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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions > General
Hailed as "a feast" (Washington Post) and "a modern-day bestiary"
(The New Yorker), Stephen Asma's On Monsters is a wide-ranging
cultural and conceptual history of monsters-how they have evolved
over time, what functions they have served for us, and what shapes
they are likely to take in the future. Beginning at the time of
Alexander the Great, the monsters come fast and furious-Behemoth
and Leviathan, Gog and Magog, Satan and his demons, Grendel and
Frankenstein, circus freaks and headless children, right up to the
serial killers and terrorists of today and the post-human cyborgs
of tomorrow. Monsters embody our deepest anxieties and
vulnerabilities, Asma argues, but they also symbolize the
mysterious and incoherent territory beyond the safe enclosures of
rational thought. Exploring sources as diverse as philosophical
treatises, scientific notebooks, and novels, Asma unravels
traditional monster stories for the clues they offer about the
inner logic of an era's fears and fascinations. In doing so, he
illuminates the many ways monsters have become repositories for
those human qualities that must be repudiated, externalized, and
defeated. Asma suggests that how we handle monsters reflects how we
handle uncertainty, ambiguity, and insecurity. And in a world that
is daily becoming less secure and more ambiguous, he shows how we
might learn to better live with monsters-and thereby avoid becoming
one.
The Sanctuary of Eleusis, near Athens, was the center of a
religious cult that endured for nearly two thousand years and whose
initiates came from all parts of the civilized world. Looking at
the tendency to "see visions," C. Kerenyi examines the Mysteries of
Eleusis from the standpoint not only of Greek myth but also of
human nature. Kerenyi holds that the yearly autumnal "mysteries"
were based on the ancient myth of Demeter's search for her ravished
daughter Persephone--a search that he equates not only with woman's
quest for completion but also with every person's pursuit of
identity. As he explores what the content of the mysteries may have
been for those who experienced them, he draws on the study of
archaeology, objects of art, and religious history, and suggests
rich parallels from other mythologies.
This volume publishes in full for the first time all known
cuneiform manuscripts of an Akkadian calendar treatise that is
unified by the theme of Babylonia's invasion. It was composed in
the milieu of Marduk's Esagil temple in Babylon, probably in the
Hellenistic period before c. 170 BC. Esagil rituals are presented
as essential to protect Babylonia, and specifically Marduk's
principal cult statue, from foreign attack. The treatise builds the
case by drawing on traditional and late Babylonian cuneiform
scholarship, including astronomy-astrology, accounts of warfare
with Elam and Assyria, battle myths of Marduk and Ninurta, and
wordplay. Calendrical sections contain an amalgam of apotropaic
ritual against invasion, astrological omens of invasion as ritual
triggers, past conflicts as historical precedent, divine combatants
representing human foes, and sophisticated exegesis. The work is
partially preserved on damaged clay tablets in the British Museum's
Babylonian collection and the volume presents hand-drawn cuneiform
copies, a composite edition, and a manuscript score. A
comprehensive contextualizing introduction provides readers in a
range of fields - including Assyriology, classics and ancient
history, ancient Iranian studies, Biblical studies, and ancient
astronomy and astrology - with a key overview of topics in
Mesopotamian scholarship, the manuscripts themselves, and their
language and orthography. A detailed commentary explores how the
treatise aims to demonstrate the critical importance of the
traditional Esagil temple in Babylon for the security of Babylonia
and its later imperial rulers.
For over four centuries the principal source of Christian European
knowledge of Islam stemmed from a project sponsored by Peter the
Venerable, ninth abbot of Cluny, in 1142. This consisted of Latin
translations of five Arabic works, including the first translation
of the Koran in a western language. Known as the Toledan
Collection, it was eventually printed in 1543 with an introduction
by Martin Luther. The abbot also completed a handbook of Islam
beliefs and a major analytical and polemical work, Liber contra
sectam Saracenorum; annotated editions of these texts are included
in this book. Originally published in 1964. The Princeton Legacy
Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make
available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished
backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the
original texts of these important books while presenting them in
durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton
Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly
heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton
University Press since its founding in 1905.
Mohism was an ancient Chinese philosophical movement founded in the
fifth century BCE by the charismatic artisan Mozi, or "Master Mo."
Its practitioners advanced a consequentialist ethics, along with
fascinating political, logical, and epistemological theories, that
set the terms of philosophical argumentation and reflection in
China for generations to come. Mohism faded away in the imperial
era, leaving the impression that it was not as vital as other
Chinese philosophical traditions, yet a complete understanding of
Confucianism or Daoism is impossible without appreciating the
seminal contribution of Mohist thought. The Philosophy of the Mozi
is an extensive study of Mohism, situating the movement's rise and
decline within Chinese history. The book also emphasizes Mohism's
relevance to modern systems of thought. Mohism anticipated Western
utilitarianism by more than two thousand years. Its political
theory is the earliest to outline a just war doctrine and locate
the origins of government in a state of nature. Its epistemology,
logic, and psychology provide compelling alternatives to
contemporary Western mentalism. More than a straightforward account
of Mohist principles and practice, this volume immerses readers in
the Mohist mindset and clarifies its underpinning of Chinese
philosophical discourse.
