Ancient religions and Mythologies Books

Book SynopsisHeirs to the Punic and Berber traditions, the North Africans, once conquered by the Romans and willing to show respect for their new masters’ gods, did not want to forsake their beloved ancestral deities and solved this dilemma by giving Roman names to their traditional gods, who nevertheless kept most of their former natures. This phenomenon, known as interpretatio romana, resulted in an interpenetration of both religious universes, each being enriched in the process. Roman African gods thus conceal dual personalities within themselves, which this book tries to investigate through all available sources (epigraphy, literature, numismatic and archaeology), unveiling many unsuspected aspects of great deities like Saturn/Baal Hammon, Astarte/Venus or Mercury/Baal Addir. If those gods of Roman Africa have inspired many individual studies, there was still a need for a book examining them all together within their interrelations. Here is then at last a real global study of the Roman-African pantheon. *** Héritiers des traditions puniques et berbères, les Nord-africains, à l’arrivée du conquérant romain, voulurent conserver leurs divinités ancestrales tout en respectant les dieux de leur nouveau maître. Ils affublèrent donc de noms romains leurs dieux traditionnels tout en leur conservant l’essentiel de leur personnalité d’origine. Ce phénomène, connu sous le terme d’interpretatio romana, résulta en une interpénétration des deux univers religieux, qui s’enrichirent ainsi mutuellement. Les dieux de l’Afrique romaine cachent donc des personnalités multiples que cet ouvrage tente de dévoiler en mettant à profit toutes les sources disponibles : épigraphie, littérature, numismatique et archéologie. Ces grandes divinités, telles que Saturne/Baal Hammon, Vénus/Astarté ou Mercure/Baal Addir livrent ainsi tour à tour des aspects insoupçonnés de leurs personnalités. Si les dieux d’Afrique romaine ont suscité diverses études individuelles, il manquait encore un ouvrage qui les examinerait tous ensemble et dans leurs rapports entre eux. Voici donc enfin une véritable étude globale du panthéon romano-africain.

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Book SynopsisCelestial divination, in the form of omens from lunar, planetary, astral, and meteorological phenomena, was central to Mesopotamian cuneiform scholarship and science from the late second millennium BCE into the Hellenistic period. Beyond the boundaries of ancient Mesopotamia, the ideas, texts, and traditions of Babylonian celestial divination are traceable in Hellenistic sciences and philosophies. This collection of essays investigates features of Babylonian celestial divination with special focus on those aspects that influenced later Greco-Roman astronomy, astrology, and theories of signs. A multi-faceted collection of philological, historical, and philosophical investigations, In the Path of the Moon offers Assyriologists, Classicists, and historians of ancient science a wide-ranging series of studies unified around the theme of Babylonian celestial divination's legacy. "The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination." Lorenzo Verderame, "Sapienza" Università di Roma "The reader interested in the multifaceted presentation of the problems related to the explanation of Babylonian celestial divination and well equipped with the knowledge of Akkadian will certainly be rewarded by the study of Rochberg’s latest publication." Henryk Drawnel, SDBTrade Review“This collection is a praiseworthy testament to the dedication, focus, and enterprise of a scholar without whose attention and efforts the field would be all the poorer. Rochberg’s scholarship is both definitive and exemplary, and she poses and addresses general questions that are both lucid and evocative, with a characteristic flair and expertise. In this way, her work is an aid as well as an inducement to current and succeeding generations of Assyriologists and Classicists to further their studies on the intellectual cultures of the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean, and beyond, and to investigate more thoroughly their contributions, interaction, and legacy.” - Clemency Montelle, University of Canterbury, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol.133, no.2 (2013) "The volume offers food for thought, not just identifying particular ideas and elements that have Mesopotamian origins or discussing the nature of the Babylonian preoccupation with the celestial bodies, but raising questions of the transmission of cultural artefacts, which routes they may have followed, and how they were incorporated into a new religious and / or scientific context." - Ulla Susanne Koch, University of Freiburg, in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, vol.110, no.6 (2015) "The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination." - Lorenzo Verderame, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, in: Aestimatio 8 (2011)Table of ContentsCONTENTS Chapter One Fate and Divination in Mesopotamia Chapter Two New Evidence for the History of Astrology Chapter Three Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts Chapter Four The Assumed 29th Aḫû Tablet of Enūma Anu Enlil Chapter Five TCL 6 13: Mixed Traditions in Late Babylonian Astrology Chapter Six Benefic and Malefic Planets in Babylonian Astrology Chapter Seven Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology Chapter Eight Babylonian Seasonal Hours Chapter Nine Babylonian Horoscopy: The Texts and their Relations Chapter Ten Continuity and Change in Omen Literature Chapter Eleven The Babylonian Origins of the Mandaean Book of the Zodiac Chapter Twelve Scribes and Scholars: The Ṭupšar Enūma Anu Enlil Chapter Thirteen Lunar Data in Babylonian Horoscopes Chapter Fourteen A Babylonian Rising Times Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts Chapter Fifteen Old Babylonian Celestial Divination Chapter Sixteen The Heavens and the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia: The View from a Polytheistic Cosmology Chapter Seventeen A Short History of the Waters Above the Firmament Chapter Eighteen Periodicities and Period Relations in Babylonian Celestial Sciences Chapter Nineteen Conditionals, Inference, and Possibility in Ancient Mesopotamian Science Chapter Twenty “If P, then Q”: Form and Reasoning in Babylonian Divination Chapter Twenty-One Divine Causality and Babylonian Divination

