This book explores the development of tombs as a cultural phenomenon in ancient Egypt and examines what tombs reveal about ancient Egyptian culture and Egyptians belief in the afterlife. * Investigates the roles of tombs in the development of funerary practices * Draws on a range of data, including architecture, artifacts and texts * Discusses tombs within the context of everyday life in Ancient Egypt * Stresses the importance of the tomb as an eternal expression of the self

Ranging from Abai to Zeleia, from massive temples in Egypt to modest tombs in Turkey, oracles were a major feature of the religions of many ancient cultures until their demise under the Christian Roman emperors.This unique work is a guide to all the known oracles of the ancient world. The greater part of it is devoted to an alphabetical listing providing details of nearly 300 sites in more than 25 countries where oracles of one kind or another functioned in antiquity. The text is extensively cross-referenced and illustrated, and supplemented by indexes, a glossary, and a substantial introduction. The book brings together for the first time a wide range of disparate materials relating to this important topic, along with the results of extensive first-hand investigations.

This volume is a study of the religious system of Mithraism, one of the "mystery cults" popular in the Roman Empire contemporary with early Christianity. Roger Beck describes Mithraism from the point of view of the initiate engaging with the religion and its rich symbolic system in thought, word, ritual action, and cult life. He employs the methods of anthropology of religion and the new cognitive science of religion to explore in detail the semiotics of the Mysteries' astral symbolism, which has been the principal subject of his many previous publications on the cult.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, and other papyri and paintings, have long held a fascination for modern people but are easily dismissed as superstitions and fanciful poetry. In recent times, however, serious interest in them has reawakened. What is their origin and could they still hold wisdom for us today? Frank Teichmann has researched Egyptian civilisation for over forty years and in this beautiful, highly illustrated book he shows that a deep understanding of the sacred mysteries of Egypt is key to illuminating the texts and images of the time. Egyptian mystery centres were places of spiritual initiation where trainees had powerful, direct contact with spiritual beings. It was then their task to bring their new-found knowledge to the wider population, through the use of texts like the Book of the Dead. The sacred mysteries that the trainees experienced are also borne out by the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner. Teichmann explores the mysteries in compelling detail, to show their enduring significance in the present day.

The best-selling, essential, and straightforward translation of the Homeric Hymns, accompanied by an expanded introduction and updated expert notes. A rich source for students of Greek mythology and literature, the Homeric Hymns are also fine poetry. Attributed by the ancients to Homer, these prooimia, or preludes, were actually composed by various poets over centuries. They were performed at religious festivals as entertainment meant to stir up enthusiasm for far more ambitious compositions that followed them, namely the Iliad and Odyssey. Each of the thirty-three poems is written in honor of a Greek god or goddess. Together, the hymns provide a fascinating view into the ancients' view of deities. In this long-awaited third edition of his acclaimed translations of the hymns, Apostolos Athanassakis preserves the vigor and the magic of the ancient text while modernizing traditional renditions of certain epithets and formulaic phrases. He avoids lengthening or truncating lines, thereby crafting a symmetrical text, and makes an effort to keep to an iambic flow without sacrificing accuracy. Athanassakis enhances his classic work with a new index of names and topics, updated bibliography, revised genealogical charts, and careful and selective changes in the translations themselves. An expanded introduction addresses ancient reception of the hymns. Numerous additions to the notes, reflecting over twenty-five years of scholarship, draw on modern anthropological and archaeological research to explore prominent themes and religious syncretism within the poems. These materials all enrich the reader's experience of these ancient and influential poems. A perennial classroom favorite, The Homeric Hymns embodies thrilling new visions of antiquity.

The Open Gate offers an opportunity for us all to enter new fields. It is an invitation to deepen our prayer life, for God leaves open possibilities for his love and shuts no one out. Written in the Celtic tradition, and illustrated by striking line drawings, David Adam's classic book is a rich mine of resources both for personal daily prayer and corporate weekly worship. Designed to stimulate spiritual formation, it is loosely structured around the communion service and includes prayers of confession, adoration, intercession and thanksgiving.

