Epiphanies and Dreams in Greek Polytheism

Epiphanies and Dreams in Greek Polytheism PDF Author: Michael Lipka
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110638851
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
While modern students of Greek religion are alert to the occasion-boundedness of epiphanies and divinatory dreams in Greek polytheism, they are curiously indifferent to the generic parameters of the relevant textual representations on which they build their argument. Instead, generic questions are normally left to the literary critic, who in turn is less interested in religion. To evaluate the relation of epiphanies and divinatory dreams to Greek polytheism, the book investigates relevant representations through all major textual genres in pagan antiquity. The evidence of the investigated genres suggests that the ‘epiphany-mindedness’ of the Greeks, postulated by most modern critics, is largely an academic chimaera, a late-comer of Christianizing 19th-century-scholarship. It is primarily founded on a misinterpretation of Homer’s notorious anthropomorphism (in the Iliad and Odyssey but also in the Homeric Hymns). This anthropomorphism, which is keenly absorbed by Greek drama and figural art, has very little to do with the religious lifeworld experience of the ancient Greeks, as it appears in other genres. By contrast, throughout all textual genres investigated here, divinatory dreams are represented as an ordinary and real part of the ancient Greeks' lifeworld experience.

Epiphanies and Dreams in Greek Polytheism

Epiphanies and Dreams in Greek Polytheism PDF Author: Michael Lipka
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110638851
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
While modern students of Greek religion are alert to the occasion-boundedness of epiphanies and divinatory dreams in Greek polytheism, they are curiously indifferent to the generic parameters of the relevant textual representations on which they build their argument. Instead, generic questions are normally left to the literary critic, who in turn is less interested in religion. To evaluate the relation of epiphanies and divinatory dreams to Greek polytheism, the book investigates relevant representations through all major textual genres in pagan antiquity. The evidence of the investigated genres suggests that the ‘epiphany-mindedness’ of the Greeks, postulated by most modern critics, is largely an academic chimaera, a late-comer of Christianizing 19th-century-scholarship. It is primarily founded on a misinterpretation of Homer’s notorious anthropomorphism (in the Iliad and Odyssey but also in the Homeric Hymns). This anthropomorphism, which is keenly absorbed by Greek drama and figural art, has very little to do with the religious lifeworld experience of the ancient Greeks, as it appears in other genres. By contrast, throughout all textual genres investigated here, divinatory dreams are represented as an ordinary and real part of the ancient Greeks' lifeworld experience.

Religion and War from Antiquity to Early Modernity

Religion and War from Antiquity to Early Modernity PDF Author: Irene Polinskaya
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567697800
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Responding to the profound challenges of our times, this book provides a comparative and cross-cultural exploration of the role of religion in war in a long historical perspective, from the second millennium BCE, and even earlier, up to early modernity. Individual chapters focus on the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean basin, Europe and North Africa. Widely diverse case studies explore the historic link between the conduct of war and the growing complexity of human society conditioned by the ownership of ideological authority. The book explores how in most historical societies this authority was religious. Written by experts from different disciplinary perspectives, the volume challenges common assumptions about the historical relationship between religion and war and extends our understanding of the dangers and complexities of today's world.

The Study of Greek and Roman Religions

The Study of Greek and Roman Religions PDF Author: Nickolas P. Roubekas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350102628
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
How should ancient religious ideas be approached? Is "religion" an applicable term to antiquity? Should classicists, ancient historians, and religious studies scholars work more closely together? Nickolas P. Roubekas argues that there is a disciplinary gap between the study of Greek and Roman religions and the study of “religion” as a category-a gap that has often resulted in contradictory conclusions regarding Greek and Roman religion. This book addresses this lack of interdisciplinarity by providing an overview, criticism, and assessment of this chasm. It provides a theoretical approach to this historical period, raising the issue of the relationship between “theory of religion” and “history of religion,” and explores how history influences theory and vice versa. It also presents an in-depth critique of some crucial problems that have been central to the discussions of scholars who work on Graeco-Roman antiquity, encouraging us to re-examine how we approach the study of ancient religions.

What’s in a Divine Name?