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Book SynopsisHow did the world begin? How were the first people created and which specific roles were they supposed to play in the cosmos? Like other mythologies worldwide, China’s creation and origin myths explain how man created order out of chaos and imposed culture on nature. Cross-cultural approaches to myth make us aware of the limitations of our own familiar classifications. This book makes a provocative case for the comparative study of the hidden treasures of China’s oral and written myth traditions in different languages and cultures, a legacy generously left behind by singers, storytellers, poets, and writers. This book opens new doors to the study of Chinese mythologies, a surprising and so far almost unknown world outside China.Trade Review"This is a book of ambitious breadth of scope, and clearly reflects the energy and enthusiasm of a discipline only now really re-establishing itself in the Chinese context...the book is attractively presented and is a significant addition to the Brill 'Religion in Chinese Societies' series." Peter Harris, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 15.1 (June 2013)Table of ContentsI Comparative Perspectives Mineke Schipper: Humanity’s Beginnings in Creation and Origin Myths from Around the World Yang Lihui and An Deming: The World of Chinese Mythology: An Introduction Ye Shuxian: From Frog to Nüwa and Back Again: the Religious Roots of Creation Myths Namjila: Water-of-Immortality Myths in Altaic and Japanese Cultures Jaeseo Jung: Myths of Giant Corpse Transformation II Rediscovering the Beginning in Texts Kao Lifeng: Sacred Order: Cosmogonic Myth in the Chu Silk Manuscript Kristofer Schipper: The Wholeness of Chaos: Laozi on the Beginning Chen Lianshan: Gun and Yu: Revisiting the Chinese “Earth-Diver” Hypothesis Wu Xiaodong: Pangu and the Origin of the Universe III Oral Tradition and Ethnic Diversity Wu Bing'an: Chinese Creation Myths: a Great Discovery Wang Xianzhao: Minority Creation Myths: An Approach to Classification Liu Yahu: Humanism as a Paradigm for Creation Myths Yang Lihui: Performing Myths Today: A Field Study of the Renzu Temple Festival Mark Bender: Perspectives on the Environment in Miao and Yi Creation Narratives IV Anthology of Creation and Origin Myths

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Book SynopsisOver the past 20 years, Boeotia has been the focus of intensive archaeological investigation that has resulted in some extraordinary epigraphical finds. The most spectacular discoveries are presented for the first time in this volume: dozens of inscribed sherds from the Theban shrine of Heracles; Archaic temple accounts; numerous Classical, Hellenistic and Roman epitaphs; a Plataean casualty list; a dedication by the legendary king Croesus. Other essays revisit older epigraphical finds from Aulis, Chaironeia, Lebadeia, Thisbe, and Megara, radically reassessing their chronology and political and legal implications. The integration of old and new evidence allows for a thorough reconsideration of wider historical questions, such as ethnic identities, and the emergence, rise, dissolution, and resuscitation of the famous Boeotian koinon. Contributors include: Vassilios Aravantinos, Hans Beck, Margherita Bonanno, Claire Grenet, Yannis Kalliontzis, Denis Knoepfler, Angelos P. Matthaiou, Emily Mackil, Christel Müller, Nikolaos Papazarkadas, Isabelle Pernin, Robert Pitt, Adrian Robu, and Albert Schachter.Trade Review"The volume stands out for two reasons. First, it accumulates insights, arguments and viewpoints on a major historical phenomenon ("federalism") in a region of major importance (Boiotia) with a complex history across the archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. Second, the volume includes sensational, drop-everything-and-read-this findings, in separate (coyly, unrevealingly titled) papers by Y. Kalliontzis and N. Papazarkadas." John Ma, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.07.11. ''Compétence, méthode, rigueur, perspicacité, clarté sont les mots qui viennent à l’esprit pour qualifier ce travail qui ouvre des pistes nouvelles, défend des positions originales et est digne, à bien des égards, de servir comme modèle à de semblables enquêtes.'' Andé Motte, L'Antiquité Classique 86, 2017.Table of ContentsContents Preface Abbreviations List of Contributors Introduction Section I: Boeotian History: New Interpretations 1. Hans Beck: “Ethnic Identity and Integration in Boeotia: the Evidence of the Inscriptions (6th and 5th Centuries BC)” 2. Emily Mackil: “Creating a Common Polity in Boeotia” 3. Denis Knoepfler: “ΕΧΘΟΝΔΕ ΤΑΣ ΒΟΙΩΤΙΑΣ: The Expansion of the Boeotian Koinon towards Central Euboia in the Early Third Century BC” 4. Adrian Robu: “Between Macedon, Achaea and Boeotia: The Epigraphy of Hellenistic Megara Revisited” 5. Christel Müller: “A Koinon after 146? Reflections on the Political and Institutional Situation of Boeotia in the Second Half of the Second Century BC” Section II: The New Epigraphy of Thebes 6. Vassilios L. Aravantinos: “The Inscriptions from the Sanctuary of Herakles at Thebes: An Overview” 7. Angelos P. Matthaiou: “Four Inscribed Bronze Tablets from Thebes: Preliminary Notes.” 8. Nikolaos Papazarkadas: “Two New Epigrams from Thebes” 9. Margherita Bonanno-Aravantinos: “New Inscribed Funerary Monuments from Thebes” Section III: Boeotian Epigraphy: Beyond Thebes 10. Albert Schachter: “Tlepolemos in Boeotia” 11. Yannis Kalliontzis: “Digging in Storerooms for Inscriptions: An Unpublished Casualty List from Plataia in the Museum of Thebes and the Memory of War in Boeotia” 12. Robert Pitt: “Just As It Has Been Written: Inscribing Building Contracts at Lebadeia” 13. Claire Grenet: “Manumission in Hellenistic Boeotia: New Considerations on the Chronology of the Inscriptions” 14. Isabelle Pernin: “Land Administration and Property Law in the Proconsular Edict from Thisbe (Syll.3 884)” Index Locorum General Index

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Book SynopsisIn Bodies of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia Matthew Rutz explores the relationship between ancient collections of texts, commonly deemed libraries and archives, and the modern interpretation of titles like ‘diviner’. By looking at cuneiform tablets as artifacts with archaeological contexts, this work probes the modern analytical categories used to study ancient diviners and investigates the transmission of Babylonian/Assyrian scholarship in Syria. During the Late Bronze Age diviners acted as high-ranking scribes and cultic functionaries in Emar, a town on the Syrian Euphrates (ca. 1375-1175 BCE). This book’s centerpiece is an extensive analytical catalogue of the excavated tablet collection of one family of diviners. Over seventy-five fragments are identified for the first time, along with many proposed joins between fragments.