The definitive and comprehensive edition of Robert Graves's classic retelling of the Greek myths 'Icarus disobeyed his father's instructions and began soaring towards the sun, rejoiced by the lift of his great sweeping wings. Presently, when Daedalus looked over his shoulder, he could no longer see Icarus; but scattered feathers floated on the waves below...' These are the greatest stories ever told - the labours of Hercules, the voyage of the Argonauts, Theseus and the minotaur, Midas and his golden touch, the Trojan War and Odysseus's journey home - brought together into one epic and unforgettable story. Ideal for the first time reader, it can be read as a single page-turning narrative, while full commentaries as well as a comprehensive index of names make it equally valuable for anyone seeking an authoritative and detailed account of the spectacular stories that make up the bedrock of Western literature. The Greek Myths is a classic among classics, a treasure trove of extraordinary tales and a masterful work of literature in its own right.

Ancient Egyptians imagined the afterlife as a kind of journey you had to make to get to paradise - but it was quite a hazardous journey so you would need help along the way. So spells and magic formulas written on papyrus were placed in coffins and burial chambers and believed to protect and aid the deceased in duat, or the underworld. These funerary texts were developed over many centuries into individualized collections known as the Book of the Dead. One of the best-known versions, the 'Papyrus of Ani', is featured here. Some 192 spells are known, although no single manuscript contains them all. The spells are designed to give the dead mystical knowledge in the afterlife, offer incantations to help preserve different parts of the deceased, and protect the dead from hostile forces. Some of the spells are to make sure you can control your own body after death. The ancient Egyptians believed that a person was made up of different elements: body, spirit, name, heart, all embodiments of a person, and they were afraid that these elements would disperse when you died. Presented in a high-quality Chinese-bound format with accompanying illustrations, Egyptian Book of the Dead is an ideal resource of esoteric wisdom for anyone interested in Ancient Egyptian notions of death and the path to the afterlife.

The hill of Uisneach lies almost exactly at the geographical center of Ireland. Remarkably, a fraction at least of the ancient Irish population was aware of that fact. There is no doubt that the place of Uisneach in Irish mythology, and more broadly speaking the Celtic world, was of utmost importance: Uisneach was - and probably still is - best defined as a sacred hill at the center of Ireland, possibly the sacred hill of the center of Ireland. Uisneach or the Center of Ireland explores the medieval documents connected with the hill and compares them with both archeological data and modern Irish folklore. In the early 21st century, a Fire Festival started being held on Uisneach in connection with the festival of Bealtaine, in early May, arguably in an attempt to echo more ancient traditions: the celebration was attended by Michael D. Higgins, the current president of Ireland, who lit the fire of Uisneach on 6 May 2017. This book argues that the symbolic significance of the hill has echoed the evolution of Irish society through time, be it in political, spiritual and religious terms or, perhaps more accurately, in terms of identity and Irishness. It is relevant for scholars and advanced students in the fields of cultural history, Irish history and cultural studies.

Jarrod L. Whitaker examines the ritualized poetic construction of male identity in the Rgveda, India's oldest Sanskrit text, arguing that an important aspect of early Vedic life was the sustained promotion and embodiment of what it means to be a true man. The Rgveda contains over a thousand hymns, addressed primarily to three gods: the deified ritual Fire, Agni; the war god, Indra; and Soma, who is none other than the personification of the sacred beverage soma. The hymns were sung in day-long fire rituals in which poet-priests prepared the sacred drink to empower Indra. The dominant image of Indra is that of a highly glamorized, violent, and powerful Aryan male; the three gods represent the ideals of manhood.
Whitaker finds that the Rgvedic poet-priests employed a fascinating range of poetic and performative strategies--some explicit, others very subtle--to construct their masculine ideology, while justifying it as the most valid way for men to live. Poet-priests naturalized this ideology by encoding it within a man's sense of his body and physical self. Rgvedic ritual rhetoric and practices thus encode specific male roles, especially the role of man as warrior, while embedding these roles in a complex network of social, economic, and political relationships.
Strong Arms and Drinking Strength is the first book in English to examine the relationship between Rgvedic gods, ritual practices, and the identities and expectations placed on men in ancient India."

