Download or read book Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion written by Jitse H. F. Dijkstra and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2008 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The famous island of Philae, on Egypt's southern frontier, can be considered the last major temple site where Ancient Egyptian religion was practiced. According to the Byzantine historian Procopius, in 535-537 CE the Emperor Justinian ordered one of his generals to end this situation by destroying the island's temples. This account has usually been accepted as a sufficient explanation for the end of the Ancient Egyptian cults at Philae. Yet it is by no means unproblematic. This book shows that the event of 535-537 has to be seen in a larger context of religious transformation at Philae, which was more complex and gradual than Procopius describes it. Not only are the various Late Antique sources from and on Philae taken into account, for the first time the religious developments at Philae are also placed in a regional context by analyzing the sources from the other major towns in the region, Syene (Aswan) and Elephantine. "[T]he author situates his material into its wider historical context, and does this so effectively that what begins as a very specific study of a local problem expands to consider the transitions from paganism to Christianity in Egypt as a whole, and stands as one of the most important studies of this topic to date. This well written and deeply learned book is a tour de force of regional religious history that will also be essential reading for anyone interested in indigenous religion and early Christianity in this time of transition." -- Terry Wilfong, in Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists

Download or read book Gods and Men in Egypt written by Françoise Dunand and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Françoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there.

Download or read book The Egyptian God Tutu written by Olaf E. Kaper and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tutu (Tithoes) was a popular god in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history, with his origins in the earlier Egyptian religious tradition. The god provided protection against demons, and his appearance as a striding sphinx was often combined with symbols of his power and visual references to demons and other divinities. The god Tutu demonstrates the continuing vitality of the pharaonic religion under the pressure of foreign cultures and ideas. This monograph provides the first comprehensive study of the god Tutu. It is based upon a collection of attestations, largely unpublished, which derive from monuments in various parts of Egypt and from museum collections all over the world. Moreover, the results of recent archaeological field work in Shenhur and in the temple of Tutu in the Dakhla Oasis have been included in full. The catalogue of monuments is accompanied by an analysis of the god Tutu, his iconography and his place in the Egyptian religion.

Download or read book Following Osiris written by Mark Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 779 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osiris, god of the dead, was one of ancient Egypt's most important deities. The earliest secure evidence for belief in him dates back to the fifth dynasty (c.2494-2345BC), but he continued to be worshipped until the fifth century AD. Following Osiris is concerned with ancient Egyptian conceptions of the relationship between Osiris and the deceased, or what might be called the Osirian afterlife, asking what the nature of this relationship was and what the prerequisites were for enjoying its benefits. It does not seek to provide a continuous or comprehensive account of Egyptian ideas on this subject, but rather focuses on five distinct periods in their development, spread over four millennia. The periods in question are ones in which significant changes in Egyptian ideas about Osiris and the dead are known to have occurred or where it has been argued that they did, as Egyptian aspirations for the Osirian afterlife took time to coalesce and reach their fullest form of expression. An important aim of the book is to investigate when and why such changes happened, treating religious belief as a dynamic rather than a static phenomenon and tracing the key stages in the development of these aspirations, from their origin to their demise, while illustrating how they are reflected in the textual and archaeological records. In doing so, it opens up broader issues for exploration and draws meaningful cross-cultural comparisons to ask, for instance, how different societies regard death and the dead, why people convert from one religion to another, and why they abandon belief in a god or gods altogether.

Download or read book Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt written by John H. Taylor and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the ancient peoples, the Egyptians are perhaps best known for the fascinating ways in which they grappled with the mysteries of death and the afterlife. This beautifully illustrated book draws on the British Museum's world-famous collection of mummies and other funerary evidence to offer an accessible account of Egyptian beliefs in an afterlife and examine the ways in which Egyptian society responded materially to the challenges these beliefs imposed. The author describes in detail the numerous provisions made for the dead and the intricate rituals carried out on their behalf. He considers embalming, coffins and sarcophagi, shabti figures, magic and ritual, and amulets and papyri, as well as the mummification of sacred animals, which were buried by the millions in vast labyrinthine catacombs. The text also reflects recent developments in the interpretation of Egyptian burial practices, and incorporates the results of much new scientific research. Newly acquired information derives from a range of sophisticated applications, such as the use of noninvasive imaging techniques to look inside the wrappings of a mummy, and the chemical analysis of materials used in the embalming process. Authoritative, concise, and lucidly written, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt illuminates aspects of this complex, vibrant culture that still perplex us more than 3,000 years later.