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Book SynopsisThis work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones, the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.Trade Review'...most impressive...' Greece & Rome, 1993. '...important ouvrage... L'enquête de l'A. fera date: ses volumes seront désormais une référence indispensable pour tous ceux qui étudient l'histoire de cette époque, tout particulièrement les historiens du christianisme.' P. Maraval, Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses, 1995. '...livre fort intéressant et bien construit...' U. Zanetti, Analecta Bollandiana, 1995.

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Book SynopsisThis work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones, the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.Trade Review'No one can fail to be most impressed by the sheer accumulation of evidence, both textual and epigraphical., Greece & Rome, 1994. 'Son ouvrage est appelé à rendre d'éminents services et forme une contribution décisive en matière d'histoire des religions.' J. Schamp, Comptes Rendus, 1996.

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The strength of the present volume lies in the breadth of scholarly approaches represented. The book begins with several papyrological studies presenting important new texts in Greek and Coptic, continuing with essays focussing on taxonomy and definition. The concluding essays apply contemporary theories to analyses of specific test cases in a broad variety of ancient Mediterranean cultures. Paul Mirecki, Th.D. (1986) in Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. Marvin Meyer, Ph.D. (1979) in Religion, Claremont Graduate School, is Professor of Religion at Chapman University, Orange, California, and Director of the Coptic Magical Texts Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity.Trade Review"…an excellent overview with enough depth to satisfy specialists interested in magic or any of the academic contexts within which the topics are found." – Jennifer Wees, in: Laval Theologique et Philosophique, 2004

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Book SynopsisThe volume presents a selection of research projects in Digital Humanities applied to the “Biblical Studies” in the widest sense and context, including Early Jewish and Christian studies, hence the title “Ancient Worlds”. Taken as a whole, the volume explores the emergent Digital Culture at the beginning of the 21st century. It also offers many examples which attest to a change of paradigm in the textual scholarship of “Ancient Worlds”: categories are reshaped; textuality is (re-) investigated according to its relationships with orality and visualization; methods, approaches and practices are no longer a fixed conglomeration but are mobilized according to their contexts and newly available digital tools.Table of ContentsContributors are: Steve Benzek, David Bouvier, Claire Clivaz, Paul Dilley, David Hamidovic, Todd R. Hanneken, Hugh A.G. Houghton, Martin Kaiser, Lilian Larsen, David A. Michelson, Sara Schulthess, Catherine J. Smith, Apolline Thromas, Georg Wais.

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Book SynopsisFrancesca Rochberg has for more than thirty-five years been a leading figure in the study of ancient science. Her foundational insights on the concepts of “science,” “canon,” “celestial divination,” “knowledge,” “gods,” and “nature” in cuneiform cultures have demanded continual contemplation on the tenets and assumptions that underlie the fields of Assyriology and the History of Science. “The Scaffolding of Our Thoughts” honors this luminary with twenty essays, each reflecting on aspects of her work. Following an initial appraisal of ancient “science” by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, the contributions in the first half explore practices of knowledge in Assyriological sources. The second half of the volume focuses specifically on astronomical and astrological spheres of knowledge in the Ancient Mediterranean. "This excellent Festschrift, dedicated to Francesca Rochberg, offers fascinating insight into the world of ancient magic and divination." -Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.5 (2019)Trade Review“This excellent Festschrift, dedicated to Francesca Rochberg, offers fascinating insight into the world of ancient magic and divination. (…) The volume contains 20 essays, all of consistently high quality (…)” - Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, in Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2019Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments IX Introduction  1 A Status Quaestionis on the Formation of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible  2 Some Preliminary Clarifications  3 Methodology and Structure 1 The Twenty-Two Books of the Jews According to Josephus  1 The Passage of the Against Apion  2 The Twenty-Two Books Outside the Against Apion  3 Josephus and Some Books on the Borderline of the Canon 2 The Ninety-Four Books of the Torah According to 4 Ezra  1 Introduction to 4 Ezra  2 Coordinates for a Comprehensive Understanding of 4 Ezra  3 The Characterization of Ezra  4 Function and Meaning of the Ninety-Four Books  5 Historical Context and Social Function of 4 Ezra  6 Fourth Ezra and the Canon of the Hebrew Bible 3 Comparison and Conclusions  1 A Short Comparison between Josephus and 4 Ezra on the Books  2 Elements for an Hypothesis Bibliography