Esther Eidinow sets the published question tablets from the oracle at Dodona side by side with the binding-curse tablets from across the ancient Greek world, and explores what they can tell us about perceptions of and expressions of risk among ordinary Greek men and women, as well as the insights they afford into civic institutions and activities, and social dynamics. Eidinow follows the anthropologist Mary Douglas in defining risk' as socially constructed, in contradistinction to most other ancient historians, who treat risk-management as a way of handling objective external dangers. The book includes a full catalogue of all published texts from Dodona, as well as the 159 curse tablets discussed, together with translations of all texts.

The Mythology of Venus is a collection of essays that summarizes the archaeoastronomy, calendar associations, religious and cultural icons, and myths identified with the planet Venus. The book concentrates on Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the East from the Paleolithic Age to the Iron Age. It reveals the archetype of a goddess associated with the planet Venus who is identified with transformation, spiritual resurrection, and enlightenment. The characteristics of the goddess are steeped in sexual metaphors which contain images of birth and re-birth, and they reveal a pattern of symbols that follows the journey of the planet Venus through its cycles in the night sky. Moreover, the journey of Venus and the corresponding icons associated with the goddess are part of an intricate pattern of symbolic language that is seen on ancient monuments and on the ancient calendars of several cultures. Temples from France and Ireland to Greece and Malta trace the journey of the planet Venus and the story of the goddess of Venus.

Meet the Greek gods and goddesses as you have never seen them-in LEGO form! Enjoy these fascinating myths, reimagined through elaborate scenes and colorful LEGO bricks in one thousand color photographs! This book shares a unique retelling of some of the most widely known and loved Greek myths, from the stories of Athena, Poseidon, and Pandora to the twelve labors of Hercules. Watch Athena spring from the head of Zeus See Poseidon as he rules the seas with his mighty trident Maintain hope with Pandora as her curiosity gets the best of her Beware the Nemean Lion as Hercules repents for his misdeeds. Be awestruck by the amazing Mount Olympus And much more-all created with LEGO bricks! These exciting retellings of ancient tales are consistent with the mythology behind them, while also capturing the creativity and whimsy of the stories with elaborate brick scenery. Brick Greek Myths will be a delight for LEGO tinkerers of all ages, a fun introduction to the tales for young readers, and an enchanting return to the stories for even the most devoted admirer of mythology. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

In the middle of the third century, a girl was born on the north-eastern frontier of the Roman empire. Eighty years later, she died as Flavia Iulia Helena, Augusta of the Roman world and mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine, without ever having been married to an emperor herself. In Helena Augusta: Mother of the Empire, Julia Hillner traces Helena's story through her life's peaks, which generated beautiful imperial artwork, entertaining legends as well as literary outrage. But Helena Augusta also pays careful attention to the disruptions in Helena's life course and in her commemoration-disruptions that were created by her nearest male relatives. Hillner shows that Helena's story was not just determined by the love of a son or the rise of Christianity. It was also-like that of many other late Roman women-defined by male violence and by the web of changing female relationships around her, to which Helena was sometimes marginal, sometimes central and sometimes ancillary. Helena Augusta offers unique insight into the roles of imperial women in Constantinian self-display and in dynastic politics from the Tetrarchy to the Theodosian Age, and it also reminds us that the late Roman female life course, even that of an empress, was fragile and non-linear.

An overview of the title subject.

This book explores the way in which three ancient historians, writing in Latin, embedded the gods into their accounts of the past. Although previous scholarship has generally portrayed these writers as somewhat dismissive of traditional Roman religion, it is argued here that Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus saw themselves as being very close to the centre of those traditions. The gods are presented as a potent historical force, and a close reading of the historians' texts easily bears out this conclusion. Their treatment of the gods is not limited to portraying the role and power of the divine in the unfolding of the past: equally prominent is the negotiation with the reader concerning what constituted a 'proper' religious system. Priests and other religious experts function as an index of the decline (or restoration) of Rome and each writer formulates a sophisticated position on the practical and social aspects of Roman religion.

