From the age of Homer until late antiquity the culture of ancient Greece and Rome was permeated by images of Greek myths. Gods and heroes were represented as statues, on vase and wall paintings, on temples, on sarcophagi as well as on other media. This book offers, for the first time, a concise introduction into the interpretation of images of Greek myths. Its main aim is to make the pictorial versions of the myths comprehensible on their own terms. Ancient artists were well aware of the potential but also the limitations of these 'silent' images and of the strategies that made them 'speak' to the audience/viewer. The book combines detailed explanation of theoretical and methodological issues with exhaustive discussion of case studies. It will be useful and stimulating for all undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in classical mythology and ancient art."

Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819 1900) was appointed to the post of Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy at Edinburgh University in 1846. He was respected for his practical work, and his Teneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment (1858) is also reissued in this series. However, this book, first published in 1864, is testimony to the author's interest in 'pyramidology', and although it was so popular in his own lifetime that it was reprinted five times, his eccentric interpretation of the data he had collected by measuring all aspects of the Great Pyramid of Giza damaged his scientific reputation. Smyth was convinced that the British measurement standard of an inch as a basic unit of length was associated with the sacred cubit of the Bible. This measure was supposedly incorporated in the Pyramid, which he claimed was built under divine guidance by the Ancient Israelites, and enshrined scientific information.

The history and underlying ideology of pilgrimage examined, from prehistory to the middle ages. The enduring importance of pilgrimage as an expression of human longing is explored in this volume through three major themes: the antiquity of pilgrimage in what became the Christian world; the mechanisms of Christian pilgrimage(particularly in relation to the practicalities of the journey and the workings of the shrine); and the fluidity and adaptability of pilgrimage ideology. In their examination of pilgrimage as part of western culture from neolithictimes onwards, the authors make use of a range of approaches, often combining evidence from a number of sources, including anthropology, archaeology, history, folklore, margin illustrations and wall paintings; they suggest that it is the fluidity of pilgrimage ideology, combined with an adherence to supposedly traditional physical observances, which has succeeded in maintaining its relevance and retaining its identity. They also look at the ways in whichpilgrimage spilled into, or rather was part of, secular life in the middle ages. Dr JENNIE STOPFORD teaches in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York. Contributors: RICHARD BRADLEY, E.D. HUNT, JULIEANN SMITH, SIMON BARTON, WENDY R. CHILDS, BEN NILSON, KATHERINE J. LEWIS, DEBRA J. BIRCH, SIMON COLEMAN, JOHN ELSNER, A. M. KOLDEWEIJ.

Originally published in 1910, this book analyses the customs and superstitions of modern Greece as a means of gaining a greater understanding of ancient Greek belief structures. Analogies and coincidences between ancient and modern Greece had been pointed out prior to the publication of this edition, but no large attempt had been made to trace the continuity of the life and thought of the Greek people, and to exhibit modern Greek folklore as an essential factor in the interpretation of ancient Greek religion. The text is highly accessible, and all quotations from ancient and modern Greek are translated into English. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in anthropology and the classical world.

The interpretation of animal sacrifice, now considered the most important ancient Greek and Roman religious ritual, has long been dominated by the views of Walter Burkert, the late J.-P. Vernant, and Marcel Detienne. No penetrating and general critique of their views has appeared and, in particular, no critique of the application of these views to Roman religion. Nor has any critique dealt with the use of literary and visual sources by these writers. This book, a collection of essays by leading scholars, incorporates all these subjects and provides a theoretical background for the study of animal sacrifice in an ancient context.

From the age of Homer until late antiquity the culture of ancient Greece and Rome was permeated by images of Greek myths. Gods and heroes were represented as statues, on vase and wall paintings, on temples, on sarcophagi as well as in other media. This 2011 book provides a concise introduction to the interpretation of the images of Greek myths. Its main aim is to make the pictorial versions of the myths comprehensible on their own terms. Ancient artists were well aware of the potential - but also the limitations - of these 'silent' images and of the strategies that made them 'speak' to the audience/viewer. The book explains the theoretical and methodological issues at stake and discusses in detail a number of case studies. It will be useful and stimulating for all undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in classical mythology and ancient art.

First published in 1938, this volume originated in a series of articles written mainly for the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology between 1925 and 1938. Created with both the Egyptologist and general reader in mind, it provides a highly informative account of religious development in ancient Egypt, and its connection with the need for fertility and rain. The text has a clear factual emphasis, with abundant references, illustrations, and a conspectus of key historical periods. It will be of value to anyone with an interest in ancient Egypt or historiography.

