, Gangamma regenerates her cosmos through feminising it. Through ritual, Paiditalli annually re-grows the historic little kingdom of Vizianagaram, regenerating its kingship. All three studies point to the need to rethink cosmology in South India.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004257399 :
1570-078X ;
Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala : Embodying the Goddess-clan /
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In previous studies of South Asian Tantric ritual, scholars tend to focus on one region or context. For the first time, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala: Embodying the Goddess-clan offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurgā rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyāṭṭam in North Kerala. In this book, Matthew Martin advances a new theory of ritual, which spotlights the way dancer-mediums embody medieval goddess-clans and ancestor deities, through offerings of food and sacrifice, that synchronize their denizens with the land in spiralling web-like ritual networks. Uniquely interdisciplinary in style, this study synthesizes cultural history, ethnography, and theory to explore the continuities - historical, societal, and political - that characterize these ritual traditions across the subcontinent.
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Revision of author's PhD dissertation. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439023
9789004438996
Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes : Emplacements of Spiritual Power across Time and Place /
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"Saintly Spheres and Islamic Landscapes explores the creation, expansion, and perpetuation of the material and imaginary spheres of spiritual domination and sanctity that surrounded Sufi saints and became central to religious authority, Islamic piety, and the belief in the miraculous. The cultural and social constructs of Islamic sainthood and the spatial inscription of saintly figures have fascinated and ignited scholars across a range of disciplines. By bringing together a broad scope of perspectives and case studies, this book offers the reader the first comprehensive, albeit variegated, exposition of the evolution of saintly spheres and the emplacements of spiritual power in the Muslim world across time and place. Contributors: Angela Andersen, Irit Back, Devin DeWeese, Daphna Ephrat, Jo-Ann Gross, Nathan Hofer, Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Sara Kuehn, Bulle Tuil Leonetti, Silvia Montenegro, Alexandre Papas, Paulo G. Pinto, Fatima Quraishi, Eric Ross, Itzchak Weismann, Pnina Werber, and Ethel Sara Wolper"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004444270
9789004443655
Le pouvoir de guérir : mythe, mystique et politique au Maroc /
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Au Maroc, les mythes fondateurs des cultes et rituels de guérison illustrent de manière probante les processus d'élaboration des significations et des dynamiques du pouvoir dans le passé proche et leurs articulations actuelles. Des dynamiques qui se déploient en termes généalogiques, initiatiques et en des capacités socialement reconnues de susciter une communication avec le monde surnaturel. L'analyse centrée sur la confrontation entre saints et rois permet, par ailleurs, d'élargir à la dimension nationale, et au-delà, le rapport, hiérarchique, de conflit et d'articulation entre charisme personnel et charisme sharifien. Le mythe et ses expressions rituelles ouvrent, ainsi, les possibilités du renouvellement sociopolitique par les marges, voire même, dans l'actualité, sous couleur d'une révolution à l'horizon d'un millénarisme du califat. In Morocco, the founding myths of healing cults and rituals illustrate conclusively the elaboration of the symbolism and dynamics of power, both in local and national contexts. These dynamics unfold specifically in terms of genealogical representations and mystical initiations, as well as in socially-recognized capacities to communicate with the supernatural. The analysis centered on the confrontation of saints and kings permits the expansion, to the national level and beyond, of the hierarchical tensions between personal charisma and sharifian charisma. Thus, the myth and its ritual expressions open up possibilities for socio-political renewal by the margins, or even more a renewal, taking place presently, in the form of a revolutionary millenarianism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004261433
Dionysos in classical Athens : an understanding through images /
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Dionysos, with his following of satyrs and women, was a major theme in a big part of the figure painted pottery in 500-300 B.C. Athens. As an original testimonial of their time, the imagery on these vases convey what this god meant to his worshippers. It becomes clear that - contrary to what is usually assumed - he was not only appropriate for wine, wine indulgence, ecstasy and theatre. Rather, he was present in both the public and private sphere on many, both happy and sad, occasions. In addition, the vase painters have emphasized different aspects of Dionysos for their customers inside and outside of Athens, depending on the political and cultural situation.
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1 online resource (xx, 290 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004270121 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Trophonios de Lébadée : cultes et mythes d'une cité béotienne au miroir de la mentalité antique /
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The oracle of Trophonios at Lebadeia (Boiotia), among the best documented in Greece, was active from the archaic period to the third century AD. At this oracle, divine revelation was given in the form of a 'visionary trance', experienced as a psychic journey or leap of the soul into the world of truth. From the beginning, the cult and legend of Trophonios (and of similar heroes) turned upon the boundary between 'the other world' and the here-and-now, and were intimately linked with psychagogy, divination (including iatromancy), and the mysteries. The analysis of each of the oracle's components in the light of ancient mentalities has broadened our understanding of both Trophonios and of Greek divination in general.
