Download or read book Cults Creeds and Identities in the Greek City After the Classical Age written by Richard Alston and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates the complex and diverse developments in the religious cultures of Greek cities after the classical age. An international team of scholars considers the continuities of traditional Greek religious practices, and seeks to understand the impact of new influences on those practices, notably the deeper engagement with Judaism and how the emergence of Christianity redefined polis religion. The essays illustrate the inadequacy of 'decline' as a model for understanding Greek religion, exploring how dynamic change in religious life corresponded to the transformations in the Greek city. The volume explores how the citizens of the Greek city after the classical age used religion to construct their cultural identities and political experiences and how many of the features of traditional polis religion survived into and shaped the religious mentalities of the Christian era.
Download or read book Ancient Greek Cults written by and published by Routledge. This book was released on with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cults Territory and the Origins of the Greek City State written by François de Polignac and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-08-15 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the classical Greek city come into being? What role did religion play in its formation? Athens, with its ancient citadel and central religious cult, has traditionally been the model for the emergence of the Greek city-state. But in this original and controversial investigation, Francois de Polignac suggests that the Athenian model was probably the exception, not the rule, in the development of the polis in ancient Greece. Combining archaeological and textual evidence, de Polignac argues that the eighth-century settlements that would become the city-states of classical Greece were defined as much by the boundaries of "civilized" space as by its urban centers. The city took shape through what de Polignac calls a "religious bipolarity," the cults operating both to organize social space and to articulate social relationships being not only at the heart of the inhabited area, but on the edges of the territory. Together with the urban cults, these sanctuaries "in the wild" identified the polis and its sphere of influence, giving rise to the concept of the state as a territorial unit distinct from its neighbors. Frontier sanctuaries were therefore often the focus of disputes between emerging communities. But in other instances, in particular in Greece's colonizing expeditions, these outer sanctuaries may have facilitated the relations between the indigenous populations and the settlers of the newly founded cities. Featuring extensive revisions from the original French publication and an updated bibliography, this book is essential for anyone interested in the history and culture of ancient Greece.
Download or read book Ancient Greek Cults written by Jennifer Lynn Larson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, and incorporating current scholarly theories, this volume offers an accessible account of the Greek gods for undergraduate students.
Download or read book Civic Priests written by Marietta Horster and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Images and inscriptions on monuments can show us how priests and cult personnel saw themselves and were viewed by others, illuminating the social and political identity of these figures within their polis. Dedications and donations by cult personnel, and the honours that they earned, demonstrate their claim on the city’s attention and their financial power. The cityscape itself came to be shaped, in varying intensities and forms, by statues in honour of cult personnel, set up by relatives, fellow citizens and other groups. This set of cultural records, analysed in the studies presented here, is central to understanding how the roles of priests and priestesses were constructed in social and political terms in post-classical Athens. The approaches are both historical and archaeological, and elucidate the religious functions that the cult personnel fulfilled for the city, and their perception, by themselves and by others, as citizens of the polis.
Download or read book The Ancient City written by Arjan Zuiderhoek and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a survey of modern debates on Greek and Roman cities, and a sketch of the cities' chief characteristics.
Download or read book The Hellenistic Far East written by Rachel Mairs and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of Alexander the GreatÕs conquests in the late fourth century B.C., Greek garrisons and settlements were established across Central Asia, through Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan) and into India. Over the next three hundred years, these settlements evolved into multiethnic, multilingual communities as much Greek as they were indigenous. To explore the lives and identities of the inhabitants of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, Rachel Mairs marshals a variety of evidence, from archaeology, to coins, to documentary and historical texts. Looking particularly at the great city of Ai Khanoum, the only extensively excavated Hellenistic period urban site in Central Asia, Mairs explores how these ancient people lived, communicated, and understood themselves. Significant and original, The Hellenistic Far East will highlight Bactrian studies as an important part of our understanding of the ancient world.
Download or read book Cults and Rites in Ancient Greece written by Michael H. Jameson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Citizenship in Classical Athens written by Josine Blok and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-10 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did citizenship really mean in classical Athens? It is conventionally understood as characterised by holding political office. Since only men could do so, only they were considered to be citizens, and the community (polis) has appeared primarily as the scene of men's political actions. However, Athenian law defined citizens not by political office, but by descent. Religion was central to the polis and in this domain, women played prominent public roles. Both men and women were called 'citizens'. On a new reading of the evidence, Josine Blok argues that for the Athenians, their polis was founded on an enduring bond with the gods. Laws anchored the polis' commitments to humans and gods in this bond, transmitted over time to male and female Athenians as equal heirs. All public offices, in various ways and as befitting gender and age, served both the human community and the divine powers protecting Athens.
