Download or read book Greek Philosophy and Mystery Cults written by María José García Blanco and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions to this book offer a broad vision of the relationships that were established between Greek Philosophy and the Mystery Cults. The authors centre their attention on such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoic and the Neoplatonist philosophers, who used – and in some cases criticised – doctrinal elements from Mystery Cults, adapting them to their own thinking. Thus, the volume provides a new approach to some of the most renowned Greek philosophers, highlighting the influence that Mystery Cults, such as Orphism, Dionysianism, or the Eleusinian rites, had on the formation of fundamental aspects of their thinking. Given its interdisciplinary character, this book will appeal to a broad academic readership interested in the origin of Hellenic thinking and culture. It will be especially useful for those eager for a deeper approach to two fundamental domains that attract the attention of many Antiquity scholars: Greek philosophy and religion.
Download or read book Ancient Mystery Cults written by Walter Burkert and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1989-10-15 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The foremost historian of Greek religion provides the first comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This book is neither a history nor a survey but a comparative phenomenology, concentrating on five major cults. In defining the mysteries and describing their rituals, membership, organization, and dissemination, Walter Burkert displays the remarkable erudition we have come to expect of him; he also shows great sensitivity and sympathy in interpreting the experiences and motivations of the devotees.
Download or read book Money and the Early Greek Mind written by Richard Seaford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-11 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? In this book Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage, which produced the first ever thoroughly monetised society. By transforming social relations monetisation contributed to the ideas of the universe as an impersonal system, fundamental to Presocratic philosophy, and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.
Download or read book Mystery Cults of the Ancient World written by Hugh Bowden and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A richly illustrated history of antiquity's secret religious rituals This is the first book to describe and explain all of the ancient world's major mystery cults--one of the most intriguing but least understood aspects of Greek and Roman religion. In the nocturnal Mysteries at Eleusis, participants dramatically re-enacted the story of Demeter's loss and recovery of her daughter Persephone; in the Bacchic cult, bands of women ran wild in the Greek countryside to honor Dionysus; and in the mysteries of Mithras, men came to understand the nature of the universe and their place within it through frightening initiation ceremonies and astrological teachings. These cults were an important part of life in the ancient Mediterranean world, but their actual practices were shrouded in secrecy, and many of their features have remained unclear until now. By richly illustrating the evidence from ancient art and archaeology, and drawing on enlightening new work in the anthropology and cognitive science of religion, Mystery Cults of the Ancient World allows readers to imagine as never before what it was like to take part in these ecstatic and life-changing religious rituals--and what they meant to those who participated in them. Stunning images of Greek painted pottery, Roman frescoes, inscribed gold tablets from Greek and South Italian tombs, and excavated remains of religious sanctuaries help show what participants in these initiatory cults actually did and experienced. A fresh and accessible introduction to a fascinating subject, this is a book that will interest general readers, as well as students and scholars of classics and religion.
Download or read book The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers written by Werner Jaeger and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new and revolutionizing ideas which the early Greek thinkers developed about the nature of the universe had a direct impact upon their conception of what they called, in a new sense, 'God' or 'the Divine.' The history of the philosophical theology of the Greeks is thus the history of their rational approach to the nature of reality itself in its successive phases. The late Professor Jaeger's classic book traces this development from the first intimations in Hesiod of the theology that was to come, through the heroic age of Greek cosmological thought, down to the time of the Sophists of the fifth century B.C.
Download or read book Divine Mania written by Yulia Ustinova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a super-human being. Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of the divine mania in Greek society reflects its acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alteration of consciousness, interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.
Download or read book Stolen Legacy written by George G. M. James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-04-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries the world has been misled about the original source of the Arts and Sciences; for centuries Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have been falsely idolized as models of intellectual greatness; and for centuries the African continent has been called the Dark Continent, because Europe coveted the honor of transmitting to the world, the Arts and Sciences. It is indeed surprising how, for centuries, the Greeks have been praised by the Western World for intellectual accomplishments which belong without a doubt to the Egyptians or the peoples of North Africa.
Download or read book Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco Roman Antiquity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book fills a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Focusing on the visual language surrounding these cults, it aims to understand how images depict mysteries in different cults: Dionysus, Mithras, Mother of the Gods, and Isiac cults.
Download or read book A Companion to Ancient Philosophy written by Mary Louise Gill and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-01-07 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Ancient Philosophy provides a comprehensive and current overview of the history of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy from its origins until late antiquity. Comprises an extensive collection of original essays, featuring contributions from both rising stars and senior scholars of ancient philosophy Integrates analytic and continental traditions Explores the development of various disciplines, such as mathematics, logic, grammar, physics, and medicine, in relation to ancient philosophy Includes an illuminating introduction, bibliography, chronology, maps and an index
Download or read book Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism written by Algis Uždavinys and published by The Matheson Trust. This book was released on 2011 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book on the religious, mystic origins and substance of philosophy. This is a critical survey of ancient and modern sources and of scholarly works dealing with Orpheus and everything related to this major figure of ancient Greek myth, religion and philosophy. Here poetic madness meets religious initiation and Platonic philosophy. This book contains fascinating insights into the usually downplaid relations between Egyptian initiation, Greek mysteries and Plato's philosophy and followers, right into Hellenistic Neoplatonic and Hermetic developments.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy written by A. A. Long and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-06-28 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 1999 Companion to Greek philosophy, invaluable for new readers, and for specialists.
