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Inscribing devotion and death : archaeological evidence for Jewish populations of North Africa /
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Reliance on essentialist or syncretistic models of cultural dynamics has limited past evaluations of ancient Jewish populations. This reexamination of evidence for Jews of North Africa offers an alternative approach. Drawing from methods developed in cultural studies and historical linguistics, this book replaces traditional categories used to examine evidence for early Jewish populations and demonstrates how direct comparison of Jewish material evidence with that of its neighbors allows for a reassessment of what the category of "Jewish" might have meant in different North African locations and periods and, by extension, elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The result is a transformed analysis of Jewish cultural identity that both emphasizes its indebtedness to larger regional contexts and allows for a more informed and complex understanding of Jewish cultural distinctiveness.
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1 online resource (xviii, 342 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-334) and index. :
9789047423843 :
0927-7633 ; :
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, 499 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-433) and indexes. :
9789047405801 :
0927-7633 ; :
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.
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.
Portraits of spiritual authority : religious power in early Christianity, Byzantium, and the Christian Orient /
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This volume deals with several figures of spiritual authority in Christianity during late antiquity and the early middle ages, and seeks to illuminate the way in which the struggle for religious influence evolved with changes in church and society. A number of literary portraits are examined, portraits which, in various literary genres, are themselves designed to establish and propagate the authority of the people whose lives and activities they describe. The sequence begins with visionary and prophetic figures of the second and third centuries, proceeds through several testimonies from the fourth century to the power of holy persons, moves on to Syriac portraits of the fifth to seventh centuries, and ends with the demise of the authority of the holy man in the eighth.
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1 online resource (xiii, 227 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295919 :
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.
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.
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.
Isis en occident : actes du IIème Colloque international sur les études isiaques, Lyon III 16-17 mai 2002 /
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In this volume, 16 contributions by specialists of political and religious history of Antiquity give a precious general overview of the diffusion of Egyptian cults in the West. The first part gives a very precise survey of the diffusion of Egyptian cults in the western Roman world, while the second part of the book is devoted to special fields usually considered as subsidiary (numismatics, lychnology, gemmology), but in fact essential for a better understanding of the success of the Isiac cults in the Graeco-Roman world between 330 BC and 400 AD.
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1 online resource (xxv, 510 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047412328 :
0927-7633 ; :
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.
De Memphis à Rome : actes du Ier Colloque international sur les études isiaques, Poitiers-- Futuroscope, 8-10 avril 1999 /
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The studies of the Isiac Cults are forty years old. Many of the scholars who have contributed to the development of this particular field of research, - the diffusion of the Egyptian cults in the Graeco-Roman world -, met in the Futuroscope of Poitiers for a three-day colloquium, to establish the progress of research, and the subjects which need more discussion. The synthesis of this colloquium is presented in this volume. The best specialists in the world give their assessment of the past forty years of research: which tools do students and scholars have? Which -provisional- conclusions can be drawn about, for example, the hellenization of Isis, the reality of the Roman soldier's devotion to Isis or Sarapis, the celebration of the Isiaca in Rome from Republican days well into the Empire? This volume is a very useful update on what we do and do not know in the study of the Isiac cults in the Graeco-Roman world.
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1 online resource (xxv, 216 pages) : illustrations, map. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295933 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Helios megistos : zur synkretistischen Theologie der Spätantike /
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Helios Megistos deals with conceptions of the Greek sun-god Helios in some selected works of late antique literature. The syncretistic picture is characterized by the heterogenous contours and polyvalent functions that were assigned to the god. The main part of the book presents Helios in the Orphic hymns, in the Greek-Egyptian Magical Papyri, in Neoplatonic philosophy and in the Dionysiac epic of Nonnos. The introduction gives a summary of the importance attached to Helios in the older Greek literary tradition, and the appendix contains a sketch of the roles attributed to Ancient Near Eastern sun-deities. Both sections shed light on the conditions that gave rise to the phenomenon of late antique sun theology. These texts, analysed for the first time from the point of view of that sun theology, rather than on the basis only of cultic or political data, extend and enrich our picture of a post-Christian sun religion that reflects strong classical and oriental influences.
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1 online resource (xxxiii, 268 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004295858 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nile into Tiber : Egypt in the Roman world : proceedings of the IIIrd International Conference of Isis Studies, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, May 11-14, 2005 /
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Interest in all kinds of interactions between Egypt and Rome has grown considerably over the last decade. This debate has not only altered our views on the impact of Rome on Alexandria and Egypt but also strongly put to the fore the reverse direction of this cultural interaction: Egyptian influences on the Roman world. It is this topic, Egypt in the Roman World , that was central to the IIIrd International Conference of Isis Studies, held in Leiden in May 2005. This book, a selection of the papers delivered at the conference, gives a clear overview of the debate as it has developed in recent years. In two parts (I. Interpretations of the meaning of Aegyptiaca Romana and II. Understanding the cults of Isis in their local context )preceded by a general introduction it offers a broad perspective on the various aspects of cultural interaction between Egypt and Rome, also by bringing together different research traditions in this field.
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1 online resource (xxv, 562 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047411130 :
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.
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.
Nemesis, the Roman state and the games /
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Although Nemesis was already revered in Archaic Greece, the main evidence for worship comes from the Roman Principate. During this period two important facets of the cult were the association of the goddess with the state, and her presence in agonistic contexts. Nemesis, the Roman State and the Games explores these aspects, discerning a possible connection between them. The author begins by discussing the origin and background of the goddess. He then clarifies the ways in which the goddess was enlisted into the service of the Roman emperor and state. Finally, he explains the presence of the goddess almost exclusively at the Roman Munus and Venatio as derived from the function of such games to express the proper order of society. Nemesis represents a significant re-evaluation of the place of Nemesis in the Roman World. The book also provides an invaluable corpus of epigraphic, literary, and iconographic evidence for the goddess.
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1 online resource (xv, 373 pages, [28] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-354) and indexes. :
9789004295803 :
0927-7633 ; :
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.
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.
Etudes sur les Hymnes orphiques /
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The book is a study of the Orphic Hymns , a collection of 87 Greek texts in hexameter addressed to various deities. These hymns are closely related to one another and seem to originate in Asia Minor during the first centuries of the Christian era. The great originality of this corpus is that a link can be traced between a set of beliefs, rituals, offerings and mysteries, and a group of believers. Surprisingly the Hymns has been generally neglected. Les études sur les Hymnes orphiques begins with a study of the genre. The Hymns are essentially composed of long lists of epithets and are therefore distinctive. Through the choice of epithets in the different hymns and a comparision between the different texts it is possible to trace allusions to myths, to rituals and to mysteries related to the gods. This first part also concentrates on the literary ways of expressing religious ideas. The group using this text referred to the legendary figure Orpheus as the composer of the Hymns . It is therefore not surprising to find Dionysos at the center of this text. The basic approach is to compare the content of the Hymns to what we know and do not know about orphism. Questions such as vegetarianism, prohibition of beans, belief in metempsychosis, the content of the mysteries arise. It may seem awkward to find typically orphic gods, such as Protogonos, next to traditional gods and local deities from Asia Minor. Finally, the group was organised and the participants bore titles such as boukolos , the oxherd. A large place is given to epigraphy. The aim is to fit these elements to a definition of orphism during the first centuries of our era and to put together an image of this particular group. This book will be essential to scholars interested in orphism, in Greek religion, in religion at the beginning of Christianity, in literature and in hymns.
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1 online resource (xvi, 374 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 350-361) and indexes. :
9789004301504 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.