Ancient Religions

Ancient Supplication

F. S. Naiden

This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received ... More

This is the first book-length treatment of supplication, an important social practice in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Despite the importance of supplication, it has received little attention, and no previous study has explored so many aspects of the practice. This book investigates the varied gestures made by the suppliants, the types of requests they make, the arguments used in defense of their requests, and the role of the supplicandus, who evaluates and decides whether to fulfill the requests. Varied and abundant sources invite comparison between the societies of Greece, especially Athens, and the Roman Republic and Principate and also among literary genres such as epic and tragedy. Additionally, this book formulates an analysis of the ritual in its legal and political contexts. Less

The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science

Kevin Van Bladel

Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing ... More

Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for 700 years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the 8th century, accounts of Hermes’ identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the 8th century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view. Less

Athenian Myths and Festivals: Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood

Robert Parker (ed.)

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, this book investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. It ... More

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, this book investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. It examines the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. The book also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. This book, displays attention to detail and a concern for methodological rigour. Less

Debating the Saints’ Cult in the Age of Gregory the Great

Matthew Dal Santo (ed.)

This book argues that the Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, Pope Gregory the Great's (590–604) most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a ... More

This book argues that the Dialogues on the Miracles of the Italian Fathers, Pope Gregory the Great's (590–604) most controversial work, should be considered from the perspective of a wide-ranging debate about the saints which took place in early Byzantine society. Like other contemporary works in Greek and Syriac, Gregory's Latin text debated the nature and plausibility of the saints' miracles and the propriety of the saints' cult. Rather than viewing the early Byzantine world as overwhelmingly pious or credulous, the book argues that many contemporaries questioned and challenged the claims of hagiographers and other promoters of the saints' miracles. From Italy to the heart of the Persian Empire at Ctesiphon, a healthy, sceptical, rationalism remained alive and well. The book's conclusion argues that doubt towards the saints reflected a current of political dissent in the East Roman or early Byzantine Empire, where patronage of Christian saints' shrines was used to sanction imperial autocracy. These far-reaching debates about religion and authority also help re-contextualize the emergence of Islam in the late ancient Near East. Less

Disciplining Christians: Correction and Community in Augustine’s Letters

Jennifer V. Ebbeler

This book reconsiders several of Augustine's most well-known letter exchanges, including his famously controversial correspondence with Jerome and his efforts to engage his Donatist ... More

This book reconsiders several of Augustine's most well-known letter exchanges, including his famously controversial correspondence with Jerome and his efforts to engage his Donatist rivals in a letter exchange. It reads these letters with close attention to conventional epistolary norms and practices, in an effort to identify innovative features of Augustine's epistolary practice. In particular, it notes and analyzes Augustine's adaptation of the traditionally friendly letter exchange to the correction of perceived error in the Christian community. In transforming the practice of letter exchange into a tool of correction, Augustine draws on both the classical philosophical tradition and also scripture. His particular innovation is his insistence that this process of correction can—and often must—be done in the potentially public form of a letter exchange rather than in the privacy of a face-to-face conversation. This is particularly true when the perceived error is one that has the potential to jeopardize the salvation of the entire Christian community. In offering epistolary correction, and requesting reciprocal correction from his correspondents, Augustine treats his practice of letter exchange as a performance of Christian caritas. Indeed, in his view, the friendliest correspondence was that which was concerned solely with preserving the salvation of the participants. In recognizing Augustine's commitment to the corrective correspondence and thus reading his letters with attention to their corrective function, we gain new insights into the complicated dynamics of Augustine's relationships with Jerome, Paulinus of Nola, the Donatists, and Pelagius. Less

Greek and Roman Festivals: Content, Meaning, and Practice

J. Rasmus Brandt, Jon W. Iddeng (eds)

Festivals were the heartbeat of Greek and Roman society, its social and political organization, and its institutions. They set the rhythm of the year, as laid down in a calendar, and ... More

Festivals were the heartbeat of Greek and Roman society, its social and political organization, and its institutions. They set the rhythm of the year, as laid down in a calendar, and through them divine protection of the public and private spheres was ensured and the populace was joined together in common acts centred on common symbols. The present book contains twelve chapters on Greek and Roman festivals from an interdisciplinary field of Classical scholarship: archaeology, history, history of religions, and philology. The book addresses the key question of what a Greco-Roman festival was, and show that the answer is many-faceted and complex. The very concept of ‘festival’ is examined; the origin, content, practice of different festivals, with their implicit features and historical significance, are discussed. The social, political, and ritual function of ancient festivals is illuminated by examples and theoretical reflections. The book accordingly contributes to a more nuanced and finely delineated picture of the close connections between festivals as religious and social phenomena and processes, and the historical dynamics that shaped them in the times of the Greeks and Romans. Less

The Last Pagans of Rome

Alan Cameron

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (402/3 CE) gives a vivid account of the confrontation between the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius and the Western usurper Eugenius. To many, the defeat ... More