How should we study religion? Must we be religious ourselves to truly understand it? Do we study religion to advance our knowledge, or should the study of religions help to reintroduce the sacred into our increasingly secularized world? Juraj Franek argues that the study of religion has long been split into two competing paradigms: reductive (naturalist) and non-reductive (protectionist). While the naturalistic approach seems to run the risk of explaining religious phenomena away, the protectionist approach appears to risk falling short of the methodological standards of modern science. Franek uses primary source material from Greek and Latin sources to show that both competing paradigms are traceable to Presocratic philosophy and early Christian literature. He presents the idea that naturalists are distant heirs, not only of the French Enlightenment, but also of the Ionian one. Likewise, he argues that protectionists owe much of their arguments and strategies, not only to Luther and the Reformation, but to the earliest Christian literature. This book analyses the conflict between reductive and non-reductive approach in the modern study of religions, and positions the Cognitive Science of Religion against a background of previous theories - ancient and modern - to demonstrate its importance for the revindication of the naturalist paradigm.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Preface.

"Folk religionists and those interested in placing 'pagan phenomena' in the context of worldwide religiousity will find York's book interesting."
--"Missiology: An International Review"

"I have little doubt that it will reinvigorate not only the debate over the definition of religion but, perhaps more significantly, the debate over where one religion starts and another ends."--"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion"

"Scholarly, but wholly accessible."--"Terry Gifford (University of Leeds)"

"This work will interest anyone investigating the nexus of science, social policy, and the law in modern America."--"Sociology of Religion"

"Part travelogue, part theological argument, part sociological study, Michael York's "Pagan Theology" is a tour through paganism's multiple forms in space and time. York does an admirable job of making paganism visible as an important area of study in religion. "Pagan Theology" will appeal to an international audience of scholars and practitioners of Paganism, but should also be of interest to scholars of religion more broadly, since York examines paganism in a global context, and as it occurs within other world religions, as root religion."--"The Pomegranate"

"York has collected a great diversity of global religious information to compare and contrast the fundamental and universal religious elements they contain. This appears to be his life work."
--"Journal of the American Academy of Religion"

aThere is interesting and valuable information in" Pagan Theory," The author has done his homework, and much of what he writes is taken from first-handobservation.a
--facingnorth.net )

"Michael York has laid the intellectual groundwork for a new approach to theology, one which hopefully might reconcile the appalling feuding ones of our time."
--The Quest"

"York endeavors to demonstrate that paganism in its many varieties has an underlying unity."
--"Library Journal"

In Pagan Theology, Michael York situates Paganism--one of the fastest-growing spiritual orientations in the West--as a world religion. He provides an introduction to, and expansion of, the concept of Paganism and provides an overview of Paganism's theological perspective and practice. He demonstrates it to be a viable and distinguishable spiritual perspective found around the world today in such forms as Chinese folk religion, Shinto, tribal religions, and neo-Paganism in the West.

While adherents to many of these traditions do not use the word "pagan" to describe their beliefs or practices, York contends that there is an identifiable position possessing characteristics and understandings in common for which the label "pagan" is appropriate. After outlining these characteristics, he examines many of the world's major religions to explore religious behaviors in other religions which are not themselves pagan, but which have pagan elements. In the course of examining such behavior, York provides rich and lively descriptions of religions in action, including Buddhism and Hinduism.

Pagan Theology claims Paganism's place as a world religion, situating it as a religion, a behavior, and a theology.

Thomas Harrison presents a study of the religious beliefs of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus - his beliefs in divine retribution, in oracles and divination, in miracles or in fate. The author shows not only how such beliefs were central to his work, but also how they were compatible with lived experience.

A vibrant, accessible social history of Rome, from 753 BCE to the fall of the Empire some 1300 years later. To support its findings the book features hundreds of translations of inscriptions and graffiti from original authors-Roman, Greek and Jewish-and evidence culled from the visual arts, curse tablets, official records and letters both private and official. Each comes with detailed commentaries, placing them into social and historical context. The result is a fascinating survey of how Roman men, women and children lived their lives on a daily basis taking in marriage, slavery, gladiators, medicine, magic, religion, superstition and the occult; sex, work and play, education, death, housing, country life and city life. There are also chapters on domestic violence, family pets and FGM. In short, 'When in Rome' gives a vivid description of what the Romans really did.