James Lynn Page has written a creative and practical guide to an ancient and mysterious tradition that is enjoying an astonishing revival worldwide. He separates fact from fiction, myth from magic, and brings the reader closer to the truth in this fascinating study of the Celts: their traditional ceremonies, rituals and lore linked to the seasons; Hallowe'en and modern Witchcraft (or Wicca); and, the Celtic gods, goddesses and heroes. And then he tells us how to make the magic happen for ourselves, to harness its power and improve our lives.

Learn about compelling worlds and characters depicted in myths and legends in The Mythology Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Mythology in this overview guide to the subject, brilliant for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Mythology Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Mythology, with: - More than 80 classics retold and explained in mythology - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Mythology Book allows you delve into each myth, discover the meanings behind them, and understand their significance to different cultures worldwide - aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll find global coverage of world myths, profiling everything from the well-known tales of the Greeks, Norsemen, and Egyptians to the legends of the Caribbean, the Americas, Oceania, and East Asia. Your Mythological Questions, Simply Explained Learn about myths in this essential guide, from early creation beliefs to classical hero narratives and the recurring theme of the afterlife. Delve into each myth and discover the meanings behind these stories, getting to the heart of their significance to different cultures worldwide. If you thought it was difficult to learn about the many classic stories, The Mythology Book presents key information in a clear layout. Discover Zeus, god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods, Loki, the cunning trickster with a knack for causing havoc, Thor with his mighty hammer, and Hades, ruler of the underworld - and much more. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Mythology Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

From the turn of the fifth century to the beginning of the eighteenth, Christian writers were fascinated and troubled by the "Problem of Paganism," which this book identifies and examines for the first time. How could the wisdom and virtue of the great thinkers of antiquity be reconciled with the fact that they were pagans and, many thought, damned? Related questions were raised by encounters with contemporary pagans in northern Europe, Mongolia, and, later, America and China. Pagans and Philosophers explores how writers--philosophers and theologians, but also poets such as Dante, Chaucer, and Langland, and travelers such as Las Casas and Ricci--tackled the Problem of Paganism. Augustine and Boethius set its terms, while Peter Abelard and John of Salisbury were important early advocates of pagan wisdom and virtue. University theologians such as Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine, and later thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, More, Bayle, and Leibniz, explored the difficulty in depth. Meanwhile, Albert the Great inspired Boethius of Dacia and others to create a relativist conception of scientific knowledge that allowed Christian teachers to remain faithful Aristotelians. At the same time, early anthropologists such as John of Piano Carpini, John Mandeville, and Montaigne developed other sorts of relativism in response to the issue. A sweeping and original account of an important but neglected chapter in Western intellectual history, Pagans and Philosophers provides a new perspective on nothing less than the entire period between the classical and the modern world.

A beautiful and simple introduction to the Book of Kells, one of the world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, with a newly-expanded colour plate section. Here George Otto Simms, a world-renowned authority on the Book of Kells, reveals the mysteries hidden in this magnificent manuscript. He introduces the monks who made the book and guides the reader through the intricate detail of this ancient and exotic book. Also available in French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

The Odyssey's larger plot is composed of a number of distinct genres of myth, all of which are extant in various Near Eastern cultures (Mesopotamian, West Semitic, and Egyptian). Unexpectedly, the Near Eastern culture with which the Odyssey has the most parallels is the Old Testament. Consideration of how much of the Odyssey focuses on non-heroic episodes - hosts receiving guests, a king disguised as a beggar, recognition scenes between long-separated family members - reaffirms the Odyssey's parallels with the Bible. In particular the book argues that the Odyssey is in a dialogic relationship with Genesis, which features the same three types of myth that comprise the majority of the Odyssey: theoxeny, romance (Joseph in Egypt), and Argonautic myth (Jacob winning Rachel from Laban). The Odyssey also offers intriguing parallels to the Book of Jonah, and Odysseus' treatment by the suitors offers close parallels to the Gospels' depiction of Christ in Jerusalem.

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, the late Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. She studies the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. Sourvinou-Inwood also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. Her book, brought to completion by Robert Parker, displays all the attention to detail and the concern for methodological rigour that have made her an iconic figure among students of Greek religion.

The renowned classical scholar and archaeologist A. B. Cook (1868-1952) published the final volume of his monumental Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion in two parts in 1940. The volume covers the theme of Zeus as a weather-god - the god of earthquakes, clouds, wind, dew, rain and meteorites - an idea that became common during the classical period. Part 2 contains three detailed appendixes on floating islands, the iconography of Eros and the idea of hierogamy. It includes a comprehensive index for the volume and addenda for all three volumes, and contains a rich selection of illustrations: maps, diagrams, photographs, and engravings, including many images of ancient pottery, statues, busts, friezes and ancient coins. A treasure-trove of primary texts, both Greek and Latin, epigraph material and archaeological data, this magnificent work remains an indispensable tool for students and scholars of classics, mythology and ancient religion.

