Polytheism and Society at Athens

Polytheism and Society at Athens PDF Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780199274833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is the first attempt that has ever been made to give a comprehensive account of the religious life of ancient Athens. The city's many festivals are discussed in detail, with attention to recent anthropological theory; so too, for instance, are the cults of households and of smaller groups, the role of religious practice and argumentation in public life, the authority of priests, the activities of religious professionals such as seers and priestesses, magic, the place oftheatrical representations of the gods within public attitudes to the divine. A long final section considers the sphere of activity of the various gods, and takes Athens as a uniquely detailed test case for the structuralist approach to polytheism. The work is a synchronic, thematically organizedcomplement (though designed to be read independently) to the same author's Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996).

Polytheism and Society at Athens

Polytheism and Society at Athens PDF Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780199274833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is the first attempt that has ever been made to give a comprehensive account of the religious life of ancient Athens. The city's many festivals are discussed in detail, with attention to recent anthropological theory; so too, for instance, are the cults of households and of smaller groups, the role of religious practice and argumentation in public life, the authority of priests, the activities of religious professionals such as seers and priestesses, magic, the place oftheatrical representations of the gods within public attitudes to the divine. A long final section considers the sphere of activity of the various gods, and takes Athens as a uniquely detailed test case for the structuralist approach to polytheism. The work is a synchronic, thematically organizedcomplement (though designed to be read independently) to the same author's Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996).

Polytheism and Society at Athens

Polytheism and Society at Athens PDF Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199274835
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first attempt that has ever been made to give a comprehensive account of the religious life of ancient Athens.

Athenian Religion

Athenian Religion PDF Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019815240X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Get Book Here

Book Description
Robert Parker investigates the relation between religion and political prestige, considers the introduction of new cults, and looks in detail at such key personalities and events in the religious history of Athens as Lycurgus the Eteoboutad and his religious policies, and the trial of Socrates. The period covered is roughly that from 750 to 250 BC.

On Greek Religion

On Greek Religion PDF Author: Robert C.T. Parker
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801461758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
"There is something of a paradox about our access to ancient Greek religion. We know too much, and too little. The materials that bear on it far outreach an individual's capacity to assimilate: so many casual allusions in so many literary texts over more than a millennium, so many direct or indirect references in so many inscriptions from so many places in the Greek world, such an overwhelming abundance of physical remains. But genuinely revealing evidence does not often cluster coherently enough to create a vivid sense of the religious realities of a particular time and place. Amid a vast archipelago of scattered islets of information, only a few are of a size to be habitable."—from the Preface In On Greek Religion, Robert Parker offers a provocative and wide-ranging entrée into the world of ancient Greek religion, focusing especially on the interpretive challenge of studying a religious system that in many ways remains desperately alien from the vantage point of the twenty-first century. One of the world's leading authorities on ancient Greek religion, Parker raises fundamental methodological questions about the study of this vast subject. Given the abundance of evidence we now have about the nature and practice of religion among the ancient Greeks—including literary, historical, and archaeological sources—how can we best exploit that evidence and agree on the central underlying issues? Is it possible to develop a larger, "unified" theoretical framework that allows for coherent discussions among archaeologists, anthropologists, literary scholars, and historians? In seven thematic chapters, Parker focuses on key themes in Greek religion: the epistemological basis of Greek religion; the relation of ritual to belief; theories of sacrifice; the nature of gods and heroes; the meaning of rituals, festivals, and feasts; and the absence of religious authority. Ranging across the archaic, classical, and Hellenistic periods, he draws on multiple disciplines both within and outside classical studies. He also remains sensitive to varieties of Greek religious experience. Also included are five appendixes in which Parker applies his innovative methodological approach to particular cases, such as the acceptance of new gods and the consultation of oracles. On Greek Religion will stir debate for its bold questioning of disciplinary norms and for offering scholars and students new points of departure for future research.

Civic Rites

Civic Rites PDF Author: Nancy Evans
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520945484
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
Civic Rites explores the religious origins of Western democracy by examining the government of fifth-century BCE Athens in the larger context of ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. Deftly combining history, politics, and religion to weave together stories of democracy’s first leaders and critics, Nancy Evans gives readers a contemporary’s perspective on Athenian society. She vividly depicts the physical environment and the ancestral rituals that nourished the people of the earliest democratic state, demonstrating how religious concerns were embedded in Athenian governmental processes. The book’s lucid portrayals of the best-known Athenian festivals—honoring Athena, Demeter, and Dionysus—offer a balanced view of Athenian ritual and illustrate the range of such customs in fifth-century Athens.

Ancient Religions

Ancient Religions PDF Author: Sarah Iles JOHNSTON
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
Religious beliefs and practices, which permeated all aspects of life in antiquity, traveled well-worn routes throughout the Mediterranean: itinerant charismatic practitioners peddled their skills as healers, purifiers, cursers, and initiators; and vessels decorated with illustrations of myths traveled with them. This collection of essays, drawn from the groundbreaking reference work Religion in the Ancient World, offers an expansive, comparative perspective on this complex spiritual world.

Greek Gods Abroad

Greek Gods Abroad PDF Author: Robert Parker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520967259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
From even before the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek gods spread throughout the Mediterranean, carried by settlers and largely adopted by the indigenous populations. By the third century b.c., gods bearing Greek names were worshipped everywhere from Spain to Afghanistan, with the resulting religious systems a variable blend of Greek and indigenous elements. Greek Gods Abroad examines the interaction between Greek religion and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with which it came into contact. Robert Parker shows how Greek conventions for naming gods were extended and adapted and provides bold new insights into religious and psychological values across the Mediterranean. The result is a rich portrait of ancient polytheism as it was practiced over 600 years of history.

Hellenic Polytheism : Household Worship

Hellenic Polytheism : Household Worship PDF Author: Christos Panopoulos
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781503121881
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book Here

Book Description
Within this publication, the reader is presented with explanations for the central concepts and basic guidelines to the ceremonies that form a part of Hellenic Household Worship as has been established and is currently practiced by the LABRYS Polytheistic Community in Hellas (Greece).It serves as a useful introductory manual for the newcomer to contemporary Hellenic Polytheism as they take the first steps on their journey to worship the Hellenic Gods in a traditional manner.

Gods of Ancient Greece

Gods of Ancient Greece PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748642897
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 552

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection offers a fresh look at the nature and development of the Greek gods in the period from Homer until Late Antiquity The Greek gods are still very much present in modern consciousness. Although Apollo and Dionysos, Artemis and Aphrodite, Zeus and Hermes are household names, it is much less clear what these divinities meant and stood for in ancient Greece. In fact, they have been very much neglected in modern scholarship. Bremmer and Erskine bring together a team of international scholars with the aim of remedying this situation and generating new approaches to the nature and development of the Greek gods in the period from Homer until Late Antiquity. The Gods of Ancient Greece looks at individual gods, but also asks to what extent cult, myth and literary genre determine the nature of a divinity and presents a synchronic and diachronic view of the gods as they functioned in Greek culture until the triumph of Christianity.

Greek Religion

Greek Religion PDF Author: Jan N. Bremmer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780199220731
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book Here

Book Description
A brief but highly informative book on Greek religion in the classical period.