Odysseus-soldier, trickster, and everyman-is one of the most
recognizable characters in world literature. His arduous, ten-year
journey home after the Trojan War, the subject of Homer's The
Odyssey, is the most accessible tale to survive from ancient
Greece, and its impact is still felt today across many different
cultures. Barry Powell's free verse translation preserves the
clarity and simplicity of the original while conveying Odysseus'
adventures in an energetic, modern idiom. By avoiding the stylistic
formality of earlier translations, and the colloquial and sometimes
exaggerated effects of recent attempts, his translation deftly
captures the most essential truths of this vital text. Due to his
thorough familiarity with the world of Homer and Homeric language,
Powell's introduction provides rich historical and literary
perspectives on the poem. This translation also includes
illustrations from classical artwork, detailed maps, explanatory
notes, a timeline, and a glossary. Modern and pleasing to the ear
while accurately reflecting the meaning of the Greek, this Odyssey
steers a middle path between the most well-known translations and
adds something truly unique and contemporary to the canon.
"Early Greek Myth" is a much-needed handbook for scholars and
others interested in the literary and artistic sources of archaic
Greek myths--and the only one of its kind available in English.
Timothy Gantz traces the development of each myth in narrative form
and summarizes the written and visual evidence in which the
specific details of the story appear.
Parting company with the trend in recent scholarship to treat the
subject in abstract, highly theoretical terms, Magic in Ancient
Greece and Rome proposes that the magic-working of antiquity was in
reality a highly pragmatic business, with very clearly formulated
aims - often of an exceedingly malignant kind. In seven chapters,
each addressed to an important arm of Greco-Roman magic, the volume
discusses the history of the rediscovery and publication of the
so-called Greek Magical Papyri, a key source for our understanding
of ancient magic; the startling violence of ancient erotic spells
and the use of these by women as well as men; the alteration in the
landscape of defixio (curse tablet) studies by major new finds and
the confirmation these provide that the frequently lethal intent of
such tablets must not be downplayed; the use of herbs in magic,
considered from numerous perspectives but with an especial focus on
the bizarre-seeming rituals and protocols attendant upon their
collection; the employment of animals in magic, the factors
determining the choice of animal, the uses to which they were put,
and the procuring and storage of animal parts, conceivably in a
sorcerer's workshop; the witch as a literary construct, the clear
homologies between the magical procedures of fictional witches and
those documented for real spells, the gendering of the witch-figure
and the reductive presentation of sorceresses as old, risible and
ineffectual; the issue of whether ancient magicians practised human
sacrifice and the illuminating parallels between such accusations
and late 20th century accounts of child-murder in the context of
perverted Satanic rituals. By challenging a number of orthodoxies
and opening up some underexamined aspects of the subject, this
wide-ranging study stakes out important new territory in the field
of magical studies.
This volume examines the state ideology of Assyria in the Early
Neo-Assyrian period (934-745 BCE) focusing on how power relations
between the Mesopotamian deities, the Assyrian king, and foreign
lands are described and depicted. It undertakes a close reading of
delimited royal inscriptions and iconography making use of
postcolonial and gender theory, and addresses such topics as royal
deification, "religious imperialism", ethnicity and empire, and
gendered imagery. The important contribution of this study lies
especially in its identification of patterns of ideological
continuity and variation within the reigns of individual rulers,
between various localities, and between the different rulers of
this period, and in its discussion of the place of Early
Neo-Assyrian state ideology in the overall development of Assyrian
propaganda. It includes several indexed appendices, which list all
primary sources, present all divine and royal epithets, and provide
all of the "royal visual representations," and incorporates
numerous illustrations, such as maps, plans, and royal iconography.
Seers featured prominently in ancient Greek culture, but they
rarely appear in colonial discourse from the archaic and classical
periods. Margaret Foster exposes the ideological motivations behind
this discrepancy and reveals how colonial discourse's privileging
of the city's founder and his dependence on Delphi, the colonial
oracle par excellence, entails a corresponding suppression of the
seer. Foster explains why the seer's authority conflicts with that
of the founder and investigates a sequence of literary works from a
range of genres that showcase this dynamic. The first study to
analyze the seer and the Delphi-sanctioned founder relationally,
this volume illuminates the contests between religious and
political powers in archaic and classical Greece.