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Book SynopsisSources of Evil: Studies in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore is a collection of thirteen essays on the body of knowledge employed by ancient Near Eastern healing experts, most prominently the ‘exorcist’ and the ‘physician’, to help patients who were suffering from misfortunes caused by divine anger, transgressions of taboos, demons, witches, or other sources of evil. The volume provides new insights into the two most important catalogues of Mesopotamian therapeutic lore, the Exorcist’s Manual and the Aššur Medical Catalogue, and contains discussions of agents of evil and causes of illness, ways of repelling evil and treating patients, the interpretation of natural phenomena in the context of exorcistic lore, and a description of the symbolic cosmos with its divine and demonic inhabitants. "This volume in the series on Ancient Divination and Magic published by Brill is a welcome addition to the growing literature on ancient magic ..." -Ann Jeffers, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.5 (2019) "Since the focus of the conference from which the essays derive was narrow, most of the essays hang together well and even complement each other. Several offer state-of-the-art treatments of topics and texts that make the volume especially useful. Readers will find much in this volume that contributes to our understanding of Mesopotamian exorcists, magic, medicine, and conceptions of evil." -Scott Noegel, University of Washington, Journal of the American Oriental Society 140.1 (2020)

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies In her groundbreaking investigation from the perspective of the aesthetics of religion, Isabel Laack explores the religion and art of writing of the pre-Hispanic Aztecs of Mexico. Inspired by postcolonial approaches, she reveals Eurocentric biases in academic representations of Aztec cosmovision, ontology, epistemology, ritual, aesthetics, and the writing system to provide a powerful interpretation of the Nahua sense of reality. Laack transcends the concept of “sacred scripture” traditionally employed in religions studies in order to reconstruct the Indigenous semiotic theory and to reveal how Aztec pictography can express complex aspects of embodied meaning. Her study offers an innovative approach to nonphonographic semiotic systems, as created in many world cultures, and expands our understanding of human recorded visual communication. This book will be essential reading for scholars and readers interested in the history of religions, Mesoamerican studies, and the ancient civilizations of the Americas. "This excellent book, written with intellectual courage and critical self-awareness, is a brilliant, multilayered thought experiment into the images and stories that made up the Nahua sense of reality as woven into their sensational ritual performances and colorful symbolic writing system." - Davíd Carrasco, Harvard UniversityTrade ReviewIsabel Laack’s Aztec Religion and Art of Writing makes an important departure from the way aesthetics, semiotics, and studies of religion have been applied to our understanding of Aztec civilization and culture. Furthermore, by relocating the epicenter of scholarly “gaze,” to religion and regions beyond Christianity and Anglo-American or European contexts, Laack offers an innovative postcolonial aesthetic approach to religion. Laack’s bold methodological departure from her own graduate training provides encouragement for scholars of all stages to chart similar pathways for themselves. - Jury of the AAR 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies.Table of ContentsContents Foreword Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction  1 Introducing the Subject  2 Indicating Sociopolitical Relevance  3 Realizing the Aesthetics of Religion  4 Outlining the Chapters 1 Methodology  1 Doing Research in a Postcolonial World  2 Writing History  3 Clarifying Perspectives and Objectives  4 Summary 2 Living in Cultural Diversity  1 Drawing on History  2 Living in the Central Highlands  3 Living in Religious Diversity  4 Conclusion: Diversity within the Nahua Tradition 3 Living in Relation: Being Human in Tenochtitlan  1 How the World Came to Be  2 How the Human World Came to Be  3 How the Cosmic Dynamics Unfold  4 Living in Cosmic Relations  5 Living in Social Relations  6 Living Properly—Living in Balance 4 A World in Motion: Nahua Ontology  1 Aztec Notions of “Divinity”  2 The Nature of Teotl  3 Teotl’s Realization: Nahualli and the Layers of Reality  4 A World in Motion: The Fifth Era  5 The Problem of Ephemerality: What Is Really Real? 5 Understanding a World in Motion: Nahua Epistemology  1 Epistemology  2 Knowledge Experts: Wise (Wo)Men and Scribes  2 People with Special Insights  3 The Inspiration of Knowledge and Its Expression 6 Interacting with a World in Motion: Nahua Pragmatism and Aesthetics  1 Human Agency: Seeking Balance  2 Human Duties  3 Interacting with Rituals  4 Involving the Senses and Aesthetic Media  5 The Concept of the Teixiptla 7 Expressing Reality in Language: Nahua Linguistic Theory  1 Nahua Oral Tradition  2 Reconstructing Nahua Songs  3 Thinking in Nahuatl  4 Nahua Imagery  5 The Relationship between the Spoken Sign and Reality in Nahuatl  6 Nahua Imagery and the Problem of Rationality 8 Materializing Reality in Writing: Nahua Pictography  1 The History of Writing Systems in Mesoamerica  2 The Writing System of the Nahuas  3 Social Text Practice  4 Books and Authors  5 Nahua Culture between Orality and Literacy 9 Understanding Pictography: Interpreting Nahua Semiotics  1 The History of Evaluating Aztec Writing  2 Different Kinds of Meaning and Knowledge  3 Seeing Reality: Nahua Semiotic Theory  4 Interpreting Nahua Pictography 10 Interpretative Results: Nahua Religion, Scripture, and Sense of Reality  1 From Religion to Being-in-the-World  2 From Scripture to Semiotics  3 Interrelationships: Semiotic Theory and Embodied Meaning Conclusion References Index Plates