Download or read book A Handbook of Egyptian Religion written by Adolf Erman and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book For the Love of Philae written by Christian Jacq and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the island priestess Isis who withstood Christianity and preserved the ancient mysteries

Download or read book Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination written by Jennifer Taylor Westerfeld and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2019-10-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the pharaonic period, hieroglyphs served both practical and aesthetic purposes. Carved on stelae, statues, and temple walls, hieroglyphic inscriptions were one of the most prominent and distinctive features of ancient Egyptian visual culture. For both the literate minority of Egyptians and the vast illiterate majority of the population, hieroglyphs possessed a potent symbolic value that went beyond their capacity to render language visible. For nearly three thousand years, the hieroglyphic script remained closely bound to indigenous notions of religious and cultural identity. By the late antique period, literacy in hieroglyphs had been almost entirely lost. However, the monumental temples and tombs that marked the Egyptian landscape, together with the hieroglyphic inscriptions that adorned them, still stood as inescapable reminders that Christianity was a relatively new arrival to the ancient land of the pharaohs. In Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination, Jennifer Westerfeld argues that depictions of hieroglyphic inscriptions in late antique Christian texts reflect the authors' attitudes toward Egypt's pharaonic past. Whether hieroglyphs were condemned as idolatrous images or valued as a source of mystical knowledge, control over the representation and interpretation of hieroglyphic texts constituted an important source of Christian authority. Westerfeld examines the ways in which hieroglyphs are deployed in the works of Eusebius and Augustine, to debate biblical chronology; in Greek, Roman, and patristic sources, to claim that hieroglyphs encoded the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood; and in a polemical sermon by the fifth-century monastic leader Shenoute of Atripe, to argue that hieroglyphs should be destroyed lest they promote a return to idolatry. She argues that, in the absence of any genuine understanding of hieroglyphic writing, late antique Christian authors were able to take this powerful symbol of Egyptian identity and manipulate it to serve their particular theological and ideological ends.

Download or read book Egypt in Late Antiquity written by Roger S. Bagnall and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on Egypt from the accession of Diocletian in 284 to the middle of the fifth century, this book brings together information pertaining to the society, economy and culture of a province important to understanding the entire eastern part of the later

Download or read book Temple of the World written by Miroslav Verner and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the prominence of ancient temples in the landscape of Egypt, books about them are surprisingly rare; this new and essential publication from a prominent Czech scholar answers the need for a study that goes beyond temple architecture to examine the spiritual, economic and political aspects of these specific institutions and the dominant roles they played. Miroslav Verner presents a deeper and more complex study of major ancient Egyptian religious centers, their principal temples, their rise and decline, their religious doctrines, cults, rituals, feasts, and mysteries. Also discussed are the various categories of priests, the organization of the priesthood, and its daily services and customs. Each chapter offers the reader essential and up-to-date information about temple complexes and the history of their archaeological exploration, in the context of the spiritual dimension and cultural legacy of ancient Egypt.

Download or read book The Nile written by Toby Wilkinson and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hypnotic journey in the company of one of the world's most acclaimed Egyptologists over the fabled river telling how the Nile continually brought life to an ancient civilization now dead and how it sustained its successors, now in tumult. Renowned Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson leads us through space as much as time: from the river's mystical sources (the Blue Nile which rises in Ethiopia, and the White Nile coursing from majestic Lake Victoria); to Thebes, with its Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, and Luxor Temple; the fertile Delta; Giza, home of the Great Pyramid, the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World; and finally, to the pulsating capital city of Cairo, where the Arab Spring erupted on the bridges over the Nile. Along the way, he introduces us to mysterious and fabled characters-the gods, godlike pharaohs, emperors and empresses, who joined their fate to the Nile and gained immortality; the adventurers, archaeologists, and historians who have all fallen under its spell. With matchless erudition and storytelling skill, through a lens equal to both panoramas and close-ups, Wilkinson brings millennia of history into view.

Download or read book Empire of Ancient Egypt written by Wendy Christensen and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great civilization that grew up around the Nile River had sophisticated irrigation systems that held back the desert, writing and record keeping that kept track of every event in the region, and some of the greatest architects and engineers the world

Download or read book The Rowman Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the Middle East written by Mitri Raheb and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 711 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work represents the current and most relevant content on the studies of how Christianity has fared in the ancient home of its founder and birth. Much has been written about Christianity and how it has survived since its migration out of its homeland but this comprehensive reference work reassesses the geographic and demographic impact of the dramatic changes in this perennially combustible world region. The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the Middle East also spans the historical, socio-political and contemporary settings of the region and importantly describes the interactions that Christianity has had with other major/minor religions in the region.

