Download or read book Ancient Greek Cosmogony written by Andrew Gregory and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2008-01-03 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greek Cosmogony is the first detailed, comprehensive account of ancient Greek theories of the origins of the world. It covers the period from 800 BC to 600 AD, beginning with myths concerning the creation of the world; the cosmogonies of all the major Greek and Roman thinkers; and the debate between Greek philosophical cosmogony and early Christian views. It argues that Greeks formulated many of the perennial problems of philosophical cosmogony and produced philosophically and scientifically interesting answers. The atomists argued that our world was one among many worlds, and came about by chance. Plato argued that it is unique, and the product of design. Empedocles and the Stoics, in quite different ways, argued that there was an unending cycle whereby the world is generated, destroyed and generated again. Aristotle on the other hand argued that there was no such thing as cosmogony, and the world has always existed. Reactions to, and developments of, these ideas are traced through Hellenistic philosophy and the debates in early Christianity on whether God created the world from nothing or from some pre-existing chaos. The book examines issues of the origins of life and the elements for the ancient Greeks, and how the cosmos will come to an end. It argues that there were several interesting debates between Greek philosophers on the fundamental principles of cosmogony, and that these debates were influential on the development of Greek philosophy and science.
Download or read book Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy written by Ricardo Salles and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-10 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores ancient biology and cosmology as two sciences that shed light on one another in their goals and methods.
Download or read book Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology written by John H. Walton and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Near Eastern mode of thought is not at all intuitive to us moderns, but our understanding of ancient perspectives can only approach accuracy when we begin to penetrate ancient texts on their own terms rather than imposing our own world view. In this task, we are aided by the ever-growing corpus of literature that is being recovered and analyzed. After an introduction that presents some of the history of comparative studies and how it has been applied to the study of ancient texts in general and cosmology in particular, Walton focuses in the first half of this book on the ancient Near Eastern texts that inform our understanding about ancient ways of thinking about cosmology. Of primary interest are the texts that can help us discern the parameters of ancient perspectives on cosmic ontology—that is, how the writers perceived origins. Texts from across the ancient Near East are presented, including primarily Egyptian, Sumerian, and Akkadian texts, but occasionally also Ugaritic and Hittite, as appropriate. Walton’s intention, first of all, is to understand the texts but also to demonstrate that a functional ontology pervaded the cognitive environment of the ancient Near East. This functional ontology involves more than just the idea that ordering the cosmos was the focus of the cosmological texts. He posits that, in the ancient world, bringing about order and functionality was the very essence of creative activity. He also pays close attention to the ancient ideology of temples to show the close connection between temples and the functioning cosmos. The second half of the book is devoted to a fresh analysis of Genesis 1:1–2:4. Walton offers studies of significant Hebrew terms and seeks to show that the Israelite texts evidence a functional ontology and a cosmology that is constructed with temple ideology in mind, as in the rest of the ancient Near East. He contends that Genesis 1 never was an account of material origins but that, as in the rest of the ancient world, the focus of “creation texts” was to order the cosmos by initiating functions for the components of the cosmos. He further contends that the cosmology of Genesis 1 is founded on the premise that the cosmos should be understood in temple terms. All of this is intended to demonstrate that, when we read Genesis 1 as the ancient document it is, rather than trying to read it in light of our own world view, the text comes to life in ways that help recover the energy it had in its original context. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on Genesis 1 in relation to what have long been controversial issues. Far from being a borrowed text, Genesis 1 offers a unique theology, even while it speaks from the platform of its contemporaneous cognitive environment.
Download or read book When the Gods Were Born written by Carolina López-Ruiz and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With admirable erudition, Lopez-Ruiz brings to life intimacies and exchanges between the ancient Greeks and their Northwest Semitic neighbors, portraying the ancient Mediterranean as a fluid, dynamic contact zone. She explains networks of circulation, shows creative uses of traditional material by peoples in motion, and radically transforms our understanding of ancient cosmogonies."---Page duBois, author of Out of Athens: The New Ancient Greeks --
Download or read book Monsters in Greek Literature written by Fiona Mitchell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Monsters in Greek literature are often thought of as creatures which exist in mythological narratives, however, as this book shows, they appear in a much broader range of ancient sources and are used in creation narratives, ethnographic texts, and biology to explore the limits of the human body and of the human world. This book provides an in-depth examination of the role of monstrosity in ancient Greek literature. In the past, monsters in this context have largely been treated as unimportant or analysed on an individual basis. By focusing on genres rather than single creatures, the book provides a greater understanding of how monstrosity and abnormal bodies are used in ancient sources. Very often ideas about monstrosity are used as a contrast against which to examine the nature of what it is to be human, both physically and behaviourally. This book focuses on creation narratives, ethnographic writing, and biological texts. These three genres address the origins of the human world, its spatial limits, and the nature of the human body; by examining monstrosity in these genres we can see the ways in which Greek texts construct the space and time in which people exist and the nature of our bodies. This book is aimed primarily at scholars and students undertaking research, not only those with an interest in monstrosity, but also scholars exploring cultural representations of time (especially the primordial and mythological past), ancient geography and ethnography, and ancient philosophy and science. As the representation of monsters in antiquity was strongly influential on medieval, renaissance, and early modern images and texts, this book will also be relevant to people researching these areas.