For over four centuries the principal source of Christian European
knowledge of Islam stemmed from a project sponsored by Peter the
Venerable, ninth abbot of Cluny, in 1142. This consisted of Latin
translations of five Arabic works, including the first translation
of the Koran in a western language. Known as the Toledan
Collection, it was eventually printed in 1543 with an introduction
by Martin Luther. The abbot also completed a handbook of Islam
beliefs and a major analytical and polemical work, Liber contra
sectam Saracenorum; annotated editions of these texts are included
in this book. Originally published in 1964. The Princeton Legacy
Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make
available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished
backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the
original texts of these important books while presenting them in
durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton
Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly
heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton
University Press since its founding in 1905.
A philosopher, mathematician, and martyr, Hypatia is one of
antiquity's best known female intellectuals. During the sixteen
centuries following her murder, by a mob of Christians, Hypatia has
been remembered in books, poems, plays, paintings, and films as a
victim of religious intolerance whose death symbolized the end of
the Classical world. But Hypatia was a person before she was a
symbol. Her great skill in mathematics and philosophy redefined the
intellectual life of her home city of Alexandria. Her talent as a
teacher enabled her to assemble a circle of dedicated male
students. Her devotion to public service made her a force for peace
and good government in a city that struggled to maintain trust and
cooperation between pagans and Christians. Despite these successes,
Hypatia fought countless small battles to live the public and
intellectual life that she wanted. This book rediscovers the life
Hypatia led, the unique challenges she faced as a woman who
succeeded spectacularly in a man's world, and the tragic story of
the events that led to her tragic murder.
"The runes you must find ... Which the mighty sage stained and the
powerful gods made and the runemaster of the gods carved out." (The
Poetic Edda, translated by C. Larrington) The runes are mysterious
and powerful magical keys to the primal forces of nature that
shaped Norse and Northern European culture. These twenty-four
unique and inspiring symbols of the Elder Futhark (first runic
alphabet) each possess powerful energies, identities, meanings, and
sounds. The runes are invoked and harnessed to create change
through inspiration, healing, protection, knowledge and divine
wisdom from the Norse gods. Odin's Gateways is a practical guide to
using the runes in our lives, in magic and in divination - a unique
journey into the mysteries hidden within the runes, filled with the
information and practices necessary to developing a deep personal
understanding and relationship with them. By focusing on how to
directly harness and channel the energy of the individual runes,
the author guides the reader along the path to self knowledge and
empowerment. With a deft hand and lucid style, Katie Gerrard cuts
to the heart of the runes, combining the wisdom of the Norse Sagas
and Rune Poems with practical advice and techniques gained through
living and experiencing their powers. The divinatory meanings of
the runes are given, with a range of different reading methods,
bindrunes are explained in detail, with numerous examples presented
ready for use; galdr (incantation) and spellcraft, charms and
talismans are all seamlessly explored and made accessible in this
fluid, concise and practical guide.
Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian,
lived an illustrious life as an orator, poet, priest, and bishop.
Until his death, he wrote scores of letters to friends and
colleagues, clergy members and philosophers, teachers of rhetoric
and literature, and high-ranking officials at the provincial and
imperial levels, many of which are preserved in his self-designed
letter collection. Here, for the first time in English, Bradley K.
Storin has translated the complete collection, offering readers a
fresh view on Gregory's life, social and cultural engagement,
leadership in the church, and literary talents. Accompanying the
translation are an introduction, a prosopography, and annotations
that situate Gregory's letters in their biographical, literary, and
historical contexts. This translation is an essential resource for
scholars and students of late antiquity and early Christianity.
Inadequately documented, ancient Greek religion can all too easily be reduced to the dry analysis of archaeological remains and so-called `ritual objects'. This authoritative new work attempts to bridge the gap that usually divides Greek religion from Greek history, setting it firmly in the thick of contemporary events and politics. How did people actually worship the gods? Was Socrates's trial a crisis for religion or the state, or both? These are among the key issues addressed in what promises to be the definitive work on the subject for many years to come.
Though ancient rabbinic texts are fundamental to analyzing the
history of Judaism, they are also daunting for the novice to read.
Rabbinic literature presumes tremendous prior knowledge, and its
fascinating twists and turns in logic can be disorienting. Rabbinic
Drinking helps learners at every level navigate this brilliant but
mystifying terrain by focusing on rabbinic conversations about
beverages, such as beer and wine, water, and even breast milk. By
studying the contents of a drinking vessel-including the contexts
and practices in which they are imbibed-Rabbinic Drinking surveys
key themes in rabbinic literature to introduce readers to the main
contours of this extensive body of historical documents. Features
and Benefits: Contains a broad array of rabbinic passages,
accompanied by didactic and rich explanations and contextual
discussions, both literary and historical Thematic chapters are
organized into sections that include significant and original
translations of rabbinic texts Each chapter includes in-text
references and concludes with a list of both referenced works and
suggested additional readings
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