The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period

The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period PDF Author: Gunnel Ekroth
Publisher: Presses universitaires de Liège
ISBN: 2821829000
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
This study questions the traditional view of sacrifices in hero-cults during the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods. The analysis of the epigraphical and literary evidence for sacrifices to heroes in these periods shows, contrary to the traditional notion, that the main ritual in hero-cults was a thysia at which the worshippers consumed the meat from the animal victim. A particular handling of the animal’s blood or a holocaust, rituals previously taken to be typical for heroes, can rarely be documented and must be considered as marginal features in hero-cults. The terms eschara, escharon, bothros, enagizein, enagisma, enagismos and enagisterion, believed to be characteristic for hero-cults, are seldom used in hero-contexts before the Roman period and occur mainly in the Byzantine lexicographers and in the scholia. Since the main kind of sacrifice in hero-cults was a thysia, a ritual intimately connected with the social structure of society, the heroes must have fulfilled the same role as the gods within the Greek religious system. The fact that the heroes were dead seems to have been of little significance for the sacrificial rituals and it is questionable whether the rituals of hero-cults are to be considered as originating in the cult of the dead.

The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period

The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period PDF Author: Gunnel Ekroth
Publisher: Presses universitaires de Liège
ISBN: 2821829000
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study questions the traditional view of sacrifices in hero-cults during the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods. The analysis of the epigraphical and literary evidence for sacrifices to heroes in these periods shows, contrary to the traditional notion, that the main ritual in hero-cults was a thysia at which the worshippers consumed the meat from the animal victim. A particular handling of the animal’s blood or a holocaust, rituals previously taken to be typical for heroes, can rarely be documented and must be considered as marginal features in hero-cults. The terms eschara, escharon, bothros, enagizein, enagisma, enagismos and enagisterion, believed to be characteristic for hero-cults, are seldom used in hero-contexts before the Roman period and occur mainly in the Byzantine lexicographers and in the scholia. Since the main kind of sacrifice in hero-cults was a thysia, a ritual intimately connected with the social structure of society, the heroes must have fulfilled the same role as the gods within the Greek religious system. The fact that the heroes were dead seems to have been of little significance for the sacrificial rituals and it is questionable whether the rituals of hero-cults are to be considered as originating in the cult of the dead.

The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Periods

The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Periods PDF Author: Gunnel Ekroth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animal sacrifice
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description


Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World

Animal Sacrifice in the Ancient Greek World PDF Author: Sarah Hitch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110821004X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
This volume brings together studies on Greek animal sacrifice by foremost experts in Greek language, literature and material culture. Readers will benefit from the synthesis of new evidence and approaches with a re-evaluation of twentieth-century theories on sacrifice. The chapters range across the whole of antiquity and go beyond the Greek world to consider possible influences in Hittite Anatolia and Egypt, while an introduction to the burgeoning science of osteo-archaeology is provided. The twentieth-century emphasis on sacrifice as part of the Classical Greek polis system is challenged through consideration of various ancient perspectives on sacrifice as distinct from specific political or even Greek contexts. Many previously unexplored topics are covered, particularly the type of animals sacrificed and the spectrum of sacrificial ritual, from libations to lasting memorials of the ritual in art.

The Iconography of Greek Cult in the Archaic and Classical Periods

The Iconography of Greek Cult in the Archaic and Classical Periods PDF Author: Robin Hägg
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description


Ritual and Communication in the Graeco-Roman World

Ritual and Communication in the Graeco-Roman World PDF Author: Eftychia Stavrianopoulou
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greece
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Klassisches Altertum - Ritual - Kult - Gesellschaft.

New Heroes in Antiquity

New Heroes in Antiquity PDF Author: Christopher P. Jones
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674035867
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Heroes and heroines in antiquity inhabited a space somewhere between gods and humans. In this detailed, yet brilliantly wide-ranging analysis, Christopher Jones starts from literary heroes such as Achilles and moves to the historical record of those exceptional men and women who were worshiped after death. He asks why and how mortals were heroized, and what exactly becoming a hero entailed in terms of religious action and belief. He proves that the growing popularity of heroizing the dead—fallen warriors, family members, magnanimous citizens—represents not a decline from earlier practice but an adaptation to new contexts and modes of thought. The most famous example of this process is Hadrian’s beloved, Antinoos, who can now be located within an ancient tradition of heroizing extraordinary youths who died prematurely. This book, wholly new and beautifully written, rescues the hero from literary metaphor and vividly restores heroism to the reality of ancient life.

Greek Religion

Greek Religion PDF Author: Walter Burkert
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674362819
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
A survey of the religious beliefs of ancient Greece covers sacrifices, libations, purification, gods, heroes, the priesthood, oracles, festivals, and the afterlife.

Cults and Rites in Ancient Greece

Cults and Rites in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Michael H. Jameson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316123197
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
This volume assembles fourteen highly influential articles written by Michael H. Jameson over a period of nearly fifty years, edited and updated by the author himself. They represent both the scope and the signature style of Jameson's engagement with the subject of ancient Greek religion. The collection complements the original publications in two ways: firstly, it makes the articles more accessible; and secondly, the volume offers readers a unique opportunity to observe that over almost five decades of scholarship Jameson developed a distinctive method, a signature style, a particular perspective, a way of looking that could perhaps be fittingly called a 'Jamesonian approach' to the study of Greek religion. This approach, recognizable in each article individually, becomes unmistakable through the concentration of papers collected here. The particulars of the Jamesonian approach are insightfully discussed in the five introductory essays written for this volume by leading world authorities on polis religion.

Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition

Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004375961
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition explores the theme of visits to the underworld in the ancient Greek and Byzantine traditions from a broad perspective including written sources, iconography and archaeology.

Early Greek Portraiture

Early Greek Portraiture PDF Author: Catherine M. Keesling
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108211275
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
In this book, Catherine M. Keesling lends new insight into the origins of civic honorific portraits that emerged at the end of the fifth century BC in ancient Greece. Surveying the subjects, motives and display contexts of Archaic and Classical portrait sculpture, she demonstrates that the phenomenon of portrait representation in Greek culture is complex and without a single, unifying history. Bringing a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, Keesling grounds her study in contemporary texts such as Herodotus' Histories and situates portrait representation within the context of contemporary debates about the nature of arete (excellence), the value of historical commemoration and the relationship between the human individual and the gods and heroes. She argues that often the goal of Classical portraiture was to link the individual to divine or heroic models. Offering an overview of the role of portraits in Archaic and Classical Greece, her study includes local histories of the development of Greek portraiture in sanctuaries such as Olympia, Delphi and the Athenian Acropolis.