The renowned classical scholar and archaeologist A. B. Cook (1868 1952) published the second volume of his monumental Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion in two parts in 1925. The volume covers the theme of Zeus as god of lightning and thunder, an idea that became common during the classical period. Part II contains detailed appendixes and a comprehensive index for the volume. It offers a wealth of information, including primary sources, on Zeus' relationship with the god Kairos; mountain-cults; folk-tales and myths; and the various personas and manifestations of the god Zeus. It is beautifully illustrated with maps, diagrams, photographs, and engravings, including many images of pottery, statues, busts, friezes and ancient coins. A treasure-trove of primary texts, both Greek and Latin, epigraph material and archaeological data, this magnificent work remains an indispensable tool for students and scholars of classics, mythology and ancient religion.

An unparalleled exploration of magic in the Greco-Roman world What did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also use it to try to influence the world around them? In Drawing Down the Moon, Radcliffe Edmonds, one of the foremost experts on magic, religion, and the occult in the ancient world, provides the most comprehensive account of the varieties of phenomena labeled as magic in classical antiquity. Exploring why certain practices, images, and ideas were labeled as "magic" and set apart from "normal" kinds of practices, Edmonds gives insight into the shifting ideas of religion and the divine in the ancient past and later Western tradition. Using fresh approaches to the history of religions and the social contexts in which magic was exercised, Edmonds delves into the archaeological record and classical literary traditions to examine images of witches, ghosts, and demons as well as the fantastic powers of metamorphosis, erotic attraction, and reversals of nature, such as the famous trick of drawing down the moon. From prayer and divination to astrology and alchemy, Edmonds journeys through all manner of ancient magical rituals and paraphernalia-ancient tablets, spell books, bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, and amulets and talismans. He considers the ways in which the Greco-Roman discourse of magic was formed amid the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, including Egypt and the Near East. An investigation of the mystical and marvelous, Drawing Down the Moon offers an unparalleled record of the origins, nature, and functions of ancient magic.

In Myth, Ritual and the Oral Jack Goody, one of the world's most distinguished anthropologists, returns to the related themes of myth, orality and literacy, subjects that have long been a touchstone in anthropological thinking. Combining classic papers with recent unpublished work, this volume brings together some of the most important essays written on these themes in the past half century, representative of a lifetime of critical engagement and research. In characteristically clear and accessible style, Jack Goody addresses fundamental conceptual schemes underpinning modern anthropology, providing potent critiques of current theoretical trends. Drawing upon his highly influential work on the LoDagaa myth of the Bagre, Goody challenges structuralist and functionalist interpretations of oral 'literature', stressing the issues of variation, imagination and creativity, and the problems of methodology and analysis. These insightful, and at times provocative, essays will stimulate fresh debate and prove invaluable to students and teachers of social anthropology.

In Myth, Ritual and the Oral Jack Goody, one of the world's most distinguished anthropologists, returns to the related themes of myth, orality and literacy, subjects that have long been a touchstone in anthropological thinking. Combining classic papers with recent unpublished work, this volume brings together some of the most important essays written on these themes in the past half century, representative of a lifetime of critical engagement and research. In characteristically clear and accessible style, Jack Goody addresses fundamental conceptual schemes underpinning modern anthropology, providing potent critiques of current theoretical trends. Drawing upon his highly influential work on the LoDagaa myth of the Bagre, Goody challenges structuralist and functionalist interpretations of oral 'literature', stressing the issues of variation, imagination and creativity, and the problems of methodology and analysis. These insightful, and at times provocative, essays will stimulate fresh debate and prove invaluable to students and teachers of social anthropology.

Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 1 covers the Aniconic age, the Iconic age, and the cults of Cronos, Zeus, Hera and Athena.

Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 2 focuses on the cults of Artemis, Adrasteia, Hekate, Eileithyia, and Aphrodite.

Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 3 focuses on the cults of Ge, Demeter, Hades, and Rhea.

Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 4 focuses on the cults of Poseidon and Apollo.

Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 5 focuses on the cults of Hermes, Dionysos, Hestia, Hephaistos, Ares and several minor figures.

Jill Dudley writes about the arrival on the island from mainland Greece of the goddess Hera, and the great temple built in her honour on Samos. She gives an account of the life of the sixth century B.C. astronomer and mathematician Pythagoras who lived under the rule of the tyrant Polycrates, and describes the cave where Pythagoras lived and taught. She also writes about the visit paid to the island of St. John the Evangelist.