What’s in a Divine Name? PDF Author: Alaya Palamidis, Corinne Bonnet, Julie Bernini, Enrique Nieto Izquierdo, Lorena Pérez Yarza
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111327566
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1167

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Book Description


Understanding Greek Religion

Understanding Greek Religion PDF Author: Jennifer Larson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317296745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Understanding Greek Religion is one of the first attempts to fully examine any religion from a cognitivist perspective, applying methods and findings from the cognitive science of religion to the ancient Greek world. In this book, Jennifer Larson shows that many of the fundamentals of Greek religion, such as anthropomorphic gods, divinatory procedures, purity beliefs, reciprocity, and sympathetic magic arise naturally as by-products of normal human cognition. Drawing on evidence from across the ancient Greek world, Larson provides detailed coverage of Greek theology and local pantheons, rituals including processions, animal sacrifice and choral dance, and afterlife beliefs as they were expressed through hero worship and mystery cults. Eighteen in-depth essays illustrate the theoretical discussion with primary sources and include case studies of key cult inscriptions from Kyrene, Kos, and Miletos. This volume features maps, tables, and over twenty images to support and expand on the text, and will provide conceptual tools for understanding the actions and beliefs that constitute a religion. Additionally, Larson offers the first detailed discussion of cognition and memory in the transmission of Greek religious beliefs and rituals, as well as a glossary of terms and a bibliographical essay on the cognitive science of religion. Understanding Greek Religion is an essential resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of Greek culture and ancient Mediterranean religions.

The Cambridge Companion to the Greek and Roman Novel

The Cambridge Companion to the Greek and Roman Novel PDF Author: Tim Whitmarsh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139827979
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The Greek and Roman novels of Petronius, Apuleius, Longus, Heliodorus and others have been cherished for millennia, but never more so than now. The Cambridge Companion to the Greek and Roman Novel contains nineteen original essays by an international cast of experts in the field. The emphasis is upon the critical interpretation of the texts within historical settings, both in antiquity and in the later generations that have been and continue to be inspired by them. All the central issues of current scholarship are addressed: sexuality, cultural identity, class, religion, politics, narrative, style, readership and much more. Four sections cover cultural context of the novels, their contents, literary form, and their reception in classical antiquity and beyond. Each chapter includes guidance on further reading. This collection will be essential for scholars and students, as well as for others who want an up-to-date, accessible introduction into this exhilarating material.

Personal Experience and Materiality in Greek Religion

Personal Experience and Materiality in Greek Religion PDF Author: K.A. Rask
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000869881
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Employing frameworks of lived religion and materiality, this book provides the first full-length study of personal religious experience in the Greek Archaic and Classical periods. Rask analyzes archeological, epigraphic, and textual evidence to highlight the role of individuals as vital actors and makers of Greek religion. A range of perspectives, such as those of Archaic mariners and Late Classical weaving women, show that religion infused the daily lives of ancient Greeks. Chapters visit the many spaces where people engaged in religious activities, from household kitchens to international emporia, as well as shrines both large and small. The book also interrogates devotional activities such as making votives and engaging in lifelong relationships with divinities, arguing for the emotionally rich character of Greek lived religion. Not only do these considerations demonstrate underexplored ways for reconstructing aspects of Greek religion, but also allow us to rethink familiar subjects such as votive portraits and epiphany from new angles. Personal Experience and Materiality in Greek Religion is of interest to students and scholars working on ancient Greek religion and archeology, as well as anyone interested in daily life and lived experience in the ancient world.

Greek Religion and Society

Greek Religion and Society PDF Author: P. E. Easterling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521287852
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This collection of essays considers many aspects of Greek civil life and reveals how religion manifested itself in institutions, art and literature. Clarifies the more puzzling and elusive elements by tracing the attitudes that lay behind the manifold cults and customs.

SENSORIVM: The Senses in Roman Polytheism

SENSORIVM: The Senses in Roman Polytheism PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900445974X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
SENSORIVM publishes the first results of a collective investigation into how Roman rituals smelled, sounded, felt and struck the eye. It brings Roman religious experience into the realm of the senses.

Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture

Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture PDF Author: Georgia Petridou
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191035858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
In ancient Greece, epiphanies were embedded in cultural production, and employed by the socio-political elite in both perpetuating pre-existing power-structures and constructing new ones. This volume is the first comprehensive survey of the history of divine epiphany as presented in the literary and epigraphic narratives of the Greek-speaking world. It demonstrates that divine epiphanies not only reveal what the Greeks thought about their gods; they tell us just as much about the preoccupations, the preconceptions, and the assumptions of ancient Greek religion and culture. In doing so, it explores the deities who were prone to epiphany and the contexts in which they manifested themselves, as well as the functions (narratives and situational) they served, addressing the cultural specificity of divine morphology and mortal-immortal interaction. Divine Epiphany in Greek Literature and Culture re-establishes epiphany as a crucial mode in Greek religious thought and practice, underlines its centrality in Greek cultural production, and foregrounds its impact on both the political and the societal organization of the ancient Greeks.