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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.
Isis on the Nile : Egyptian gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt : proceedings of the IVth International Conference of Isis Studies, Liège, November 27-29, 2008 : Michel Malaise in...
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The diffusion of the cults of Isis is recently again intensively studied. Research on this fascinating phenomenon has traditionally been characterised by its focus on L'Égypte hors d'Égypte, while developments in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt itself were often seen as belonging to a different domain. This volume tries to overcome that unhealthy dichotomy by studying the cults of Isis in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt itself in relation to developments in the Mediterranean at large. The book not only presents an overview of the most important deities, often based on new or unpublished material, but also pays ample attention to the cultural processes behind Isis on Nile, like relations between style and identity, religious choice, social- and cultural memory and Egypt's view of its own past.
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1 online resource (xxviii, 293 pages, [68] pages of plates) : illustrations (1 color) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. xi-xiv) and index. :
9789004210868 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Coping with the gods : wayward readings in Greek theology /
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Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive manner. From this perspective the six chapters explore problems inherent in: order vs. variety/chaos in polytheism, arbitrariness vs. justice in theodicy, the peaceful co-existence of mono- and polytheistic theologies, human traits in divine imagery, divine omnipotence vs. limitation of power, and ruler cult. Based on an intimate knowledge of ancient realia and literary testimonia the book stands out for its extensive application of relevant perceptions drawn from cultural anthropology, theology, cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics.
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1 online resource (xiii, 593 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 561-576) and indexes. :
9789004210905 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Greek religious terminology : telete and orgia : a revised and expanded English edition of the studies by Zijderveld and Van der Burg /
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A proper understanding of the words τελετή and ὄργια and the context in which they occur is fundamental to the study of Greek religion. This volume seeks to make a significant portion of the source material available to present-day students of religions in the Graeco-Roman world. The ancient texts are accompanied by English translations. Revised chapters from the seminal works by Zijderveld (1934) and Van der Burg (1939) show a whole range of different contexts in ancient literature, thus arguing against an automatic equation of τελετή and ὄργια with mystery rites. New chapters give an overview of the loanword orgia in Latin poetry, and of τελετή and ὄργια in the epigraphical evidence.
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1 online resource (xxii, 285 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-254) and indexes. :
9789047440499 :
0927-7633 ; :
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.
The early Amazons : modern and ancient perspectives on a persistent myth /
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The Early Amazons offers a new understanding of the ancient Amazon myth, situating mythical representations in the realm of cultural history. The first section examines how the Amazons have presented a challenge to views on history, myth and gender in classical mythology from the late eighteenth century up to the impact of structuralism. Topics included are nineteenth-century historiography and the interest in linguistics. The second section sheds new light on the culture of archaic Greece, offering a coherent assessment of literary and visual representations. Taking mythical narrative as a form of oral storytelling, it shows the emergence of the Amazon motif and its meaning in the world of epic. Iconographical analysis reveals how the visual arts have made a contribution of their own to the imaginary presence of the Amazons.
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1 online resource (xxi, 473 pages, [12] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 443-460) and index. :
9789004301436 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Terres cuites et culte domestique : bestiaire de l'Égypte gréco-romaine /
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In Terracotta and domestic worship. Bestiary of the Graeco-Roman Egypt , Celine Boutantin proposes a new approach of terracotta produced in Egypt in the Greco-Roman period. A study taking into account the archaeological contexts allows to propose a synthesis of production workshops and to show, in some cases, an adaptation of the production of local cults. An inventory of figurines found in homes, temples and tombs allow to study the functions of these objects. Through the study of a particular theme, animal terracottas, the author raises questions about beliefs and personal or private practices. Dans Terres cuites et culte domestique. Bestiaire de l'Égypte gréco-romaine , Céline Boutantin propose une nouvelle approche des figurines en terre cuite produites en Égypte à l'époque gréco-romaine. Une étude prenant en compte les contextes archéologiques permet de dresser un bilan des ateliers de production et de montrer, dans certains cas, une adaptation de la production à des cultes locaux. Elle permet aussi de dresser un inventaire des figurines trouvées dans les maisons, les sanctuaires et les tombes et de proposer une synthèse sur les fonctions de ces objets. A travers l'étude d'un thème particulier, les représentations animales, l'auteur aborde sous un angle nouveau la question des croyances et des pratiques personnelles ou privées.
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1 online resource (xii, 642 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 606-626) and index. :
9789004263246 :
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.
Hellenic religion and Christianization. c. 370-529 /
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This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.
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1 online resource (xvi, 344 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004276772 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The imperial cult in the Latin West : studies in the ruler cult of the western provinces of the Roman Empire. Volume III, Provincial cult. Part 4, Bibliography, Indices, Addenda /
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This volume concludes the series with an apparatus. The list of Abbreviated Titles comprises all Abbreviations used throughout the four Parts while the Bibliography consolidates the books and articles cited in the four sets of References. The intention of the various Indices is to let the reader find his way about the text in one way or another whereas the main focus of the Addenda is on publications that were either earlier missed or, as in most cases, appeared too late to be included at the appropriate stage of the text. Lastly, the list of errata in the Corrigenda consists mostly of typographical errors that escaped notice in the original manuscript.