Download or read book Culture and Ideology under the Seleukids written by Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-01-19 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume offers a timely (re-)appraisal of Seleukid cultural dynamics. While the engagement of Seleukid kings with local populations and the issue of “Hellenization” are still debated, a movement away from the Greco-centric approach to the study of the sources has gained pace. Increasingly textual sources are read alongside archaeological and numismatic evidence, and relevant near-eastern records are consulted. Our study of Seleukid kingship adheres to two game-changing principles: 1. We are not interested in judging the Seleukids as “strong” or “weak” whether in their interactions with other Hellenistic kingdoms or with the populations they ruled. 2. While appreciating the value of the social imaginaries approach (Stavrianopoulou, 2013), we argue that the use of ethnic identity in antiquity remains problematic. Through a pluralistic approach, in line with the complex cultural considerations that informed Seleukid royal agendas, we examine the concept of kingship and its gender aspects; tensions between centre and periphery; the level of “acculturation” intended and achieved under the Seleukids; the Seleukid-Ptolemaic interrelations. As rulers of a multi-cultural empire, the Seleukids were deeply aware of cultural politics.
Download or read book Johannine Belief and Graeco Roman Devotion written by Chris Seglenieks and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this volume, Christopher Seglenieks offers a study of the complex meaning in John's Gospel of genuine belief, arguing it includes cognitive, relational, ethical, ongoing, and public aspects. He compares it with Graeco-Roman religious practices and highlights the distinctiveness of Johannine belief whose features are motivated by John's picture of Jesus." --
Download or read book The Material Dynamics of Festivals in the Graeco Roman East written by Zahra Newby and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-18 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Material Dynamics of Festivals in the Graeco-Roman East explores the various ways in which the experience of civic festivals in the Graeco-Roman East was created and framed by material culture. By the second and third centuries AD, Greek festivals were thriving across the eastern Mediterranean. Much of our knowledge of these festivals, and their associated processions, rituals, banquets, and competitions, comes from material culture-- inscriptions, coins, architecture, and art-works. Yet each of these pieces of material evidence was the result of a conscious act, of what to record, and where and how to record it, with varying patterns discernible across different areas, and in different media. This volume draws attention to the choices made in a variety of different forms of material culture relating to Greek festivals from the Hellenistic to Roman periods, and unpicks the ways in which they encode or forge particular social relationships and power structures, as well as creating senses of community or communication between different groups. These helped to fix ephemeral events into public memory, to present particular views of their significance for the wider community, and to frame the experience of their participants.
Download or read book Augustine in Context written by Tarmo Toom and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Augustine in Context assesses the various contexts - historical, literary, cultural, spiritual - in which Augustine lived and worked. The essays, written by an international team of scholars especially for this volume, provide the background against which Augustine's treatises should be read and interpreted. They are organized according to a rationale which moves from an introduction to the person (the so-called 'personal context') to the contexts of Augustine's works and ideas, starting from the intellectual setting and extending to the socio-political realm. Collectively the essays highlight the embeddedness of Augustine in the world of late antiquity and the interdependence of his discourse with contemporary forms of social life. They shed new light on one of the most important figures of the western canon and facilitate a more enlightened reading of his writings.
Download or read book Feasting and Polis Institutions written by Floris van den Eijnde and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-05-07 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feasting and commensality formed the backbone of social life in the polis, the most characteristic and enduring form of political organization in the ancient Greek world. Exploring a wide array of commensal practices, Feasting and Polis Institutions reveals how feasts defined the religious and political institutions of the Greek citizen-state. Taking the reader from the Early Iron Age to the Imperial Period, this volume launches an essential inquiry into Greek power relations. Focusing on the myriad of patronage roles at the feast and making use of a wide variety of methodologies and primary sources, including archaeology, epigraphy and literature, Feasting and Polis Institutions argues that in ancient Greece political interaction could never be complete until it was consummated in a festive context.
Download or read book Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period written by Eftychia Stavrianopoulou and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a long tradition in classical scholarship of reducing the Hellenistic period to the spreading of Greek language and culture far beyond the borders of the Mediterranean. More than anything else this perception has hindered an appreciation of the manifold consequences triggered by the creation of new spaces of connectivity linking different cultures and societies in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. In adopting a new approach this volume explores the effects of the continuous adaptations of ideas and practices to new contexts of meaning on the social imaginaries of the parties participating in these intercultural encounters. The essays show that the seemingly static end-products of the interaction between Greek and non-Greek groups, such as texts, images, and objects, were embedded in long-term discourses, and thus subject to continuously shifting processes.
Download or read book Hellenistic Athletes written by Sebastian Scharff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-31 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the ways in which athletic self-presentation was used to deliver political messages and to increase social status.
Download or read book Processions and the Construction of Communities in Antiquity written by Elena Muñiz-Grijalvo and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-30 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume elucidates how processions, from antiquity to the present, contribute to creating consensus with regards to both political power and communitarian experiences. Many classical sources often only tangentially allude to processions, focusing instead on other ritual moments, such as sacrifice. This book adopts a comparative approach, bringing together historians of antiquity and later periods as well as social anthropologists working on contemporary societies, analysing both ancient and modern examples of how rituals, symbols, actors, and spectators interact in the construction of communities. The different examples explored in this study illustrate the performative capacity of processions to construct reality: the protagonism of image and movement, the design of cultic itineraries, and the active participation of members of the public. In studying these examples, readers develop an understanding of how power is exercised and perceived, the extent of its legitimacy, and the limits of community in a variety of case studies. Processions and the Construction of Communities in Antiquity is of interest to students and scholars of the classical and early Christian worlds, especially those working on cult, religion, and community formation. The volume also appeals to social anthropologists interested in these issues across a broader chronology.