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (402/3 CE) gives a vivid account of the confrontation between the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius and the Western usurper Eugenius. To many, the defeat of Eugenius and his pagan followers along the Frigidus River in 394 was the last gasp of a vigorous pagan revolt in the late 4th century, one spearheaded by the Roman aristocracy. This elaborate campaign to derail Christianity, as the story goes, consisted of identifiable pagan literary circles, pagan patronage of the classics, and pagan propaganda in art and literature. Recently, however, scholars have shown this picture to be wanting in accuracy and nuance. This book replaces this view with a detailed portrait of pagan society during the pivotal 4th and early 5th centuries. The subject of the book is the duration, nature, and consequences of the survival of the last pagans. It is widely believed that pagan aristocrats remained in the majority till at least the 380s, and continued to be a powerful force well into the 5th century. On this basis the main focus of much modern scholarship has been on their supposed stubborn resistance to Christianity. Rather surprisingly, these aristocrats have been transformed from the arrogant, philistine land-grabbers most of them were into fearless champions of senatorial privilege, literature lovers, and aficionados of classical (especially Greek) culture. The dismantling of this romantic myth is one of the main goals of this book. If a pagan aristocracy did not mount a defiant political and cultural rearguard action, what did they do? If elite culture at this time was not starkly divided between pagan and Christian, what did it look like? By sifting through the abundant textual evidence the book concludes that the many activities and artifacts previously identified as hallmarks of a pagan revival were in fact just as important to the life of cultivated Christians. Far from being a subversive pagan activity designed to rally pagans, the promotion of classical literature, learning, and art—and its acceptance by many elite Christians—may actually have helped the last reluctant pagans to finally abandon the old cults and adopt Christianity. Less

Laughing with Medusa: Classical Myth and Feminist Thought

Vanda Zajko, Miriam Leonard (eds)

This book explores a series of interlinking questions, including: Does history's self-positioning as the successor of myth result in the exclusion of alternative narratives of the past? ... More

This book explores a series of interlinking questions, including: Does history's self-positioning as the successor of myth result in the exclusion of alternative narratives of the past? How does feminism exclude itself from certain historical discourses? Why has psychoanalysis placed myth at the centre of its explorations of the modern subject? Why are the Muses feminine? Do the categories of myth and politics intersect or are they mutually exclusive? Does feminism's recourse to myth offer a script of resistance or commit it to an ineffective utopianism? This book engages with these questions from a truly interdisciplinary perspective, covering a wide range of subject areas including poetry, philosophy, science, history, and psychoanalysis as well as classics. It also includes a work of fiction, ‘Iphigeneia's Wedding’, by the poet Elizabeth Cook. Less

The Lindian Chronicle and the Greek Creation of their Past

Carolyn Higbie

Carolyn Higbie uses an inscription of the 1st century BC from Lindos to study the ancient Greeks and their past. The inscription contains two inventories. The first catalogues some forty ... More

Carolyn Higbie uses an inscription of the 1st century BC from Lindos to study the ancient Greeks and their past. The inscription contains two inventories. The first catalogues some forty objects given to Athena Lindia by figures from the mythological past (including Heracles, Helen, and Menelaus) and the historical past (including Alexander the Great and Hellenistic figures). The second catalogues three epiphanies of Athena Lindia to the townspeople when they were in need of her assistance. By drawing on anthropological approaches as well as archaeological and literary evidence, this book explores what was important to the Greeks about their past, how they reconstructed it, and how they made use of it in their present. Less

A Moment’s Ornament: The Poetics of Nympholepsy in Ancient Greece

Corinne Ondine Pache

From Hesiod’s first-person account of his encounters with the Muses on Mount Helicon to Theocritus’s nymphs, love between goddesses and mortal men provides the ancient Greeks with a way ... More

From Hesiod’s first-person account of his encounters with the Muses on Mount Helicon to Theocritus’s nymphs, love between goddesses and mortal men provides the ancient Greeks with a way of articulating both the genealogical and cultic connection to their gods and to their past. This book examines the theme of nympholepsy—the experience of being “seized” by a nymph or a goddess—in ancient Greek cult and poetry from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. In poetry, this topos, which is ubiquitous in many of the most well-known ancient Greek sources, focuses on the figure of the goddess or nymph who falls in love with a mortal man and subsequently bears a mortal child. Erotic love leads to motherhood and a genetic connection between mortals and immortals. The theme also finds its way in ritual as stories of encounters between divinities and mortal men give rise to sanctuaries centering on nymphs and nympholepts. Beyond the individual dimension of the nympholeptic experience, these narratives are also integrated within the community through both poetry and shrines. Nympholeptic narratives thus articulate key elements of the bond between mortals and immortals and the connection between myth and ritual in ancient Greece. Both the cave sanctuaries founded by ancient nympholepts and the poets’ narratives of love between goddesses and their mortal lovers function as “a moment’s ornament” by preserving the memory of an encounter with the otherworldly at the intersection between myth and cult. Less