Description
Book SynopsisFrom even before the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek gods spread throughout the Mediterranean, carried by settlers and largely adopted by the indigenous populations. This book examines the interaction between Greek religion and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with which it came into contact.
Trade Review". . . offers a wide-ranging discussion of the processes by which the Greeks identified their gods with those of other people." * Times Literary Supplement *
"Parker’s attention to names, cultic forms, and cultural exchange demonstrates a wide-ranging polytheistic arrangement of religious values and practices. . . . Summing Up: Recommended." * CHOICE *
"Parker [shows] the malleability of the ways in which humans use language and structure their ideas. Parker brilliantly analyses that malleability and also its limits, and in so doing he helps us to understand the ancients and ourselves." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Table of ContentsPreface
1. Names and Epithets
2. Interpretatio
3. Gods of Many Nations and Their Naming in Greek: Non-Greek Naming Traditions
4. Supreme, Ancestral, and Personal Gods
5. Ad Maiorem Deorum Gloriam: The Growth of Praise Epithets
6. Delos: Where God Meets God
Conclusion
Appendix A. Postclassical Use of the Epithet O?ρ?νιος
Appendix B. Translated Theophoric Names
Appendix C. Interpretatio in India
Appendix D. Some Non-Greek Theonyms in Anatolia
Appendix E. Thasian Herakles
Appendix F. Some Epithets in Bilingual Texts
Appendix G. Divine and Human Names Juxtaposed
Appendix H. Exported Gods: Th e Cults of Hellenistic Colonies
Bibliography
Index