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Book SynopsisIn Isis Pelagia: Images, Names and Cults of a Goddess of the Seas, Laurent Bricault, one of the principal scholars of the cults of Isis, presents a new interpretation of the multiple sources that present Isis as a goddess of the seas. Bricault discusses a wealth of relatively unknown archaeological and textual data, drawing on a profound knowledge of their historical context. After decades of scholarly study, Bricault offers an important contribution and a new phase in the debate on understanding the “diffusion” as well as the “reception” of the cults of Isis in the Graeco-Roman world. This book, the first English-language monograph by the leading French scholar in the field, underlines the importance of Isis Studies for broader debates in the study of ancient religion.Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations, Tables and Map Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Origins of Isis, Goddess of the Seas  1.1 The Masters of the Waves in Ancient Egypt  1.2 Isis, Navigation, and the Aquatic Element during the Pharaonic Period  1.3 Isis, the Phoenicians, and the Greeks  1.4 Arsinoe, Aphrodite, Isis and the Marine Element 2 The Canonization of A New Prerogative 3 Representations of Isis, Goddess of the Seas  3.1 The Isis-with-a-Sail Type  3.2 The Problem of Sculpted Representations of the Isis-with-a-Sail Type  3.3 Other Representations of Isis, Goddess of the Seas 4 The Names of Isis, Goddess of the Seas  4.1 Isis Eὔπλοια  4.2 Isis πελαγία  4.3 Isis σώτειρα  4.4 Isis Φαρία  4.5 Isis κυβερνῆτις and ὁρμίστρια 5 A Cult for Isis, Goddess of the Seas  5.1 The Cult Sites of Marine Isis  5.2 Ritual Practices  5.3 Festivals in Honor of Isis, Goddess of the Seas 6 Sarapis and the Sea  6.1 Sarapis: Fulfilling the Need for a God  6.2 A New Field of Action for Sarapis  6.3 Isis and Sarapis, Figureheads and Names of Ships 7 Disappearance and Renaissance of Marine Isis and Sarapis Conclusion General Bibliography General Index

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Book SynopsisIn Medicine in Ancient Assur Troels Pank Arbøll offers a microhistorical study of a single exorcist named Kiṣir-Aššur who practiced medical and magical healing in the ancient city of Assur (modern northern Iraq) in the 7th century BCE. The book provides the first detailed analysis of a healer’s education and practice in ancient Mesopotamia based on at least 73 texts assigned to specific stages of his career. By drawing on a microhistorical framework, the study aims at significantly improving our understanding of the functional aspects of texts in their specialist environment. Furthermore, the work situates Kiṣir-Aššur as one of the earliest healers in world history for whom we have such details pertaining to his career originating from his own time.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations and Symbols Symbols and Further Abbreviations Introduction  1.1 Colophons  1.2 Mesopotamian Medicine  1.3 Authorship  1.4 Proof and Possibility  1.5 Scope and Structure Framework and Background  2.1 Microhistory  2.2 Framework  2.3 Background for Studying Kiṣir-Aššur  2.4 Quantifying and Contextualizing Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts Kiṣir-Aššur’s Magico-Medical Education as šamallû ṣeḫru  3.1 Complex Diagnoses in Kiṣir-Aššur’s šamallû ṣeḫru Texts  3.2 Principles Understood Through Examples  3.3 The Head: BAM 9  3.4 The “Strings” and “Inner” Body  3.5 Snakes, Scorpions and Horses: A Discussion of RA 15 pl. 76  3.6 Gaining an Understanding of Anatomy and Physiology  3.7 Preparation for Other Duties as šamallû ṣeḫru  3.8 Summary Training in Anatomy and Physiology as šamallû ṣeḫru  4.1 The Role of Venom in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Anatomical Understanding  4.2 Veterinarian Knowledge in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Education  4.3 Excursus: Animal Variants of Human Illnesses  4.4 Animal and Human Physiology: The Reverse of RA 15 pl. 76  4.5 Summary Further Apprenticeship: šamallû to mašmaššu ṣeḫru  5.2 The šamallû mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phase  5.3 The mašmaššu ṣeḫru-phase  5.4 Excursus: The ša Nabû tuklassu-phrase  5.5 Summary Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaššu-phase  6.1 Texts with Colophons Including the Title mašmaššu  6.2 Making House Calls: Discussion of KAR 230  6.3 Ritually Protecting the Houses of Clients: Discussion of KAR 298  6.4 Namburbi-rituals and House Calls: KAL 4 no. 7 and LKA 115  6.5 Other Technical Literature: CT 37 pl. 24f.  6.6 Summary Additional Texts that May Belong to the mašmaššu-phase  7.1 Omission and Inclusion of Titles  7.2 Tablets Without Kiṣir-Aššur’s Professional Title  7.3 Tablets with Broken Colophons  7.4 The mašmaššu-phase and Purpose Statements  7.5 A Discussion of the Dated Tablet KAR 267  7.6 Other Technical Literature: BAM 307 and ACh Supp. 2 24  7.7 Summary Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase  8.1 The Title mašmaš bīt Aššur  8.2 Medical Texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase  8.3 Tested Prescriptions Among the Medical Texts  8.4 Panaceas Among the Medical Texts  8.5 Ritual Texts from Kiṣir-Aššur’s mašmaš bīt Aššur-phase  8.6 Texts Connected to the Aššur Temple  8.7 Summary Situating Kiṣir-Aššur’s Knowledge Production  9.1 Kiṣir-Aššur’s Overall Medical Focus  9.2 Numbered Nisḫu-extracts  9.3 Catch-lines and Duplicate Passages in Kiṣir-Aššur’s Texts in Relation to the Therapeutic Series Ugu  9.4 The Exorcist’s Manual (EM)  9.5 Kiṣir-Aššur and the Scholarly Traditions in Assur  9.6 Summary Synthesis and Conclusion Catalogue of Texts Edition of RA 15 pl. 76  Transliteration  General Observations  Commentary Bibliography 346 Index

