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Of Priests and Kings: The Babylonian New Year Festival in the Last Age of Cuneiform Culture /
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Editing and examining source-critically for the first time the Late Babylonian ritual texts dealing with the New Year Festival, this book proposes an incisive re-interpretation of the most frequently discussed of all Mesopotamian rituals. The festival's twelve-day paradigm is dissolved in favor of a more historically dynamic model, with the ritual texts being firmly anchored in the Hellenistic period. As part of a larger group of texts constituting what can be called Late Babylonian Priestly Literature, they reflect the Babylonian priesthoods' fears and aspirations of that time much more than an actual ritual reality.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004513037
9789004512955
Of Priests and Kings: The Babylonian New Year Festival in the Last Age of Cuneiform Culture /
:
Editing and examining source-critically for the first time the Late Babylonian ritual texts dealing with the New Year Festival, this book proposes an incisive re-interpretation of the most frequently discussed of all Mesopotamian rituals. The festival's twelve-day paradigm is dissolved in favor of a more historically dynamic model, with the ritual texts being firmly anchored in the Hellenistic period. As part of a larger group of texts constituting what can be called Late Babylonian Priestly Literature, they reflect the Babylonian priesthoods' fears and aspirations of that time much more than an actual ritual reality.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004513037
9789004512955
Historical and archaeological aspects of Egyptian funerary culture : religious ideas and ritual practice in Middle Kingdom elite cemeteries /
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Historical and Archaeological Aspects of Egyptian Funerary Culture , a thoroughly reworked translation of Les textes des sarcophages et la démocratie published in 2008, challenges the widespread idea that the "royal" Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom after a process of "democratisation" became, in the Middle Kingdom, accessible even to the average Egyptian in the form of the Coffin Texts. Rather they remained an element of elite funerary culture, and particularly so in the Upper Egyptian nomes. The author traces the emergence here of the so-called "nomarchs" and their survival in the Middle Kingdom. The site of Dayr al-Barshā, currently under excavation, shows how nomarch cemeteries could even develop into large-scale processional landscapes intended for the cult of the local ruler. This book also provides an updated list of the hundreds of (mostly unpublished) Middle Kingdom coffins and proposes a new reference system for these.
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004274990 :
1566-2055 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Flavian Rome : culture, image, text /
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The politics, literature and culture of ancient Rome during the Flavian principate (69-96 ce) have recently been the subject of intense investigation. In this volume of new, specially commissioned studies, twenty-five scholars from five countries have combined to produce a critical survey of the period, which underscores and re-evaluates its foundational importance. Most of the authors are established international figures, but a feature of the volume is the presence of young, emerging scholars at the cutting edge of the discipline. The studies attend to a diversity of topics, including: the new political settlement, the role of the army, change and continuity in Rome's social structures, cultural festivals, architecture, sculpture, religion, coinage, imperial discourse, epistemology and political control, rhetoric, philosophy, Greek intellectual life, drama, poetry, patronage, Flavian historians, amphitheatrical Rome. All Greek and Latin text is translated.
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1 online resource (xvii, 754 pages) : illustrations, plans. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 685-717) and indexes. :
9789004217157 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Islamic thought in the dialogue of cultures : a historical and bibliographical survey /
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Islamic thought is the most beautiful result of a multicultural dialogue. Islamic culture became a bridge between antiquity, Iranian scholars, Syriac and Arabic Christians and the Latin Middle Ages. Its richness of ideas, its plurality of values can contribute to the requirements of modern plurality. The monograph aims at a historical and bibliographical survey of the qurʾānic and rational world-view of early Islam, of the period of translations from Greek into Syriac and Arabic, and of the impact of Islamic thought on the Latin Middle Ages. Critical reflexions of Muslim scholars stimulated new scientific ideas and make us aware of the contribution of Islam to humanity.
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1 online resource (xi, 274 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-244) and index. :
9789004232044 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac culture of his day /
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Jacob of Edessa (c.640-708) is considered the most learned Christian of the early days of Islam. In all fifteen contributions to this volume, written by prominent specialists, the interaction between Christianity, Judaism, and the new religion is an important issue. The articles discuss Jacob's biography as well as his position in early Islamic Edessa, and give a full picture of the various aspects of Jacob of Edessa's life and work as a scholar and clergyman. Attention is paid to his efforts in the fields of historiography, correspondence, canon law, text and interpretation of the Bible, language and translation, theology, philosophy, and science. The book, which marks the 1300th anniversary of Jacob's death, also contains a bibliographical clavis.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-293) and indexes. :
9789047426936 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Guide to the study of ancient magic /
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In the midst of academic debates about the utility of the term "magic" and the cultural meaning of ancient words like mageia or khesheph , this Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic seeks to advance the discussion by separating out three topics essential to the very idea of magic. The three major sections of this volume address (1) indigenous terminologies for ambiguous or illicit ritual in antiquity; (2) the ancient texts, manuals, and artifacts commonly designated "magical" or used to represent ancient magic; and (3) a series of contexts, from the written word to materiality itself, to which the term "magic" might usefully pertain. The individual essays in this volume cover most of Mediterranean and Near Eastern antiquity, with essays by both established and emergent scholars of ancient religions. In a burgeoning field of "magic studies" trying both to preserve and to justify critically the category itself, this volume brings new clarity and provocative insights. This will be an indispensable resource to all interested in magic in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, ancient Greece and Rome, Early Christianity and Judaism, Egypt through the Christian period, and also comparative and critical theory.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004390751 :
0927-7633 ;
Grammar as interpretation : Greek literature in its linguistic contexts /
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Looking at its subject from the standpoint of modern discourse analysis, this study deals with problems of style and grammar in Greek and Latin texts. Its aim is to shed light on the interaction between the mechanism of the Greek and Latin languages as interactive tools and the structure of the texts that have come down to us. The interpretive orientation offered differs from most literary studies in its taking linguistic observations as point of departure, and its considering grammar as a positive factor in the interpretive process. It differs from most linguistic studies in the field in demonstrating the importance of linguistic methodology for classical philology in general. The book contains studies of various authors, genres, and text types, preceded by an introductory essay on the role of grammar in philology.