Martha Malamud provides the only scholarly English translation of De Reditu Suo with significant notes and commentary that explore historical, literary, cultural, and mythical references, as well as commenting on literary allusions, the structure, diction, and style of the poem, and textual issues. De Reditu Suo provides fascinating insights into travel and communications networks in the rapidly changing, fragmented world of the fifth century. A substantial introductory essay explores Rutilius' place in several intellectual and literary traditions, as the poem is a sophisticated piece of literature that both draws on the rich tradition of classical Latin poetry and reflects the distinctive formal features of late antique poetry. The poem also conveys the thoughts of a man passionately devoted to Rome and its cultural heritage, enmeshed in the tumultuous political and social upheaval of his day, caught between his hopes for Rome's restoration and his fear of its disintegration. With line-for-line translation from the Latin and a scholarly introduction, extensive notes, and comprehensive bibliography, Martha Malamud makes this important text accessible and relevant for students and scholars in Classics, Comparative Literature, Religious Studies, Medieval Studies, and Ancient History, as well as independent readers with an interest in the literature of the period.

Kenosis Creativity Architecture locates and explores creativity's grounding in the ancient concept of kenosis, the "emptying" that allows creativity to happen; that makes appearance possible. It concretises that grounding through architecture-a primal expression of human creativity-critically examining, for the first time, kenotic instantiations evidenced in four iconic, international projects; works by Kahn, Pei, Ando, and Libeskind. Then, in a final turn, the potentiality of architecture's own emptying is probed. Architect and author Randall Lindstrom draws on Western and Eastern philosophy, including that of Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Vattimo, Nishida, and Nishitani, as well as on the theology of Christianity, Judaism, and aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Every chapter expands the argument that, if responsiveness to our world is taken seriously-if proper and sustainable responses are to be realised-then a deeper understanding of creativity, and so kenosis, is essential. This book opens-up a way of thinking about creativity and humanity's readiness to be creative. It thereby presents a crucial enquiry-at the nexus of architecture, philosophy, and theology-for researchers, graduate and postgraduate students, and practitioners alike.

Jenny R. Labendz investigates rabbinic self-perception and self-fashioning within the non-Jewish social and intellectual world of antique Palestine, showing how the rabbis drew on Hellenistic and Roman concepts for Torah study and answering a fundamental question: was rabbinic participation in Greco-Roman society a begrudging concession or a principled choice? As Labendz demonstrates, Torah study was an intellectual arena in which rabbis were extremely unlikely to look beyond their private domain. Yet despite the highly internal and self-referential nature of rabbinic Torah study, some rabbis believed that the involvement of non-Jews in rabbinic intellectual culture enriched the rabbis' own learning and teaching. Labendz identifies a sub-genre of rabbinic texts that she terms "Socratic Torah, " which portrays rabbis engaging in productive dialogue with non-Jews about biblical and rabbinic law and narrative. In these texts, rabbinic epistemology expands to include reliance not only upon Scripture and rabbinic tradition, but upon intuitions and life experiences common to Jews and non-Jews. While most scholarly readings of rabbinic dialogues with non-Jews have focused on the polemical, hostile, or anxiety-ridden nature of the interactions, Socratic Torah reveals that the presence of non-Jews was at times a welcome opportunity for the rabbis to think and speak differently about Torah. Labendz contextualizes her explication of Socratic Torah within rabbinic literature at large, including other passages and statements about non-Jews as well as general intellectual trends in rabbinic literature, and also within cognate literatures, including Plato's dialogues, Jewish texts of the Second Temple period, and the New Testament. While she focuses on non-Jews in the Palestinian Talmud and midrashim, the book includes chapters on the Babylonian Talmud and on the liminal figures of minim and Matrona. The passages that make up the sub-genre of Socratic Torah serve as the entryway for a much broader understanding of rabbinic literature and rabbinic intellectual culture.