Download or read book Ancient Indian Cosmogony written by Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper and published by Vikas Publishing House Private. This book was released on 1983 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cosmological Origins of Myth and Symbol written by Laird Scranton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reconstructs a theoretic parent cosmology that underlies ancient religion • Shows how this parent cosmology provided the conceptual origins of written language • Uses techniques of comparative cosmology to synchronize the creation traditions of the Dogon, ancient Egyptians, and ancient Buddhists • Applies the signature elements of this parent cosmology to explore and interpret the creation tradition of a present-day Tibetan/Chinese tribe called the Na-Khi--the keepers of the world’s last surviving hieroglyphic language Great thinkers and researchers such as Carl Jung have acknowledged the many broad similarities that exist between the myths and symbols of ancient cultures. One largely unexplored explanation for these similarities lies in the possibility that these systems of myth all descended from one common cosmological plan. Outlining the most significant aspects of cosmology found among the Dogon, ancient Egyptians, and ancient Buddhists, including the striking physical and cosmological parallels between the Dogon granary and the Buddhist stupa, Laird Scranton identifies the signature attributes of a theoretic ancient parent cosmology--a planned instructional system that may well have spawned these great ancient creation traditions. Examining the esoteric nature of cosmology itself, Scranton shows how this parent cosmology encompassed both a plan for the civilized instruction of humanity as well as the conceptual origins of language. The recurring shapes in all ancient religions were key elements of this plan, designed to give physical manifestation to the sacred and provide the means to conceptualize and compare earthly dimensions with those of the heavens. As a practical application of the plan, Scranton explores the myths and language of an obscure Chinese priestly tribe known as the Na-Khi--the keepers of the world’s last surviving hieroglyphic language. Suggesting that cosmology may have engendered civilization and not the other way around, Scranton reveals how this plan of cosmology provides the missing link between our macroscopic universe and the microscopic world of atoms.
Download or read book Cosmos in the Ancient World written by Phillip Sidney Horky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-04 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the concept of kosmos as order, arrangement, and ornament in ancient philosophy, literature, and aesthetics.
Download or read book Chaos Cosmos and Creation in Early Greek Theogonies written by Olaf Almqvist and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cosmological narratives like the creation story in the book of Genesis or the modern Big Bang are popularly understood to be descriptions of how the universe was created. However, cosmologies also say a great deal more. Indeed, the majority of cosmologies, ancient and modern, explore not simply how the world was made but how humans relate to their surrounding environment and the often thin line which separates humans from gods and animals. Combining approaches from classical studies, anthropology, and philosophy, this book studies three competing cosmologies of the early Greek world: Hesiod's Theogony; the Orphic Derveni theogony; and Protagoras' creation myth in Plato's eponymous dialogue. Although all three cosmologies are part of a single mythic tradition and feature a number of similar events and characters, Olaf Almqvist argues they offer very different answers to an ongoing debate on what it is to be human. Engaging closely with the ontological turn in anthropology and in particular with the work of Philippe Descola, this book outlines three key sets of ontological assumptions – analogism, pantheism, and naturalism – found in early Greek literature and explores how these competing ontological assumptions result in contrasting attitudes to rituals such as prayer and sacrifice.
Download or read book The Kemetic Tree of Life Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics and Cosmology for Higher Consciousness written by Muata Ashby and published by . This book was released on 2008-08-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ashby explains the Tree of Life metaphysical teachings, disciplines, and techniques from the hieroglyphic texts.
Download or read book Ancient Astronomy written by Clive L.N. Ruggles and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-10-21 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative introduction to the fascinating topic of archaeoastronomy—ancient peoples' understanding and use of the skies. Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth draws on archaeological evidence and oral traditions to reveal how prehistoric humans perceived the skies and celestial phenomena. With over 200 entries, it offers a number of ways to approach ancient astronomy, from key examples and case studies worldwide (Stonehenge; Mexican and Egyptian pyramids; Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the Nazca lines in Peru) to general themes (cosmologies, calendars, ancient ideas of space and time, origin myths), to fundamental concepts and methods (how the sky has changed over the centuries, how to survey a site), and to the field's most frequently asked questions (How did ancient peoples navigate the ocean using the stars? How does astrology relate to ancient astronomy? Can ancient sites be dated astronomically?) By revealing the astronomical significance of some of the world's most famous ancient landmarks and enduring myths and by showing how different themes and concepts are connected, Ancient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth brings a unique authoritative perspective to an area too often left to speculation and sensationalism.
Download or read book When the Earth Was Flat written by Dirk L. Couprie and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a sequel to Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology (Springer 2011). With the help of many pictures, the reader is introduced into the way of thinking of ancient believers in a flat earth. The first part offers new interpretations of several Presocratic cosmologists and a critical discussion of Aristotle’s proofs that the earth is spherical. The second part explains and discusses the ancient Chinese system called gai tian. The last chapter shows that, inadvertently, ancient arguments and ideas return in the curious modern flat earth cosmologies.
Download or read book Sacred Cosmogony or Primitive Revelation demonstrated by the harmony of the facts of the Mosaic history of the Creation with the principles of general science Translated from the French written by L. A. SORIGNET and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Creation story of Genesis I written by Hugo Radau and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Historians History of the World written by Henry Smith Williams and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 1378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Historians History of the World Prolegomena Egypt Mesopotamia written by Henry Smith Williams and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 686 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology written by Dirk L. Couprie and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Miletus, about 550 B.C., together with our world-picture cosmology was born. This book tells the story. In Part One the reader is introduced in the archaic world-picture of a flat earth with the cupola of the celestial vault onto which the celestial bodies are attached. One of the subjects treated in that context is the riddle of the tilted celestial axis. This part also contains an extensive chapter on archaic astronomical instruments. Part Two shows how Anaximander (610-547 B.C.) blew up this archaic world-picture and replaced it by a new one that is essentially still ours. He taught that the celestial bodies orbit at different distances and that the earth floats unsupported in space. This makes him the founding father of cosmology. Part Three discusses topics that completed the new picture described by Anaximander. Special attention is paid to the confrontation between Anaxagoras and Aristotle on the question whether the earth is flat or spherical, and on the battle between Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus on the question whether the universe is finite or infinite.