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Book SynopsisInspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive manner. From this perspective the six chapters explore problems inherent in: order vs. variety/chaos in polytheism, arbitrariness vs. justice in theodicy, the peaceful co-existence of mono- and polytheistic theologies, human traits in divine imagery, divine omnipotence vs. limitation of power, and ruler cult. Based on an intimate knowledge of ancient realia and literary testimonia the book stands out for its extensive application of relevant perceptions drawn from cultural anthropology, theology, cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics.Trade ReviewThe aim of Greek rituals – sacrifices, prayers, hymns, processions – was to bring the gods from heaven to earth. This is exactly what H.S. Versnel achieves: his Sather lectures bring the Olympians from the heaven of philosophers and theologians to the real world of the mortal Greeks. Versnel places belief in the gods in the socio-cultural context of the Greek polis, with all its complexities, contradictions, and dynamics. Until a time-machine will allow us to ask the Greeks what they thought of their gods, we will have to do with Versnel’s penetrating, imaginative, and stimulating reconstruction. - Angelos Chaniotis The high scholarly stature of this book and the author’s formidable familiarity with a huge swathe of evidence and bibliography will be recognized by any reader - Donald Mastronarde C’est une véritable Summa theologica que nous offre Henk S. Versnel, un livre dense, fruit non seulement des Sather Lectures données à Berkeley en 1999, mais surtout d’une longue et féconde fréquentation des dieux antiques, d’une vie d’enquêtes et de questionnements sur les panthéons grecs et romains. ... l’ambitieux programme de complexification et de clarification conjointes [...] a produit un livre atypique, titanesque (comme le suggère le marbre moderne de la couverture, intitulé « Titan »), d’une richesse rare, voire unique, exigeant et stimulant. Un long périple, une surprenante « odyssée », une nécessaire exploration de la Divina Commedia, dont nous devons être profondément reconnaissants à son Auteur. - Corinne Bonnet, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, August 2012. <'i>In this weighty and magisterial volume that grew out of his Sather lectures and that may rightly be viewed as the culmination of his career, Versnel both revisits and deepens his engagement with critical problems of what he calls Greek theology; his goal, as he puts it is to produce “a more or less comprehensive introduction into some of the most seminal issues of ancient Greek religion.” [...] Versnel combines deep erudition and engagement with both ancient material and modern scholarship [...] with impish wit. No student of Greek religion can afford—despite the price—not to read this volume. - Jenny Strauss Clay, University of Virginia, in: Religious Studies Review • Vol 38, Number 4 (2012) In dit magnum opus presenteert Henk Versnel een synthese van een deel van zijn nieuwe inzichten. Het is ronduit een schitterend werk geworden........Ik heb zelden zo’n goed beargumenteerd en schitterend geschreven boek over de Griekse godsdienst gelezen als dit meesterwerk. - Pieter W. van der Horst, Prof em. University of Utrecht, in: Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift (2012). Un monument d’érudition, impossible à assimiler d’un coup., - Pierre Bonnechère, in: Kernos 2012, 304-317 Densely textured though it is the volume is never dry. In addition to the fascinating material its style is unfailingly lively and frequently amusing. (....) Most important, however, this is the work of an author who loves his subject, so much so that he sees himself as in some ways its rescuer from the clutches of those who seek to confine the Greeks within ‘late modern monolithical and mono-paradigmatic dogmas’. An important aim, and one amply fulfilled. - Emma Aston, In: CR 63 (2013). Il s’agit d’un travail gigantesque, important, truffé de réflexions passionantes, d’invitations au débat et d’interrogations qui viendront encore longtemps nourrir les lecteurs qui veulent comprendre comment les Grecs se débrouillaient avec leurs dieux.... - Viviane Pirenne-Delforge, in: Mnemosyne 66 (2013), 348-352. 'Coping with the Gods' is no ordinary book. The much anticipated publication of the Sather Lectures of 1999 is a superb showcase of mind-blowing learning and a model exposition of how to set up a logical and crystalclear line of argumentation. (.......) If the author perhaps not quite realises precisely how influential his earlier volumes on Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion of the early 1990s have actually been with regard to the general academic discourse on ancient religion and if Coping with the Gods is therefore less groundbreaking at the time of its publication than when its themes were first conceived and formulated, this is still a book of the hors catégorie. Bringing together strands from a long impressive career of thinking about ancient religion has resulted in a remarkable survey and analysisof ancient Greek religious behaviour. (.........) The academic world would be a lot poorer, and also a lot less amusing without the great Versnel to challenge our often long-held preconceptions and to keep us continually on our toes. Further generations of students of ancient religion will remain in awe of the erudition contained in what is to be considered as his scholarly testament and should let themselves be guided by his judgement on the ancient Greeks. – Ted Kaizer in: Mythos 7 (2013), 202-205.

