Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece

Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Stella Katsarou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100029613X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece brings together a series of stimulating chapters contributing to the archaeology and our modern understanding of the character and importance of cave sanctuaries in the fi rst millennium BCE Mediterranean. Written by emerging and established archaeologists and researchers, the book employs a fascinating and wide range of approaches and methodologies to investigate, and interpret material assemblages from cave shrines, many of which are introduced here for the fi rst time. An introductory section explores the emergence and growth of caves as centres of cult and religion. The chapters then probe some of the meanings attached to cave spaces and votive materials such as terracotta fi gurines, and ceramics, and those who created and used them. The authors use sensory and gender approaches, discuss the identity of the worshippers, and the contribution of statistical analysis to the role of votive materials. At the heart of the volume is the examination of cave materials excavated on the Cycladic islands and Crete, in Attika and Aitoloakarnania, on the Ionian islands and in southern Italy. This is a welcome volume for students of prehistoric and classical archaeology,enthusiasts of the history of caves, religion, ancient history, and anthropology.

Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece

Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Stella Katsarou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100029613X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece brings together a series of stimulating chapters contributing to the archaeology and our modern understanding of the character and importance of cave sanctuaries in the fi rst millennium BCE Mediterranean. Written by emerging and established archaeologists and researchers, the book employs a fascinating and wide range of approaches and methodologies to investigate, and interpret material assemblages from cave shrines, many of which are introduced here for the fi rst time. An introductory section explores the emergence and growth of caves as centres of cult and religion. The chapters then probe some of the meanings attached to cave spaces and votive materials such as terracotta fi gurines, and ceramics, and those who created and used them. The authors use sensory and gender approaches, discuss the identity of the worshippers, and the contribution of statistical analysis to the role of votive materials. At the heart of the volume is the examination of cave materials excavated on the Cycladic islands and Crete, in Attika and Aitoloakarnania, on the Ionian islands and in southern Italy. This is a welcome volume for students of prehistoric and classical archaeology,enthusiasts of the history of caves, religion, ancient history, and anthropology.

Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece

Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Stella Katsarou
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781003015765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
"Caves and Worship in Ancient Greece brings together a series of stimulating chapters contributing to the archaeology, and our modern understanding of the character and importance of caves and cave sanctuaries in the first millennium BCE Mediterranean. Written by emerging and established archaeologists and researchers, the book employs a fascinating and wide range of approaches and methodologies to introduce, investigate and interpret material assemblages, many of which are introduced here for the first time. An introductory section explores the emergence and growth of caves as centres of cult and religion. The chapters then probe some of the meanings attached to materials such as bronze shields, terracotta figurines and ceramics, and those who created and used them. The authors use sensory and gender approaches, discuss the contribution of statistical analysis and the role of votive materials. At the heart of the volume is the examination of cave materials excavated on the Cycladic Islands and Crete, in Attika and on the western Greek mainland in Aitoloakarnania, on the Ionian Islands and in Southern Italy. This is a welcome volume for students of prehistoric and classical archaeology, enthusiasts of the history of caves, religion, ancient history, and anthropology"--

Caves and Worship in Greece

Caves and Worship in Greece PDF Author: Stella Katsarou
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780367859169
Category : Caves
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Cave and Worship in Ancient Greece brings together a series of stimulating chapters contributing to the archaeology and our modern understanding of the character and importance of cave sanctuaries in the fi rst millennium BCE Mediterranean. Written by emerging and established archaeologists and researchers, the book employs a fascinating and wide range of approaches and methodologies to investigate, and interpret material assemblages from cave shrines, many of which are introduced here for the fi rst time. An introductory section explores the emergence and growth of caves as centres of cult and religion. The chapters then probe some of the meanings attached to cave spaces and votive materials such as terracotta fi gurines, and ceramics, and those who created and used them. The authors use sensory and gender approaches, discuss the identity of the worshippers, and the contribution of statistical analysis to the role of votive materials. At the heart of the volume is the examination of cave materials excavated on the Cycladic islands and Crete, in Attika and Aitoloakarnania, on the Ionian islands and in southern Italy. This is a welcome volume for students of prehistoric and classical archaeology, enthusiasts of the history of caves, religion, ancient history, and anthropology.

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind

Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind PDF Author: Yulia Ustinova
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191563420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind analyses techniques of searching for ultimate wisdom in ancient Greece. The Greeks perceived mental experiences of exceptional intensity as resulting from divine intervention. They believed that to share in the immortals' knowledge, one had to liberate the soul from the burden of the mortal body by attaining an altered state of consciousness, that is, by merging with a superhuman being or through possession by a deity. These states were often attained by inspired mediums, `impresarios of the gods' - prophets, poets, and sages - who descended into caves or underground chambers. Yulia Ustinova juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuropsychological research. This novel approach enables an examination of religious phenomena not only from the outside, but also from the inside: it penetrates the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest, and demonstrates that the darkness of the caves provided conditions vital for their activities.

Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe

Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe PDF Author: Donald Alexander Mackenzie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art, Cretan
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
A study of the origins and history of the Minoan civilization of Crete and its myths, legends, and interactions with neighboring Hellenic kingdoms.

Pausanias's Description of Greece

Pausanias's Description of Greece PDF Author: Pausanias
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greece
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description


Popular Religion and Ritual in Prehistoric and Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean

Popular Religion and Ritual in Prehistoric and Ancient Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean PDF Author: Giorgos Vavouranakis
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1789690463
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This volume features a group of select peer-reviewed papers by an international group of authors, both younger and senior academics and researchers, on the frequently neglected popular cult and other ritual practices in prehistoric and ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean.

Greek Nymphs

Greek Nymphs PDF Author: Jennifer Larson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198028687
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Greek Nymphs: Myths, Cult, Lore is the first comprehensive study of the nymph in the ancient Greek world. This well-illustrated book examines nymphs as both religious and mythopoetic figures, tracing their development and significance in Greek culture from Homer through the Hellenistic period. Drawing upon a broad range of literary and archaeological evidence, Jennifer Larson discusses sexually powerful nymphs in ancient and modern Greek folklore, the use of dolls representing nymphs in the socialization of girls, the phenomenon of nympholepsy, the nymphs' relations with other deities in the Greek pantheon, and the nymphs' role in mythic narratives of city-founding and colonization. The book includes a survey of the evidence for myths and cults of the nymphs arranged by geographical region, and a special section of the worship of nymphs in caves throughout the Greek world.

Mixanthrôpoi

Mixanthrôpoi PDF Author: Emma Aston
Publisher: Presses universitaires de Liège
ISBN: 2821895631
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Many of the beings in this book – Cheiron, Pan, Acheloos, the Sirens and others – will be familiar from the narratives of Greek mythology, in which fabulous anatomies abound. However, they have never previously been studied together from a religious perspective, as recipients of cult and as members of the ancient pantheon. This book is the first major treatment of the use of part-animal – mixanthropic – form in the representation and visual imagination of Greek gods and goddesses, and of its significance with regard to divine character and function. What did it mean to depict deities in a form so strongly associated in the ancient imagination with monstrous adversaries? How did iconography, myth and ritual interact in particular sites of worship? Drawing together literary and visual material, this study establishes the themes dominant in the worship of divine mixanthropes, and argues that, so far from being insignificant curiosities, they make possible a greater understanding of the fabric of ancient religious practice, in particular the tense and challenging relationship between divinity and visual representation.

Divine Mania

Divine Mania PDF Author: Yulia Ustinova
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351581260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a super-human being. Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of the divine mania in Greek society reflects its acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alteration of consciousness, interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.