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Decayed gods : origin and development of Georges Dumézil's "idéologie tripartie" /
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In 1930 Dumézil wrote an article in which he defended the Indo-European character of the Indian varnas . In 1986 he was completing his final 25 Esquisses , research proposals the aim of which was to allow his model of the 'idéologie tripartie' of Indo-European traditions to be applied to his 'disciples'. According to this model Indo-European traditions were typified by a threefold division into functions of society, the world of the gods, and the heroic traditions. These were the functions of sovereignty, power and 'fertility'. This theoretical model was elaborated by Dumézil in a large number of books and articles. Between 1930 and 1986 he broadened enormously the amount of data on which his model was based. To do so he had regularly to adapt and reformulate his model. This was not without consequences for the material which he had interpreted earlier on. In this study a detailed description is given of this process of reformulation and reinterpretation and the conclusion is that the totality of the various models does not, despite its aesthetic attraction, satisfy the criteria which should be set for scientific models.
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Translation of: Feiten, fouten en fabels, Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Leiden. :
1 online resource (xv, 254 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-245) and index. :
9789004301511 :
0169-9512 ; :
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.
Ancient angels : conceptualizing angeloi in the Roman Empire /
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Although angels are typically associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ancient Angels demonstrates that angels (angeloi) were also a prominent feature of non-Abrahamic religions in the Roman era. Following an interdisciplinary approach, the study uses literary, inscriptional, and archaeological evidence to examine Roman conceptions of angels, how residents of the empire venerated angels, and how Christian authorities responded to this potentially heterodox aspect of Roman religion. The book brings together the evidence for popular beliefs about angels in Roman religion, demonstrating the widespread nature of speculation about, and veneration of, angels in the Roman Empire
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1 online resource (xviii, 181 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-177) and index. :
9789004210899 :
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.
Life and loyalty : a study in the socio-religious culture of Syria and Mesopotamia in the Graeco-Roman period based on epigraphical evidence /
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The formula 'for the life of' is often found in votive inscriptions, cast in Aramaic and other languages, which originate from the Syrian-Mesopotamian desert and adjacent areas and which roughly date from the first three centuries A.D. They belong to objects like statues and altars that usually were erected in temples and other structures with a ritual or sacred function. The inscriptions establish a relationship between the dedicator and one or more beneficiaries, those persons for whose life the dedication was made. Since the social context evidently bears on both the meaning of the inscriptions as well as the status of the dedications, this volume deals with the nature of the relationships and the socio-religious function the dedications perform.
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1 online resource (xii, 375 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-366) and index. :
9789004295865 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Religious practices and Christianization of the late antique city (4th-7th century) /
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In Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City , historians, archaeologists and historians of religion provide studies of the phenomenon of the Christianization of the Roman Empire within the context of the transformations and eventual decline of the Greco-Roman city. The eleven papers brought together here aim to describe the possible links between religious, but also political, economic and social mutations engendered by Christianity and the evolution of the antique city. Combining a multiplicity of sources and analytical approaches, this book seeks to measure the impact on the city of the progressive abandonment of traditional cults to the advantage of new Christian religious practices.
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1 online resource (vii, 243 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004299047 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Jews in late ancient Rome : evidence of cultural interaction in the Roman diaspora /
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The Jews in Late Ancient Rome focusses on the Jewish community in third and fourth century Rome, and in particular on how this community related to the larger non-Jewish world that surrounded it. The book's point of departure is a refutation of the disputable thesis that Roman Jews lived in complete isolation. The book examines Jewish archaeological remains and Jewish funerary inscriptions from Rome from various angles, and compares them with Pagan and early Christian material and epigraphical remains. In the last part the author concentrates on an enigmatic legal treatise entitled the Collatio , identifying its author and exploring the implications of this identification. This study proposes a new way in which the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in late antiquity can be studied.
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1 online resource (xx, 283 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-280) and index. :
9789004283473 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Isis, Dionysos, Hermes : three studies in Henotheism /
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This is the first of a two-volume collection of studies in inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Their common aim is to argue for the historical relevance of various types of ambiguity and dissonance. The first volume focuses on the central paradoxes in ancient henotheism. The term 'henotheism' -- a modern formation after the stereotyped acclamation: #EIS O QEOS# (\'one is the god\'), common to early Christianity and contemporaneous paganism -- denotes the specific devotion to one particular god without denying the existence of, or even cultic attention to, other gods. After its prime in the twenties and thirties of this century the term fell into disuse. Nonetheless, the notion of henotheism represents one of the most remarkable and significant shifts in Graeco-Roman religion and hence deserves fresh reconsideration.
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1 online resource (xiv, 268 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004296725 :
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.
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.