Download or read book Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Modernity written by Kristine Kolrud and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phenomenon of iconoclasm, expressed through hostile actions towards images, has occurred in many different cultures throughout history. The destruction and mutilation of images is often motivated by a blend of political and religious ideas and beliefs, and the distinction between various kinds of ’iconoclasms’ is not absolute. In order to explore further the long and varied history of iconoclasm the contributors to this volume consider iconoclastic reactions to various types of objects, both in the very recent and distant past. The majority focus on historical periods but also on history as a backdrop for image troubles of our own day. Development over time is a central question in the volume, and cross-cultural influences are also taken into consideration. This broad approach provides a useful comparative perspective both on earlier controversies over images and relevant issues today. In the multimedia era increased awareness of the possible consequences of the use of images is of utmost importance. ’Iconoclasm from Antiquity to Modernity’ approaches some of the problems related to the display of particular kinds of images in conflicted societies and the power to decide on the use of visual means of expression. It provides a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of the phenomenon of iconoclasm. Of interest to a wide group of scholars the contributors draw upon various sources and disciplines, including art history, cultural history, religion and archaeology, as well as making use of recent research from within social and political sciences and contemporary events. Whilst the texts are addressed primarily to those researching the Western world, the volume contains material which will also be of interest to students of the Middle East.

Download or read book Decoding the Osirian Myth written by Panagiota Sarischouli and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-09-23 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The earliest written references to the Osirian myth-complex appeared already in the Pyramid Text spells (c. 2400–2300 BCE). The most complete exposition of this ancient Egyptian myth is, however, found in the Greek treatise On Isis and Osiris, in which the 2nd-century CE Platonist Plutarch utilises Egyptian mythology to advocate his philosophical ideas concerning the divine and the nature of the cosmos. This book aims at “decoding” Plutarch’s narrative of the Osirian myth, linking his claims to the existing Egyptian and Greek parallels. It thus analyses a multitude of mythic and religious traditions from a transcultural perspective, exploring the relation of the Pharaonic features of the Osirian divinities to the features they had acquired in Ptolemaic and Roman times, interpreting the Egyptian myth within the overall framework of parallel mythologies from other cultures, and examining whether the brief mythic stories (historiolae) recited in Late Egyptian ritual texts can be deployed to enrich the context of certain obscure episodes in Plutarch’s account of the myth. The book will be of great interest not only to scholars and students of Plutarch and later Middle Platonism, but also to Egyptologists. Due to its thematic variety and scope, this publication will also appeal to a wider array of readers (specialists and non-specialists alike) interested in religious syncretism, interreligious connections, and the challenge of multiculturalism from Hellenistic times until Late Antiquity.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic written by Daniel S. Richter and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the period known as the Second Sophistic (an era roughly co-extensive with the second century AD), this Handbook serves the need for a broad and accessible overview. The study of the Second Sophistic is a relative new-comer to the Anglophone field of classics and much of what characterizes it temporally and culturally remains a matter of legitimate contestation. The present handbook offers a diversity of scholarly voices that attempt to define, as much as is possible in a single volume, the state of this rapidly developing field. Included are chapters that offer practical guidance on the wide range of valuable textual materials that survive, many of which are useful or even core to inquiries of particularly current interest (e.g. gender studies, cultural history of the body, sociology of literary culture, history of education and intellectualism, history of religion, political theory, history of medicine, cultural linguistics, intersection of the Classical traditions and early Christianity). The Handbook also contains essays devoted to the work of the most significant intellectuals of the period such as Plutarch, Dio Chrysostom, Lucian, Apuleius, the novelists, the Philostrati and Aelius Aristides. In addition to content and bibliographical guidance, however, this volume is designed to help to situate the textual remains within the period and its society, to describe and circumscribe not simply the literary matter but the literary culture and societal context. For that reason, the Handbook devotes considerable space at the front to various contextual essays, and throughout tries to keep the contextual demands in mind. In its scope and in its pluralism of voices this Handbook thus represents a new approach to the Second Sophistic, one that attempts to integrate Greek literature of the Roman period into the wider world of early imperial Greek, Latin, Jewish, and Christian cultural production, and one that keeps a sharp focus on situating these texts within their socio-cultural context.

Download or read book Down to Earth Archaeology written by William Y. Adams and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-05-26 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor William Y. Adams presents sixteen papers on Nubia, written at various times during his lengthy and productive academic career. Most of those selected had been previously published only in a limited way; encompassing a wide range of topics, Adams wanted to enable them to reach a wider readership than they had originally.