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1 online resource (i-vii, 256 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047416111 :
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.
Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 /
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This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.
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1 online resource (xv, 430 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-402) and index. :
9789004276789 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Greek sacred law : a collection of new documents (NGSL) /
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This work contains two parts. Part I constitutes a guide to the corpus of Greek sacred law and its contents. A discussion of the history of the corpus and the principles governing its composition is followed by a detailed review of its contents, in which the evidence is classified according to subject matter. Part II contains inscriptions published since the late 1960s from all around the Greek world excluding Cos and Asia Minor (checklists for these are appended). The text of each inscription is presented alongside restorations, epigraphical commentary, translation, and a comprehensive running commentary. Most of the inscriptions are illustrated. The volume should prove useful to scholars of Greek religion, historians, and epigraphists.
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1 online resource (xx, 516 pages, [31] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-433) and indexes. :
9789047426646 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The religion of the Nabataeans : a conspectus /
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The history of the Nabataean Kingdom of Hellenistic-Roman times, centred on Petra, is now well known, but until the publication of this book, no monograph has been devoted to Nabataean religion, known to us principally from inscriptions in Nabataean Aramaic, iconography, archaeology and Greek literary texts. After a critical survey of the sources, the author analyses systematically the information on the individual gods worshipped by the Nabataeans, including a detailed illustrated account of temples and iconography. A further major section discusses religious themes: aniconism, henotheism, death-cult and the divinisation of kings. In a final chapter, Nabataean religion is considered in relation to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The book will be of particular interest to historians of religion in the Graeco-Roman Near East and to Semitic epigraphists.
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1 online resource (xvi, 242 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-234) and indexes. :
9789004301481 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Roman gods : a conceptual approach /
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The book is concerned with the question of how the concept of \'god\' in urban Rome can be analyzed along the lines of six constituent concepts, id est space, time, personnel, function, iconography and ritual. While older publications tended to focus on the conceptual nature of Roman gods only in those (comparatively rare) instances in which different concepts patently overlapped (as in the case of the deified emperor or hero-worship), this book develops general criteria for an analysis of pagan, Jewish and Christian concepts of gods in ancient Rome (and by extension elsewhere). While the argument of the book is exclusively based on the evidence from the capital up to the age of Constantine, in the concluding section the results are compared to other religious belief systems, thus demonstrating the general applicability of this conceptual approach.
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1 online resource (219 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-209) and index. :
9789047428480 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Corinth, the first city of Greece : an urban history of late antique cult and religion /
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This book addresses cult and religion in the city of Corinth from the 4th to 7th centuries of our era. The work incorporates and synthesizes all available evidence, literary, archaeological and other. The interaction and conflict between Christian and non-Christian activity is placed into its urban context and seen as simultaneously existing and overlapping cultural activity. Late antique religion is defined as cult-based rather than doctrinally-based, and thus this volume focuses not on what people believed, but rather what they did. An emphasis on cult activity reveals a variety of types of interaction between groups, ranging from confrontational events at dilapidated polytheist cult sites, to full polysemous and shared cult activity at the so-called \'Fountain of the Lamps\'. Non-Christian traditions are shown to have been recognized and viable through the sixth century. The tentative conclusion is drawn that a clear definition of \'pagan\' and \'Christian\' begins at an urban level with the Christian re-monumentalization of Corinth with basilicas. The disappearance of \'pagan\' cult is best attributed to the development of a new city socially and physically based in Christianity, rather than any purely \'religious\' development.
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1 online resource (x, 173 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-170) and index. :
9789004301498 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Votives, places and rituals in Etruscan religion : studies in honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa /
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Etruscans were deemed "the most religious of men" by their Roman successors and it is hardly surprising that the topic of Etruscan religion has been explored for some time now. This volume offers a contribution to the continued study of Etruscan religion and daily life, by focusing on the less explored issue of ritual. Ritual is approached through fourteen case studies, considering mortuary customs, votive rituals and other religious and daily life practices. The book gathers new material, interpretations and approaches to the less emphasized areas of Etruscan religion, especially its votive aspects, based on archaeological and epigraphic sources.
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1 online resource (xliii, 291 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047442622 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The imperial cult in the Latin west : studies in the ruler cult of the western provinces of the Roman Empire /
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This volume focuses on the headquarters of provincial cults and the principal features of the worship offered there on behalf of the province. Evidence for provincial centres survives in various forms of varying degress of reliability but, while no standard pattern emerges, it seems clear that every province established a permanent base that served similar cultic, administrative, recreational and ideological purposes. Traces of provincial worship are more fleeting but a rough picture can be reconstructed of priestly regalia and of the calendar, rites and associated liturgy and ceremonial that marked the differing cults of individual provinces. Both studies conclude with an overview of the main conclusions and are profusely illustrated with over a hundred plates or diagrams.
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1 online resource (xxiii, 397 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-397). :
9789047412762 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.