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1 online resource (xxx, 430 pages) : illustrations, map. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-374) and index. :
9789004295988 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Cybele, Attis, and related cults : essays in memory of M.J. Vermaseren /
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This volume brings together articles on the cult of the mother-goddess Cybele and her consort Attis, from the emergence of the religion in Anatolia through its expansion into Greece and Italy to the latest times of the Roman Empire and its farthest extent west, the Iberian Peninsula. It combines the work of established scholars with that of young researchers in the field, and represents a truly international perspective. The reader will find treatment inter alia of Cybele's emasculated priests, the Galli; the dissemination of Cybele-cult through the harbour city, Miletus; the cult of Cybele in Ephesus; the rock-cut sanctuary of Cybele at Akrai in Sicily; the competition between the Cybele-cult and Christianity; and the role of Attis in Neo-Platonic philosophy.
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1 online resource (ix, 441 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295889 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Paroles d'Apollon : pratiques et traditions oraculaires dans l'Antiquité tardive, IIe-VIe siècle /
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This book deals with the making and the reuses of the divine words which were ascribed to Apollo from the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD and which have now become available in both epigraphical and literary sources. The larger part has been issued by the sanctuaries of Claros and Didyma. This comprehensive and historical approach analyses the oracles of Apollo according to the various contexts ancient authors used to resort to the sacred words. The first part of the book examines, in the context of the Graeco-Roman city-states, the oracular texts in relation to the sanctuaries where they had originally been produced. The second part explores the different ways in which the Apollinian oracles were reappropriated by pagan and Christian authors for philosophical, polemical and apologetic purposes. This study of the sacred texts reveals in an original manner the cultural, political, and religious life of pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire.
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1 online resource (x, 516 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-500) and indexes. :
9789047415855 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Romanising oriental Gods : myth, salvation, and ethics in the cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras /
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The traditional grand narrative correlating the decline of Graeco-Roman religion with the rise of Christianity has been under pressure for three decades. This book argues that the alternative accounts now emerging significantly underestimate the role of three major cults, of Cybele and Attis, Isis and Serapis, and Mithras. Although their differences are plain, these cults present sufficient common features to justify their being taken typologically as a group. All were selective adaptations of much older cults of the Fertile Crescent. It was their relative sophistication, their combination of the imaginative power of unfamiliar myth with distinctive ritual performance and ethical seriousness, that enabled them both to focus and to articulate a sense of the autonomy of religion from the socio-political order, a sense they shared with Early Christianity. The notion of 'mystery' was central to their ability to navigate the Weberian shift from ritualist to ethical salvation.
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1 online resource (xx, 486 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-444) and indexes. :
9789047441847 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
La diffusion des cultes isiaques autour de la mer Adriatique /
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Originally presented as the author's thesis, Université de Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne.
1. Inscriptions et monuments. :
1 online resource (xix, 248 pages, plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295339 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Power, politics, and the cults of Isis : proceedings of the Vth International Conference of Isis studies, Boulogne-sur-Mer, October 13-15, 2011 /
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In the Hellenistic and Roman world intimate relations existed between those holding power and the cults of Isis. This book is the first to chart these various appropriations over time within a comparative perspective. Ten carefully selected case studies show that "the Egyptian gods" were no exotic outsiders to the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean, but constituted a well institutionalised and frequently used religious option. Ranging from the early Ptolemies and Seleucids to late Antiquity, the case studies illustrate how much symbolic meaning was made with the cults of Isis by kings, emperors, cities and elites. Three articles introduce the theme of Isis and the longue durée theoretically, simultaneously exploring a new approach towards concepts like ruler cult and Religionspolitik .
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (xvii, 364 pages) : illustrations (some colour) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004278271 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The supreme gods of the Bosporan Kingdom : Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God /
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This is the first systematic study of the cults of the Bosporan Kingdom, which existed in South Russia in the first centuries AD. The research is based on a variety of sources: archaeological evidence and inscriptions, largely unknown to the non-Russian readers, as well as historical and literary texts. The religion of the Bosporus is viewed in this monograph as a blend of Greek and indigenous Iranian traditions. Its first part is dedicated to the cult of Celestial Aphrodite. The second part examines the controversial cult of the Most High God and its alledged Jewish affinities. The book, illustrated with thirty figures, is an important contribution to the understanding of the religious life in Greek colonies, and the history of Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity.
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1 online resource (x, 371 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-321) and index. :
9789004295902 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.