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1 online resource (262 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004330061 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The reception of Greek lyric poetry in the ancient world : transmission, canonization and paratext /
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In The Reception of Greek Lyric Poetry in the Ancient World: Transmission, Canonization and Paratext, a team of international scholars consider the afterlife of early Greek lyric poetry (iambic, elegiac, and melic) up to the 12th century CE, from a variety of intersecting perspectives: reperformance, textualization, the direct and indirect tradition, anthologies, poets' Lives, and the disquisitions of philosophers and scholars. Particular attention is given to the poets Tyrtaeus, Solon, Theognis, Sappho, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Pindar, and Timotheus. Consideration is given to their reception in authors such as Aristophanes, Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, Athenaeus, Aelius Aristides, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, and Statius, as well as their discussion by Peripatetic scholars, the Hellenistic scholia to Pindar, Horace's commentator Porphyrio, and Eustathius on Pindar.
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Most of the chapters in this volume were originally presented at a conference organized by Oxford University and Reading University under the auspices of the Network of Archaic Greek Song at the University of Reading in 2013. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004414525
Jewish Aramaic curse texts from late-antique Mesopotamia : "may these curses go out and flee" /
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The corpus of Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia is perhaps the most important source we have for studying the everyday beliefs and practices of the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Manichaean, Zoroastrian and Pagan communities on the eve of the Islamic conquests. In Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia , Dan Levene collects and analyses a selection of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls. While such texts are usually apotropaic or healing in purpose, those collected here are distinctive in that their purpose was to curse or return curses against human adversaries. This book presents new editions of thirty texts, of which fourteen are edited here for the first time, with an introduction, commentary, analysis and glossaries, as well as photographs. "In this valuable addition to the literature on the role of bowls with aggressive texts in magic practices in this period, Levene (Jewish history and culture, U. of Southampton, UK) presents a summary of newly edited and already published bowls with Aramaic transcription; English translation; its type (e.g., invocation of demons to attack a named person, counter-charm); publication source; formulaic parallels in other texts; and notes.\' Reference andamp; Research Book News, 2013.
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1 online resource (xiv, 164 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004257269 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
New Approaches to Textual and Image Analysis in Early Jewish and Christian Studies /
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The digital world pervades the everyday lives of most people, and online tools have become an essential part of academic research in many disciplines. This reality is true also for biblical studies and related disciplines, areas that work with complex literary traditions, multiple manuscript cultures, and many methodological approaches to the problems at the centre of our discussions. This book shines a light on multiple new and emerging approaches to big disciplinary questions in biblical studies and beyond by highlight projects that are using digital tools, crafting computer-assisted approaches, and re-thinking the resources fundamental to the history of research.
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1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004515116
9789004518131
The role of metals in ancient Greek history /
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The first in-depth study of the field in more than 20 years analyzes the role of various metals in the context of Greek economic life, politics, culture and art, traces the movement of metal from ore to finished objects, including works of art, and shows the relations between the regions where metals were extracted and the centres of metalworking, the structure of the workshops and the connections between them and the role of the workshops in economic life at different stages in Greek history. In doing so it adopts a multidisciplinary approach, defining the role of metals in the history of Greek society using the widest possible variety of sources: the excavated remains of workshops and hoards, archaeometallurgical finds; the results of studies of ancient mines and analyses of ancient metal objects; bronze plastics and jewelry, coins et cetera The chronological span of the study is the 8th-1st centuries B.C., id est from the beginning of the main period of Greek colonization till the end of the Hellenistic era. The geographical scope of the work is the Greek oikumene. New to most scholars will be Treister's knowledge of objects and technologies in the eastern Greek and Roman world of the Northern Black Sea and Colchis. While this book does not pretend to be a definitive survey of the history of mining and metallurgy in the Greek world, it is a particularly useful interim report.
