Download or read book Divination and Portents in the Roman World written by Robin Lorsch Wildfang and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient Romans believed that the gods sent signs of future events to men through the flight of birds, meteorological disturbances and other natural phenomena. These signs influenced every sphere of ancient life, both public and private, from a state's decision to go to war or make peace, hold an election or meet a public crisis to an individual's business, mariage or travel plans. The book illustrates how the various Roman divinatory techniques were inter-woven into the structures of ancient society as well as how they were used in literary contexts. The intriguing question of the alleged doublethink among the Roman intellectuals in their attitude to Divination is another important theme taken up in Divination & Portents in the Roman World.
Download or read book Public Portents in Republican Rome written by Susanne William Rasmussen and published by L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. This book was released on 2003 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Romans were a superstitious bunch with public portents forming an integral role in most political and social ceremonies and rituals. This detailed analysis of prodigia (unusual events that were reported to the Senate who then proclaimed that event as an unfavourable portent) does not look at what these events reveal about Roman psychology but, instead, focuses on the sociological consequences of this complete integration of politics and religion during the Republican period. Much of the book comprises a table of prodigies, gathered from primary sources, notably Livy's Ab urbe condita and Julius Obsequens' Ab anno-urbis conditae DV prodigium liber . This data is supported by detailed discussions of Cicero and public divination, the relationship between divination and science, the types of portents and the nature of religio-politics. Danish summary.
Download or read book Mantik written by Sarah Iles Johnston and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-07-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of studies by scholars Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and early Christian religions on the topic of divination. Its topics range from necromancy to dice rolling, free-lance diviners to Delphi, and includes treatments from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity.
Download or read book Ancient Divination and Experience written by Lindsay Gayle Driediger-Murphy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This volume sets out to re-examine what ancient people - primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures - thought they were doing through divination, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised. The chapters, authored by a range of established experts and upcoming early-career scholars, engage with four shared questions: What kinds of gods do ancient forms of divination presuppose? What beliefs, anxieties, and hopes did divination seek to address? What were the limits of human 'control' of divination? What kinds of human-divine relationships did divination create/sustain? The volume as a whole seeks to move beyond functionalist approaches to divination in order to identify and elucidate previously understudied aspects of ancient divinatory experience and practice. Special attention is paid to the experiences of non-elites, the perception of divine presence, the ways in which divinatory techniques could surprise their users by yielding unexpected or unwanted results, the difficulties of interpretation with which divinatory experts were thought to contend, and the possibility that divination could not just ease, but also exacerbate, anxiety in practitioners and consultants.
Download or read book Ancient history matters written by Jens Erik Skydsgaard and published by L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. This book was released on 2002 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Divination Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic written by Federico Santangelo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive assessment of the intersection between Roman politics, culture and divination in the late Republic, in the context of complex religious, political and intellectual developments. The book draws on a wide range of literary, iconographic and archaeological evidence.
Download or read book Gods Spirits and Worship in the Greco Roman World and Early Christianity written by Craig A. Evans and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greco-Roman religions and superstitions, and early Christianity's engagement with them, are explored in 12 unique studies. The beliefs and fears with regard to demons (or daimons), their origins, and threatening behavior are examined, both in their pagan and Judaeo-Christian contexts. These new studies look at the Greco-Roman heroic gods, how they faced death, and how James and John, the “sons of Thunder,” may well have been viewed in some circles as the equivalent of the “sons of Zeus”, Castor and Pollux. The contributors also explore Roman omens, especially as they relate to Rome's legendary founder Romulus and what light they shed on the omens that accompany the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Particular focus is placed upon Paul, binding spells, women and hymns of exaltation, along with atheism in late antiquity, with special consideration of the charlatan Alexander. Finally, there is a re-visitation of the confusion, misinformation and legends surrounding the discovery of the Qumran caves, including fear of jinn. This book provides invaluable resources for precisely how early Christians interacted with different ideas and traditions around gods and spirits - both benevolent and malevolent - in the Greco-Roman world.
Download or read book Rethinking the Ancient Druids written by Miranda Aldhouse-Green and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relevance of the religious beliefs and practices of past European societies can enhance understanding of our own. The popular notion of Druids is unpacked and debunked using archaeological evidence. New research findings are shared with readers in accessible and engaging ways, enhanced by copious illustrations that weave into the text. The book is thoroughly readable and tells stories of the past in a deeply compelling manner.
Download or read book Reviving Roman Religion written by Ailsa Hunt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that thinking about sacred trees in Roman culture forces us to rethink how we understand Roman religion.
Download or read book Divining the Etruscan World written by Jean MacIntosh Turfa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, providing an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text.
Download or read book Prognostication in the Medieval World written by Matthias Heiduk and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two opposing views of the future in the Middle Ages dominate recent historical scholarship. According to one opinion, medieval societies were expecting the near end of the world and therefore had no concept of the future. According to the other opinion, the expectation of the near end created a drive to change the world for the better and thus for innovation. Close inspection of the history of prognostication reveals the continuous attempts and multifold methods to recognize and interpret God’s will, the prodigies of nature, and the patterns of time. That proves, on the one hand, the constant human uncertainty facing the contingencies of the future. On the other hand, it demonstrates the firm believe during the Middle Ages in a future which could be shaped and even manipulated. The handbook provides the first overview of current historical research on medieval prognostication. It considers the entangled influences and transmissions between Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and non-monotheistic societies during the period from a wide range of perspectives. An international team of 63 renowned authors from about a dozen different academic disciplines contributed to this comprehensive overview.