Download or read book Jesus the Magician written by Smith, Morton and published by Hampton Roads Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A twentieth-century classic, uncannily smart, incredibly learned."--from the foreword by Bart Ehrman This book challenges traditional Christian teaching about Jesus. While his followers may have seen him as a man from heaven, preaching the good news and working miracles, Smith asserts that the truth about Jesus is more interesting and rather unsettling. The real Jesus, only barely glimpsed because of a campaign of disinformation, obfuscation, and censorship by religious authorities, was not Jesus the Son of God. In actuality he was Jesus the Magician. Smith marshals all the available evidence including, but not limited to, the Gospels. He succeeds in describing just what was said of Jesus by "outsiders," those who did not believe him. He deals in fascinating detail with the inevitable questions. What was the nature of magic? What did people at that time mean by the term "magician"? Who were the other magicians, and how did their magic compare with Jesus' works? What facts led to the general assumption that Jesus practiced magic? And, most important, was that assumption correct? The ramifications of Jesus the Magician give new meaning to the word controversial. This book recovers a vision of Jesus that two thousand years of suppression and polemic could not erase. And--what may be the central point of the debate--Jesus the Magician strips away the myths and legends that have obscured Jesus, the man who lived.
Download or read book Ecological and Salutogenic Design for a Sustainable Healthy Global Society written by Ken Yeang and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together several leading scientists and practitioners from around the world to discuss the ecological and salutogenic design principles for creating a healthy built environment. These principles and applications are the most important scientific topic of health promotion that provides the context for a healthy lifestyle. The challenge for ecological design is to provide a green context for a healthy society dealing with built infrastructure that creates clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean land, which in turn are necessary for human health and wellbeing. In this book, these principles are intertwined with those of salutogenic design, which support human health globally.
Download or read book Verissimus written by Donald J. Robertson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Logicomix, Donald J. Robertson's Verissimus is a riveting graphic novel on the life and stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was the last famous Stoic of antiquity but he was also to become the most powerful man in the known world – the Roman emperor. After losing his father at an early age, he threw himself into the study of philosophy. The closest thing history knew to a philosopher-king, yet constant warfare and an accursed plague almost brought his empire to its knees. “Life is warfare”, he wrote, “and a sojourn in foreign land!” One thing alone could save him: philosophy, the love of wisdom! The remarkable story of Marcus Aurelius’ life and philosophical journey is brought to life by philosopher and psychotherapist Donald J. Robertson, in a sweeping historical epic of a graphic novel, based on a close study of the historical evidence, with the stunning full-color artwork of award-winning illustrator Zé Nuno Fraga.
Download or read book Romanising Oriental Gods written by Jaime Alvar and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-07-31 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The traditional grand narrative correlating the decline of Graeco-Roman religion with the rise of Christianity has been under pressure for three decades. This book argues that the alternative accounts now emerging significantly underestimate the role of three major cults, of Cybele and Attis, Isis and Serapis, and Mithras. Although their differences are plain, these cults present sufficient common features to justify their being taken typologically as a group. All were selective adaptations of much older cults of the Fertile Crescent. It was their relative sophistication, their combination of the imaginative power of unfamiliar myth with distinctive ritual performance and ethical seriousness, that enabled them both to focus and to articulate a sense of the autonomy of religion from the socio-political order, a sense they shared with Early Christianity. The notion of 'mystery' was central to their ability to navigate the Weberian shift from ritualist to ethical salvation.
Download or read book The Mystery Religions written by S. Angus and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic study explores the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece; Asiatic cults of Cybele, the Magna Mater, and Attis; Dionysian groups; Orphics; Egyptian devotees of Isis and Osiris; Mithraism; and others.
Download or read book Roman Religion written by Valerie M. Warrior and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-10-16 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining sites that are familiar to many modern tourists, Valerie Warrior avoids imposing a modern perspective on the topic by using the testimony of the ancient Romans to describe traditional Roman religion. The ancient testimony recreates the social and historical contexts in which Roman religion was practised. It shows, for example, how, when confronted with a foreign cult, official traditional religion accepted the new cult with suitable modifications. Basic difficulties, however, arose with regard to the monotheism of the Jews and Christianity. Carefully integrated with the text are visual representations of divination, prayer, and sacrifice as depicted on monuments, coins, and inscriptions from public buildings and homes throughout the Roman world. Also included are epitaphs and humble votive offerings that illustrate the piety of individuals, and that reveal the prevalence of magic and the occult in the spiritual lives of the ancient Romans.
