Initiating Dionysus

Initiating Dionysus PDF Author: Ismene Lada-Richards
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198149811
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
This book offers a challenging multi-disciplinary interpretation of Aristophanes' Frogs. Drawing on a wide range of literary and anthropological approaches, it deploys an impressive series of religious and cultural considerations which have never previously been used to illuminate this text. Rather than seeking to recover the 'authorial' meaning of the Frogs, Dr Lada-Richards attempts to reconstruct the wider spectrum of potential meanings that various segments of the play could have hadin their own socio-cultural milieu. The key question the book explores is how membership in Greek fifth-century society would have shaped understanding of the play, with particular emphasis on the persona of Dionysus who, as Dr Lada-Richards argues, should not be viewed merely as a stock comic character but as inseparable from the complex, paradoxical figure of his mythical and ritual counterpart. Combining sophistication and complexity with clarity and elegance of style, the book is addressesto the scholar as well as the student of Greek drama and culture, and its insights should appeal to anybody interested in the manifold ways theatre (of any period and culture) remoulds the ritual sequences of the social frame to which it belongs.

Initiating Dionysus

Initiating Dionysus PDF Author: Ismene Lada-Richards
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198149811
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a challenging multi-disciplinary interpretation of Aristophanes' Frogs. Drawing on a wide range of literary and anthropological approaches, it deploys an impressive series of religious and cultural considerations which have never previously been used to illuminate this text. Rather than seeking to recover the 'authorial' meaning of the Frogs, Dr Lada-Richards attempts to reconstruct the wider spectrum of potential meanings that various segments of the play could have hadin their own socio-cultural milieu. The key question the book explores is how membership in Greek fifth-century society would have shaped understanding of the play, with particular emphasis on the persona of Dionysus who, as Dr Lada-Richards argues, should not be viewed merely as a stock comic character but as inseparable from the complex, paradoxical figure of his mythical and ritual counterpart. Combining sophistication and complexity with clarity and elegance of style, the book is addressesto the scholar as well as the student of Greek drama and culture, and its insights should appeal to anybody interested in the manifold ways theatre (of any period and culture) remoulds the ritual sequences of the social frame to which it belongs.

Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives

Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives PDF Author: David Dodd
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135143730
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Scholars of classical history and literature have for more than a century accepted `initiation' as a tool for understanding a variety of obscure rituals and myths, ranging from the ancient Greek wedding and adolescent haircutting rituals to initiatory motifs or structures in Greek myth, comedy and tragedy. In this books an international group of experts including Gloria Ferrari, Fritz Graf and Bruce Lincoln, critique many of these past studies, and challenge strongly the tradition of privileging the concept of initiation as a tool for studying social performances and literary texts, in which changes in status or group membership occur in unusual ways. These new modes of research mark an important turning point in the modern study of the religion and myths of ancient Greece and Rome, making this a valuable collection across a number of classical subjects.

Aristophanes: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide

Aristophanes: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide PDF Author: Oxford University Press
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199802769
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 43

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Book Description
This ebook is a selective guide designed to help scholars and students of the ancient world find reliable sources of information by directing them to the best available scholarly materials in whatever form or format they appear from books, chapters, and journal articles to online archives, electronic data sets, and blogs. Written by a leading international authority on the subject, the ebook provides bibliographic information supported by direct recommendations about which sources to consult and editorial commentary to make it clear how the cited sources are interrelated. A reader will discover, for instance, the most reliable introductions and overviews to the topic, and the most important publications on various areas of scholarly interest within this topic. In classics, as in other disciplines, researchers at all levels are drowning in potentially useful scholarly information, and this guide has been created as a tool for cutting through that material to find the exact source you need. This ebook is just one of many articles from Oxford Bibliographies Online: Classics, a continuously updated and growing online resource designed to provide authoritative guidance through the scholarship and other materials relevant to the study of classics. Oxford Bibliographies Online covers most subject disciplines within the social science and humanities, for more information visit www.aboutobo.com.

Yeats the Initiate

Yeats the Initiate PDF Author: Kathleen Raine
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780389209515
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
The eminent poet and scholar Kathleen Raine, leading exponent of "the learning of the imagination," brings together all her essays on Yeats (some never before printed) covering many aspects of the traditions and influences that informed his great poetry. In saluting Raine's "magnificent achievement in this rich and learned book," Professor Augustine Martin of University College Dublin states that she "irradiates [Yeats] and every corner of his work. Her unique and unanswerable contribution to Yeatsian criticism is to establish his authority as an immensely learned poet and thinker in the tradition of Plato and the Eternal Philosophy." Contains over 140 illustrations.

Redefining Dionysos

Redefining Dionysos PDF Author: Alberto Bernabé
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110301326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 700

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Book Description
This book contributes to the understanding of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine, dancing, theatre and ecstasy, by putting together 30 studies of classical scholars. They combine the analysis of specific instances of particular dimensions of the god in cult, myth, literature and iconography, with general visions of Dionysos in antiquity and modern times. Only from the combination of different perspectives can we grasp the complex personality of Dionysos, and the forms of his presence in different cults, literary genres, and artistic forms, from Mycenaean times to late antiquity. The ways in which Dionysos was experienced may vary in each author, each cult, and each genre in which this god is involved. Therefore, instead of offering a new all-encompassing theory that would immediately become partial, the book narrows the focus on specific aspects of the god. Redefinition does not mean finding (again) the essence of the god, but obtaining a more nuanced knowledge of the ways he was experienced and conceived in antiquity.

Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World

Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110376997
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
The ancient Mysteries have long attracted the interest of scholars, an interest that goes back at least to the time of the Reformation. After a period of interest around the turn of the twentieth century, recent decades have seen an important study of Walter Burkert (1987). Yet his thematic approach makes it hard to see how the actual initiation into the Mysteries took place. To do precisely that is the aim of this book. It gives a ‘thick description’ of the major Mysteries, not only of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries, but also those located at the interface of Greece and Anatolia: the Mysteries of Samothrace, Imbros and Lemnos as well as those of the Corybants. It then proceeds to look at the Orphic-Bacchic Mysteries, which have become increasingly better understood due to the many discoveries of new texts in the recent times. Having looked at classical Greece we move on to the Roman Empire, where we study not only the lesser Mysteries, which we know especially from Pausanias, but also the new ones of Isis and Mithras. We conclude our book with a discussion of the possible influence of the Mysteries on emerging Christianity. Its detailed references and up-to-date bibliography will make this book indispensable for any scholar interested in the Mysteries and ancient religion, but also for those scholars who work on initiation or esoteric rituals, which were often inspired by the ancient Mysteries.

Tarot and the Path of Initiation

Tarot and the Path of Initiation PDF Author: Henry Ho
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1491881380
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
This book came into being from the author's exasperation at the ignorance of many users of the Thoth tarot deck. They prefer to go by their "intuition" rather than study Crowley's companion book to the deck, The Book of Thoth. "It's too dense" they cry. "I'm not interested in these philosophies; I just want to read Tarot." The above sentence is the greatest insult to Aleister Crowley, the creator of the Thoth deck. For the deck's purpose was to convey the higher mysteries to the diviner. Crowley intended for the deck never to be sold separately from the Book of Thoth. And so, heart full of elitist snobbery and sense of obligation to Crowley, the author of this book set out to spoon feed this dense material to the masses, without watering down its contents. In the spirit of Crowley who sought to enlighten the world, the author has added his own contribution to Crowley's legacy, out of duty. It was due to Crowley's belief in freedom of information, during an era of politics and secrecy, that the author was able to get his own hands on the gem of all spiritual writing, the Book of Thoth.

Paul, Politics, and New Creation

Paul, Politics, and New Creation PDF Author: Najeeb T. Haddad
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978708955
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Paul, Politics, and New Creation: Reconsidering Paul and Empire nuances Paul’s relationship with the Roman Empire. Using rhetorical, sociohistorical, and theological methods, Najeeb T. Haddad reevaluates claims of Paul’s anti-imperialism by situating him in his proper Hellenistic Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts.

Pauline Baptism among the Mysteries

Pauline Baptism among the Mysteries PDF Author: Donghyun Jeong
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110791382
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
This monograph provides an alternative model for looking at the old question about Paul and the mysteries in a new light. Specifically, this study compares rituals—baptism in the Pauline communities and the initiation rituals of the mysteries—through the lens of cultural anthropology and the sociology of religion. Three research questions lead the project: What benefits does each initiation ritual promise its participants? What are the underlying messages or structures that guarantee the efficacy of those rituals? How and to what extent is the initiation ritual connected to the participants’ cognition and ethics beyond initiation itself? Taking those questions as the analytical framework, this study substantiates two points: first, in terms of ritual messages, baptism in the Pauline communities is a ritual analogous to mystery initiation, and second, Paul is an innovative interpreter of ritual who recalibrates the messages of preexisting rituals for his theological and ethical program, seeking to radically extend the implications of initiation to the embodied life of every Christ-believer. Students and scholars of New Testament, early Christianity, classics, and ritual studies will benefit from engaging this volume.

The Oxford Handbook of Heracles

The Oxford Handbook of Heracles PDF Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190651008
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
Heracles is the quintessential ancient Greek hero. The rich and massive tradition associated with him encompasses myths of all kinds: quest myths, monster-fights, world-foundational myths, aetiological myths, philosophical myths, allegorical myths, and more. It informs and is informed by every genre and variety of Classical literature. The figure of Heracles opens windows onto numerous aspects of ancient religion, including those of cult, syncretism, Christian reception, the relationship between gods and heroes, and the intersection of religion with politics. The Oxford Handbook of Heracles is the first large-scale guide to Heracles, his myth-cycle the Twelve Labors, and, to the pervasive impact of the hero upon Greek and Roman culture. The first half of the volume is devoted to the lucid exposition and analysis of the ancient evidence, literary and iconographic, for Heracles' life and deeds. In the second half, the Heracles tradition is analyzed from a range of thematic perspectives, including the contrasting projections of the figure across the major literary genres and in art; the ways in which Greek communities and even Roman emperors exploited the figure in the fashioning of their own identities and for political advantage; his cult in Greece and Rome and its syncretism with that of the Phoenician Melqart; and Heracles' reception in later Western tradition. Presenting, in 39 chapters, the authoritative work of international experts in a clear and well-structured format, this volume provides a convenient reference tool for scholars and offers an accessible starting-point for students.