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.
Sérapis debout : corpus des monuments de Sérapis debout et étude iconographique /
: 1 online resource (xx, 317 pages, 118, [2] pages of plates (1 folded)) : illustrations. : Includes bibliographical references (p. xiii-xx). : 9789004295728 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Delian aretalogy of Sarapis /
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Translation of Die delische Sarapisaretalogie.
"This history survives in two versions: the prose account of the priest Apollonius II (line 1-28), followed by the hymn to Sarapis composed by the poet Maiistas (line 29-94)."--Introduction, page [1]. :
1 online resource ([8], 63 pages, 1 leaf of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295117 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isis and Sarapis in the Roman world /
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Isis and Sarapis in the Roman World deals with the integration of the cult of Isis among Roman cults, the subsequent transformation of Isis and Sarapis into gods of the Roman state, and the epigraphic employment of the names of these two deities independent from their cultic context. The myth that the guardians of tradition and Roman religion tried to curb the cult of Isis in order to rid Rome and the imperium from this decadent cult will be dispelled. A closer look at inscriptions from the Rhine and Danubian provinces shows that most dedicators were not Isiac cult initiates and that women did not outnumber men as dedicators. Inscriptions that mention the two deities in connection with a wish for the well-being of the emperor and the imperial family are of special significance.
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1 online resource (xiv, 235 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-230) and index. :
9789004283466 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.