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1 online resource (xiv, 481 pages, [61] pages of plates) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 404-454) and index. :
9789004329829 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Catullus' Poem on Attis : Text and Contexts /
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Catullus 63, the poem on Attis' self-castration, regret, and final subjection to the goddess Cybele, has been called 'the most remarkable poetical creation in the Latin language'. Scholarly debate has focused on the poem's relationship to the myths and cults of Attis and Cybele, its dependence on Hellenistic models, its meanings for a Roman audience, and its unusual language and metre. In the present volume these questions are being addressed by a team of specialists in religious history, Hellenistic poetry, Roman poetry and culture, and Latin linguistics. The volume not only sheds much new light on a fascinating poem, it also demonstrates how the various disciplines of Classics may cooperate towards a better understanding of ancient culture. The contents of this volume also appear in Mnemosyne , 57,5. (2004), as a special issue on Catullus.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047414469
9789004141322
Socrates and the socratic dialogue /
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Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue assembles the most complete range of studies on Socrates and the Socratic dialogue. It focuses on portrayals of Socrates, whether as historical figure or protagonist of 'Socratic dialogues', in extant and fragmentary texts from Classical Athens through Late Antiquity. Special attention is paid to the evolving power and texture of the Socratic icon as it adopted old and new uses in philosophy, biography, oratory, and literature. Chapters in this volume focus on Old Comedy, Sophistry, the first-generation Socratics including Plato and Xenophon, Aristotle and Aristoxenus, Epicurus and Stoicism, Cicero and Persius, Plutarch, Apuleius and Maximus, Diogenes Laertius, Libanius, Themistius, Julian, and Proclus.
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1 online resource (viii, 931 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004341227 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Audias fabulas veteres : Anatolian studies in honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová /
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The publication Audias fabulas veteres. Anatolian Studies in Honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová contains 31 contributions on current research topics in the fields of Ancient Anatolian and Near Eastern Languages, History, Religion, and Literature. The topics cover not only the main languages of this geographical area, such as Hittite, Luwian, Hattian, Hurrian, Akkadian, and Sumerian but also comparative linguistics and the latest methods of digitalising cuneiform texts, as well as religion, mythology and divinities, rituals, proverbs and analysis of geographical and historical documentation. Finally, it offers new analyses of some of the most remarkable texts and text passages of the ancient Anatolian literary tradition.
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1 online resource (xl, 518 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004312616 :
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.
Everyday Life in Graeco-Roman Times : Documentary Papyri and the New Testament /
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Everyday life in Graeco-Roman times has fascinated generations of scholars, students and people interested in the New Testament alike. One of the most unique sources to access ancient everyday affairs are documentary papyri because they provide access to the ancient world both before and while it was shaped into one in which Christianity began to predominate. These textual sources allow the modern reader to meet everyday people from the past through their own writings and in texts about their daily affairs, joys, and sorrows. Documentary papyri provide an abundance of information to contextualize the New Testament and its authors, and to better understand its stories and messages. This volume aims at highlighting some of these contexts and to shed new papyrological light on the New Testament. The essays in this volume have been written in honour of Peter Arzt-Grabner, who has illuminated the New Testament through documentary papyri for more than three decades.
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1 online resource (304 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9783657794638
Flavius Josephus' Self-Characterisation in First-Century Rome /
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The Jewish War describes the history of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-70 CE). This study deals with one of this work's most intriguing features: why and how Flavius Josephus, its author, describes his own actions in the context of this conflict in such detail. Glas traces the thematic and rhetorical aspects of autobiographical discourse in War and uses contextual evidence to situate Josephus' self-characterisation in a Flavian Roman setting. In doing so, he sheds new light on this Jewish writer's historiographical methods and his deep knowledge and creative use of Graeco-Roman culture.
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1 online resource (308 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004697645
Brill's companion to the reception of Herodotus in antiquity and beyond /
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Brill's Companion to the Reception of Herodotus in Antiquity and Beyond offers new insights on the reception and cultural transmission of one of the most controversial and influential texts to have survived from Classical Antiquity. Herodotus' Histories has been adopted, adapted, imitated, contested, admired and criticized across diverse genres, historical periods, and geographical boundaries. This companion, edited by Jessica Priestley and Vasiliki Zali, examines the reception of Herodotus in a range of cultural contexts, from the fifth century BC to the twentieth century AD. The essays consider key topics such as Herodotus' place in the Western historiographical tradition, translation of and scholarly engagement with the Histories , and the use of the Histories as a model for describing and interpreting cultural and geographical material.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004299849 :
2213-1426 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From the delta to the cataract : studies dedicated to Mohamed el-Bialy /
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This volume in honour of Mohamed el-Bialy offers 22 contributions by his friends and colleagues in appreciation for many years of true cooperation during his long career in Egyptian Archaeology. The articles deal with a wide range of topics and cover a time span from prehistory to the Byzantine Era. Unpublished objects and texts as well as results of most recent field research are presented by leading scholars in archaeology, Egyptology, architectural history and religious studies. The focus on the regions of Aswan and Ancient Thebes reflects the particular research interests of the honoree and his constant efforts to protect the archaeological heritage at these two centers of Ancient Egyptian civilization.
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1 online resource (xviii, 294 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004293458 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.