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Book SynopsisMystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity aims to fill a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity by focusing on images for investigating their ritual praxis. Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa have gathered experts on visual language in order to illuminate cultic rituals renowned for both their “mysteries” and their images. This book tackles three interrelated questions. Focusing on the cult of Dionysus, it analyses whether, and how, images are used to depict mystery cults. The relationship between historiography and images of mystery cults is considered with a focus on the Mithraic and Isiac cults. Finally, turning to the cults of Dionysus and the Mother of the Gods, this work shows how depictions of specific cultic objects succeed in expressing mystery cults.Trade Review"In conclusione, sono molti gli interrogativi e gli stimoli che il volume di Belayche e Massa offre sul linguaggio visuale che ruota intorno ai misteri. Il volume è molto ben curato editorialmente, pochissime le sviste e buono l’apparato iconografico (...). La sfida nel rintracciare testimonianze visuali sui misteri ovviamente prosegue, ma questa raccolta costituisce di certo un utile punto di partenza." - Margherita Facella, Università di Pisa, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2021.10.29Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations List of Contributors 1 Mystery Cults and Visual Language in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: an Introduction  Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa part 1: Do Images Depict Mystery Cults, and If So, How? 2 Sub-Introduction 3 Comment figurer l’ineffable, comment lire les images ?  Cornelia Isler-Kerényi 4 Le phallus qui cache le mystère ? Les images dionysiaques dans les décors romains : à propos d’une fresque de la Domus Transitoria  Stéphanie Wyler 5 Échos de la Télétè dionysiaque dans la mosaïque romaine tardive  Janine Balty part 2: Historiography and Images of Mystery Cults 6 Sub-Introduction 7 ‘The Seven Grades of Mithraism’, or How to Build a Religion  Philippa Adrych 8 Les mystères isiaques et leurs expressions figurées. Des exégèses modernes aux allusions antiques  Richard Veymiers part 3: Depicting Objects to Signify Mystery Cults 9 Sub-Introduction 10 The Liknon and the Bundle: Does the Ritual ‘Initiatory’ Object Make the Mystery?  Anne-Françoise Jaccottet 11 The Cista, a Hallmark of Mater Magna’s Mysteries in the Roman World?  Françoise Van Haeperen Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies In her groundbreaking investigation from the perspective of the aesthetics of religion, Isabel Laack explores the religion and art of writing of the pre-Hispanic Aztecs of Mexico. Inspired by postcolonial approaches, she reveals Eurocentric biases in academic representations of Aztec cosmovision, ontology, epistemology, ritual, aesthetics, and the writing system to provide a powerful interpretation of the Nahua sense of reality. Laack transcends the concept of “sacred scripture” traditionally employed in religions studies in order to reconstruct the Indigenous semiotic theory and to reveal how Aztec pictography can express complex aspects of embodied meaning. Her study offers an innovative approach to nonphonographic semiotic systems, as created in many world cultures, and expands our understanding of human recorded visual communication. This book will be essential reading for scholars and readers interested in the history of religions, Mesoamerican studies, and the ancient civilizations of the Americas. "This excellent book, written with intellectual courage and critical self-awareness, is a brilliant, multilayered thought experiment into the images and stories that made up the Nahua sense of reality as woven into their sensational ritual performances and colorful symbolic writing system." - Davíd Carrasco, Harvard UniversityTrade ReviewIsabel Laack’s Aztec Religion and Art of Writing makes an important departure from the way aesthetics, semiotics, and studies of religion have been applied to our understanding of Aztec civilization and culture. Furthermore, by relocating the epicenter of scholarly “gaze,” to religion and regions beyond Christianity and Anglo-American or European contexts, Laack offers an innovative postcolonial aesthetic approach to religion. Laack’s bold methodological departure from her own graduate training provides encouragement for scholars of all stages to chart similar pathways for themselves. - Jury of the AAR 2020 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion: Historical Studies.Table of ContentsContents Foreword Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction  1 Introducing the Subject  2 Indicating Sociopolitical Relevance  3 Realizing the Aesthetics of Religion  4 Outlining the Chapters 1 Methodology  1 Doing Research in a Postcolonial World  2 Writing History  3 Clarifying Perspectives and Objectives  4 Summary 2 Living in Cultural Diversity  1 Drawing on History  2 Living in the Central Highlands  3 Living in Religious Diversity  4 Conclusion: Diversity within the Nahua Tradition 3 Living in Relation: Being Human in Tenochtitlan  1 How the World Came to Be  2 How the Human World Came to Be  3 How the Cosmic Dynamics Unfold  4 Living in Cosmic Relations  5 Living in Social Relations  6 Living Properly—Living in Balance 4 A World in Motion: Nahua Ontology  1 Aztec Notions of “Divinity”  2 The Nature of Teotl  3 Teotl’s Realization: Nahualli and the Layers of Reality  4 A World in Motion: The Fifth Era  5 The Problem of Ephemerality: What Is Really Real? 5 Understanding a World in Motion: Nahua Epistemology  1 Epistemology  2 Knowledge Experts: Wise (Wo)Men and Scribes  2 People with Special Insights  3 The Inspiration of Knowledge and Its Expression 6 Interacting with a World in Motion: Nahua Pragmatism and Aesthetics  1 Human Agency: Seeking Balance  2 Human Duties  3 Interacting with Rituals  4 Involving the Senses and Aesthetic Media  5 The Concept of the Teixiptla 7 Expressing Reality in Language: Nahua Linguistic Theory  1 Nahua Oral Tradition  2 Reconstructing Nahua Songs  3 Thinking in Nahuatl  4 Nahua Imagery  5 The Relationship between the Spoken Sign and Reality in Nahuatl  6 Nahua Imagery and the Problem of Rationality 8 Materializing Reality in Writing: Nahua Pictography  1 The History of Writing Systems in Mesoamerica  2 The Writing System of the Nahuas  3 Social Text Practice  4 Books and Authors  5 Nahua Culture between Orality and Literacy 9 Understanding Pictography: Interpreting Nahua Semiotics  1 The History of Evaluating Aztec Writing  2 Different Kinds of Meaning and Knowledge  3 Seeing Reality: Nahua Semiotic Theory  4 Interpreting Nahua Pictography 10 Interpretative Results: Nahua Religion, Scripture, and Sense of Reality  1 From Religion to Being-in-the-World  2 From Scripture to Semiotics  3 Interrelationships: Semiotic Theory and Embodied Meaning Conclusion References Index Plates

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Book SynopsisThis work contains two parts. Part I constitutes a guide to the corpus of Greek sacred law and its contents. A discussion of the history of the corpus and the principles governing its composition is followed by a detailed review of its contents, in which the evidence is classified according to subject matter. Part II contains inscriptions published since the late 1960s from all around the Greek world excluding Cos and Asia Minor (checklists for these are appended). The text of each inscription is presented alongside restorations, epigraphical commentary, translation, and a comprehensive running commentary. Most of the inscriptions are illustrated. The volume should prove useful to scholars of Greek religion, historians, and epigraphists.Trade Review"...an effective research tool with many sound commentaries ... a welcome addition" – Jan-Mathieu Carbon, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2005

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Book SynopsisThe 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.Trade Review"It investigates the reception, transformation, and socioreligious roles of the cults of Mater Magna (Cybele), Isis and Serapis, and Mithras in the complex culture of the Roman Empire and their relationship to emergent Christianity." New Testament Abstracts 53:2

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Book SynopsisIn Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City, historians, archaeologists and historians of religion provide studies of the phenomenon of the Christianization of the Roman Empire within the context of the transformations and eventual decline of the Greco-Roman city. The eleven papers brought together here aim to describe the possible links between religious, but also political, economic and social mutations engendered by Christianity and the evolution of the antique city. Combining a multiplicity of sources and analytical approaches, this book seeks to measure the impact on the city of the progressive abandonment of traditional cults to the advantage of new Christian religious practices.