Download or read book Frederick E Brenk on Plutarch Religious Thinker and Biographer written by Frederick E Brenk and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick E. Brenk, Plutarch, Religious Thinker and Biographer: “The Religious Spirit of Plutarch of Chaironeia” and “The Life of Mark Antony” includes the updated and revised version of two seminal articles on Plutarch’s Lives and Moralia by F. E. Brenk originally published in ANRW.
Download or read book Divining the Etruscan World written by Jean MacIntosh Turfa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar is a rare document of omens foretold by thunder. It long lay hidden, embedded in a Greek translation within a Byzantine treatise from the age of Justinian. The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, this book provides an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text, especially the Etruscans' concerns regarding the environment, food, health and disease. Jean MacIntosh Turfa also analyzes the ancient Near Eastern sources of the Calendar and the subjects of its predictions, thereby creating a picture of the complexity of Etruscan society reaching back before the advent of writing and the recording of the calendar.
Download or read book Divination and Knowledge in Greco Roman Antiquity written by Crystal Addey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-15 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the close connections between ancient divination and knowledge, this volume offers an interlinked and detailed set of case studies which examine the epistemic value and significance of divination in ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Focusing on diverse types of divination, including oracles, astrology, and the reading of omens and signs in the entrails of sacrificial animals, chance utterances and other earthly and celestial phenomena, this volume reveals that divination was conceived of as a significant path to the attainment of insight and understanding by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It also explores the connections between divination and other branches of knowledge in Greco-Roman antiquity, such as medicine and ethnographic discourse. Drawing on anthropological studies of contemporary divination and exploring a wide range of ancient philosophical, historical, technical and literary evidence, chapters focus on the interconnections and close relationship between divine and human modes of knowledge, in relation to nuanced and subtle formulations of the blending of divine, cosmic and human agency; philosophical approaches towards and uses of divination (particularly within Platonism), including links between divination and time, ethics, and cosmology; and the relationship between divination and cultural discourses focusing on gender. The volume aims to catalyse new questions and approaches relating to these under-investigated areas of ancient Greek and Roman life. which have significant implications for the ways in which we understand and assess ancient Greek and Roman conceptions of epistemic value and variant ways of knowing, ancient philosophy and intellectual culture, lived, daily experience in the ancient world, and religious and ritual traditions. Divination and Knowledge in Greco-Roman Antiquity will be of particular relevance to researchers and students in classics, ancient history, ancient philosophy, religious studies and anthropology who are working on divination, lived religion and intellectual culture, but will also appeal to general readers who are interested in the widespread practice and significance of divination in the ancient world.
Download or read book Religion and Memory in Tacitus Annals written by Kelly E. Shannon-Henderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout his narrative of Julio-Claudian Rome in the Annals, Tacitus includes numerous references to the gods, fate, fortune, astrology, omens, temples, priests, the emperor cult, and other religious material. Though scholars have long considered Tacitus' discussion of religion of minor importance, this volume demonstrates the significance of such references to an understanding of the work as a whole by analyzing them using cultural memory theory, which views religious ritual as a key component in any society's efforts to create a lived version of the past that helps define cultural identity in the present. Tacitus, who was not only an historian, but also a member of Rome's quindecimviral priesthood, shows a marked interest in even the most detailed rituals of Roman religious life, yet his portrayal of religious material also suggests that the system is under threat with the advent of the principate. Some traditional rituals are forgotten as the shape of the Roman state changes while, simultaneously, a new form of cultic commemoration develops as deceased emperors are deified and the living emperor and his family members are treated in increasingly worshipful ways by his subjects. This study traces the deployment of religious material throughout Tacitus' narrative in order to show how he views the development of this cultic "amnesia" over time, from the reign of the cryptic, autocratic, and oddly mystical Tiberius, through Claudius' failed attempts at reviving tradition, to the final sacrilegious disasters of the impious Nero. As the first book-length treatment of religion in the Annals, it reveals how these references are a key vehicle for his assessment of the principate as a system of government, the activities of individual emperors, and their impact on Roman society and cultural identity.
Download or read book Corneli Taciti Historiarum written by Cornelius Tacitus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-22 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition provides a commentary suitable for students on the Latin text of Histories Book II.
Download or read book Tacitus Wonders written by James McNamara and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume approaches the broad topic of wonder in the works of Tacitus, encompassing paradox, the marvellous and the admirable. Recent scholarship on these themes in Roman literature has tended to focus on poetic genres, with comparatively little attention paid to historiography: Tacitus, whose own judgments on what is worthy of note have often differed in interesting ways from the preoccupations of his readers, is a fascinating focal point for this complementary perspective. Scholarship on Tacitus has to date remained largely marked by a divide between the search for veracity – as validated by modern historiographical standards – and literary approaches, and as a result wonders have either been ignored as unfit for an account of history or have been deprived of their force by being interpreted as valid only within the text. While the modern ideal of historiographical objectivity tends to result in striving for consistent heuristic and methodological frameworks, works as varied as Tacitus' Histories, Annals and opera minora can hardly be prefaced with a statement of methodology broad enough to escape misrepresenting their diversity. In our age of specialization a streamlined methodological framework is a virtue, but it should not be assumed that Tacitus had similar priorities, and indeed the Histories and Annals deserve to be approached with openness towards the variety of perspectives that a tradition as rich as Latin historiographical prose can include within its scope. This collection proposes ways to reconcile the divide between history and historiography by exploring contestable moments in the text that challenge readers to judge and interpret for themselves, with individual chapters drawing on a range of interpretive approaches that mirror the wealth of authorial and reader-specific responses in play.