La raison des signes : présages, rites, destin dans les sociétés de la méditerranée ancienne /
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Comment prévoir l'inconnu et contrôler l'inattendu ? Les Anciens ont tenté de répondre à ces questions en interprétant des signes dans lesquels il reconnaissaient des messages divins. Ce recueil permet de comparer la diversité de leurs questionnements dans les sociétés polythéistes ou monothéistes de la Méditerranée antique. Il interroge premièrement la construction rituelle des signes au sein des institutions divinatoires ; deuxièmement, des phénomènes naturels spontanés, qui, apparus hors de toute institution, ont néanmoins valeur de présages ou d'avertissements ; troisièmement, l'intentionnalité manifestée à travers l'intervention divine dans l'histoire des peuples ou les vies singulières ; quatrièmement, l'épistémologie des signes dans des élaborations philosophiques ou théologiques qui éclairent la tension entre données oraculaires et contrôle ritualisé des signes, entre données révélées et argumentations raisonnées visant à neutraliser les injonctions du destin. How to foresee the unknown and master the unexpected? Ancient people tried to answer those questions by interpreting signs considered as divine messages. In this volume, the writers compare and examine this manifold questioning in the polytheistic and monotheistic societies of the ancient Mediterranean Sea. In the first place, it is shown how signs were ritually constructed within instituted practice of divination ; second, how, although some spontaneous natural phenomena appeared out of any instituted context, may nevertheless constitute omens or monition ; third, how the gods' intervention may reveal a sort of intention in the course of national history or individual life ; finally, the essays study the epistemology of signs at work in some philosophical or theological elaborations, which may enlighten the tension between oracular evidence and ritual control of signs, and between revealed facts and reasoning arguments intending to neutralize the injunctions of the divine.
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Text in French; summaries in English. :
1 online resource (xviii, 626 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004210912 :
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.
Studies in the cult of Yahweh.
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These two volumes collect some of the most influential and important scholarly essays by the late Morton Smith (1915-1991), for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City. Smith was admired and feared for his extraordinary ability to look at familiar texts in unfamiliar ways, to re-open old questions, to pose new questions, and to demolish received truths. He practiced the \'hermeneutics of suspicion\' to devastating effect. His answers are not always convincing but his questions cannot be ignored. The essays of Volume I center on the Hebrew Bible (\'Old Testament\'), Ancient Israel and Ancient Judaism, of Volume II on the Christian Bible (\'New Testament\'), Early Christianity and Ancient Magic. Volume II also contains an assessment of Smith's scholarly achievement and a complete list of his publications.
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1 online resource (viii, 334 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295872 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Worlds full of signs : ancient Greek divination in context /
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Worlds Full of Signs compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome. It argues that the character of Greek divination differed fundamentally from that of the two comparanda. Ample attention is given to background and method at first. Subsequent chapters discuss the divinatory elements - sign, homo divinans , and text, relating divination to time and uncertainty. This book brings together sources originating from various times and places, questioning these to consider both generalities of ancient divination and specifics of Greek divination. Greek divination was inherently flexible on many levels: these findings should be connected to Greek views on time and the future as well as the relatively low level of divinatory institutionalization.
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1 online resource (xi, 248 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-236) and indexes. :
9789004256309 :
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.
Alexandros, oder, Der Lügenprophet /
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Lucian's Alexander the False Prophet is the only literary testimony to a highly influential cult of the 'New Asclepios Glycon' which, as archaeological evidence continues to document, spread all over the eastern Mediterranean basin throughout the second and third centuries AD. This book offers an analysis of the complete manuscript tradition, a newly constituted text and a German translation. The extensive introduction deals with (1) the archaeological evidence, (2) the question of Lucian's historical reliability, (3) the reasons for Lucian's opposition to the oracle of Abonuteichos, (4) the institutions and the teaching of the cult at Abonuteichos. Furthermore, there is a commentary on all philological and historical questions and on those issues relevant to the history of religions. Lucian's Alexander is not one of his satirical bravuras, but a strikingly successful attempt at writing a work of contemporary history - a practical example of what the author himself has theoretically discussed in his work, How to Write History .
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1 online resource (viii, 180 pages, [4] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-177) and index. :
9789004295896 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
La romanisation des dieux : l'interpretatio romana en Afrique du Nord sous le Haut-Empire /
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Heirs to the Punic and Berber traditions, the North Africans, once conquered by the Romans and willing to show respect for their new masters' gods, did not want to forsake their beloved ancestral deities and solved this dilemma by giving Roman names to their traditional gods, who nevertheless kept most of their former natures. This phenomenon, known as interpretatio romana, resulted in an interpenetration of both religious universes, each being enriched in the process. Roman African gods thus conceal dual personalities within themselves, which this book tries to investigate through all available sources (epigraphy, literature, numismatic and archaeology), unveiling many unsuspected aspects of great deities like Saturn/Baal Hammon, Astarte/Venus or Mercury/Baal Addir. If those gods of Roman Africa have inspired many individual studies, there was still a need for a book examining them all together within their interrelations. Here is then at last a real global study of the Roman-African pantheon. *** Héritiers des traditions puniques et berbères, les Nord-africains, à l'arrivée du conquérant romain, voulurent conserver leurs divinités ancestrales tout en respectant les dieux de leur nouveau maître. Ils affublèrent donc de noms romains leurs dieux traditionnels tout en leur conservant l'essentiel de leur personnalité d'origine. Ce phénomène, connu sous le terme d' , résulta en une interpénétration des deux univers religieux, qui s'enrichirent ainsi mutuellement. Les dieux de l'Afrique romaine cachent donc des personnalités multiples que cet ouvrage tente de dévoiler en mettant à profit toutes les sources disponibles : épigraphie, littérature, numismatique et archéologie. Ces grandes divinités, telles que Saturne/Baal Hammon, Vénus/Astarté ou Mercure/Baal Addir livrent ainsi tour à tour des aspects insoupçonnés de leurs personnalités. Si les dieux d'Afrique romaine ont suscité diverses études individuelles, il manquait encore un ouvrage qui les examinerait tous ensemble et dans leurs rapports entre eux. Voici donc enfin une véritable étude globale du panthéon romano-africain.
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1 online resource (xiv, 750 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 671-693) and indexes. :
9789047410331 :
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.