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Book SynopsisThis book approaches the religion and rituals of the pre-Islamic Arabian nomads using the Safaitic inscriptions. Unlike Islamic-period literary sources, this material was produced by practitioners of traditional Arabian religion; the inscriptions are eyewitnesses to the religious life of Arabian nomads prior to the spread of Judaism and Christianity across Arabia. The author attempts to reconstruct this world using the original words of its inhabitants, interpreted through comparative philology, pre-Islamic and Islamic-period literary sources, and the archaeological context.Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations Sigla 1 Introduction  1 Religion and the Inscriptions of the Pre-Islamic Nomads: From Thamudic B to Safaitic  2 Scope and Methodology 2 Rites  1 Animal Sacrifice  2 Erection of the nṣb Stone  3 The Ritual Shelter  4 The Pilgrimage  5 Ritual Purity  6 Offerings  7 Vows and Oaths  8 Sacred Water 3 Divinities and Their Roles in the Lives of Humans  1 Location of the Deities  2 The Gadds  3 The Gods and Their Worshippers  4 Sin, Obedience, and Repentance?  5 Malignant Magic 4 Fate 5 Afterlife  1 Burial Installations  2 Invoking the Names of the Dead 6 Visual Representation of Deities and the Divine World 7 Amplification and Why Write 8 Worldview—A Reconstruction Appendix 1: Glossary of Divinities Appendix 2: Previously Unpublished Inscriptions Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe articles assembled in this volume present an important selection of Professor Jao Tsung-i’s research in the field of the early Chinese intellectual tradition, especially as it concerns the human condition. Whether his focus is on myth, religion, philosophy or morals, Jao consistently aims to describe how the series of developments broadly associated with the Axial Age unfolded in China. He is particularly interested in showing how early China had developed its own notion of transcendence as well as a system of prediction and morals that enabled man to act autonomously, without recourse to divine providence.Table of ContentsCollected Works of Jao Tsung-i: Series Introduction Translator’s Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations List of Illustrations Timeline  Part 1 Part 2: The Gods of Time and Space: Cosmogony and Myths of Origin in Ancient China and Beyond Introduction 1 A Preliminary Comparison of Creation Myths and the Origins of Man in Epics from China and Beyond  A Preamble to the Near Eastern Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish) 2 The Dualist Paradigm of Ancient Chinese History  1  2  3 3 On the Daoist “Genesis” 4 An Investigation into the Chart of Pangu 盤古  An account of Eastern Han murals from the Shu Region Depicting the Image of “Pangu” as Seen by Renowned Personalities from the Tang and Song Periods  Supplementary Note Part 3: Attuning to Time and Space: Hemerology, Astrology and Correlative Thought in Early China Introduction 5 On the Meaning of the Chu Silk Manuscript 6 An Explanation of the Phenomena Called ‘Xiang Wei ’ 象緯 and ‘De Ni’ 德匿 in the Chu Silk Manuscript  1 Chen Wei 晨禕 Reads Chen Wei 辰緯 (Weft of Constellations)  2 Becoming Confused and Diverting from the [Proper] Movements  3 “Gaining and Regressing” and the Planet Saturn  4 Years with Fuzzy Stars  5 Ni 匿 (Concealment) and De Ni 德匿 (the Concealment of Virtue) Resolving Doubts: From Divine Providence to Moral Standards and Human Agency Introduction 7 The Philosophy of “Zhen” 貞  1 “Zhen” 貞 as a Means of Communication between Humans and Spirits during the Yin 殷 Period (ca. 1600–1050 BC)  2 Testing Through Divination and Moral Determination  3 The “zhen” 貞 of the Wenyan zhuan 文言傳 (Commentary on the Words) on the Hexagram Qian 乾 and the Four Virtues (si de 四德)  4 Discussing the Concepts “yong zhen” 永貞, “li yong zhen” 利永貞 and “linian de zheng ming” 歷年得正命  5 Receiving Heaven’s Perpetual Mandate, Fixing Fate, and Employing Virtue  6 The Meaning of “de yuan” (德元)  7 Concluding Remarks: A Philological Philosophy 8 Moral Speculation and the Conception of a Sky God  1 The Beginnings of the Worship of Di 帝 and the Deity of Heaven  2 The Graph de 德 in Writings from the Yin and Zhou Periods  3 Standing in Awe of Heaven’s Daunting Authority and the Establishment of the Idea of jing de 經德 (Honoring de)  4 The Interrelation of Politics and Morals within the Conception of the Heavenly Mandate  5 The Mental Worries and Anxieties That Led to the Composition of the Changes (Yi 易) and the Establishment of Cultivated de 9 Rationalism and the Idea of Divine Law (Selection)  1 The Changing Positions of the Gods and of Man  2 De 德 (Rewards) and xing 刑 (Punishments)  3 Five Elements Thought and the Cosmological Meaning of de-Propriety (德禮)  4 Heaven’s Laws and the Laws of de  5 Conclusion Bibliography Index

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