The ancient Romans are well known for their love of the pageantry of power. No single ceremony better attests to this characteristic than the triumph, which celebrated the victory of a Roman commander through a grand ceremonial entrance into the city that ended in rites performed to Rome's chief tutelary deity, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, on the Capitoline hill. The triumph, however, was only one form of ceremonial arrival at the city, and Jupiter was not the only god to whom vows were made and subsequently fulfilled at the end of a successful assignment. Ushering in a New Republic expands our view beyond a narrow focus on the triumph to look at the creative ways in which the great figures of Rome in the first century BCE (men such as Sulla, Caesar, Augustus, and others) crafted theological performances and narratives both in and around their departures from Rome and then returned to cast themselves in the role of divinely supported saviors of a faltering Republic. Trevor S. Luke tackles some of the major issues of the history of the Late Republic and the transition to the empire in a novel way. Taking the perspective that Roman elites, even at this late date, took their own religion seriously as a way to communicate meaning to their fellow Romans, the volume reinterprets some of the most famous events of that period in order to highlight what Sulla, Caesar, and figures of similar stature did to make a religious argument or defense for their actions. This exploration will be of interest to scholars of religion, political science, sociology, classics, and ancient history and to the general history enthusiast. While many people are aware of the important battles and major thinkers of this period of Roman history, the story of its theological discourse and competition is unfolded here for the first time.

A history of holy wells from the pagan cult of water to the Christian wells of the middle ages, and including a full gazetteer. The holy well is the absolute combination of mystery and utility. There are hundreds of them still to be found, some easily, others with good maps. This useful book lists them all, and in so doing takes us into the realm of a still little-known spiritual area... It also leads us through many exceedingly interesting though remote areas of Celtic and English Christian history. RONALD BLYTHE [TABLET] Holy wells are an ancient and mysterious part of the landscape, yet have been the subject of little serious study. James Rattue has been fascinated by them for many years, and has now written the first general history of wells and their religious and cultural associations. He begins the story in the ancient world, exploring the archetypal motifs present in the cult of water, then traces the distinctive development of the holy well in England, examining pagan wells and their Christianisation, the role played byecclesiastical history and institutions, the importance of saints' cults, and the social functions of wells in the middle ages.

Classical Mythology offers both newcomers and long-time enthusiasts new ways to navigate the world of Greek and Roman myths and legends, beginning by explaining what classical mythology is, how it came into being, and how we know about it today. Although classical myths and legends are often encountered separately, they actually make up a coherent, self-contained system-a corpus of narratives with geography, history, and interrelationships as well as narrative rules and conventions. The present book explores the individual stories and the cosmic realms in which they are situated, and introduces the principal characters-gods, nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, monsters, and humans-along with their relationships to one another: how they are similar, how they differ, and why deities and humans need each other. It describes the physical worlds in which the mythic action takes place: terrestrial landscapes and waters, the lofty abode of the Olympian gods, the lowly realm of the dead, and Tartaros, cosmic prison for defeated supernatural beings. The main part of the book gives a detailed narration of the principal events of classical mythology in chronological sequence from the beginning of the cosmos to the end of the heroic age, showing the relationship of individual narratives to the whole. This chronological narration is complemented by a mythological dictionary of the most important characters and themes. In addition, the dictionary discusses key concepts that are crucial for understanding how classical mythology functions. Richly illustrated with more than one hundred images drawn from ancient art, the second edition of this unparalleled guide includes a thoroughly revised introduction, augmented lexical entries, an updated further-reading section, and enlarged discussions about the reception of classical mythology and the impact of cognitive science on the study of myth. Whether you wish only to explore the narratives or do research on a specific aspect of the whole, this handbook is the best available guide to an extraordinary cast of characters, to the fascinating world in which they play out their fates, and to current work on classical mythology.

One of the great Christian scholars of antiquity and a high-ranking public official under Theoderic, King of the Ostrogoths, Cassiodorus compiled edicts, diplomatic letters, and legal documents while in office. The collection of his writings, the Variae, remains among the most important sources for the sixth century, the period during which late antiquity transitioned to the early middle ages. Translated and selected by scholar M. Shane Bjornlie, The Selected Letters gathers the most interesting evidence from the Veriae for understanding the political culture, legal structure, intellectual and religious worldviews, and social evolution during the twilight of the late-Roman state. Bjornlie's invaluable introduction discusses Cassiodorus's work in civil, legal, and financial administration, revealing his interactions with emperors, kings, bishops, military commanders, private citizens, and even criminals. Section notes introduce each letter to contextualize its themes and connection with other letters, opening a window to Cassiodorus's world.

'Switching the focus of Greek myths to bring women, so frequently the supporting cast, to the fore is refreshing and provides a modern take on some very old stories' - Fortean Times Cunning, seductive, monstrous, virtuous - whether in divine or mortal form, women shape the foundations of ancient Greek mythology, but have long been eclipsed by their male counterparts. Now, it's time for their stories to be told. Heroines of Olympus tells the tales of 50 of the most enthralling women of Greek mythology, including goddesses and nymphs such as majestic Athena, goddess of war; vengeful Nemesis, goddess of retribution; and gladiatorial Amazon queen Hippolyta, as well as mortals and demigods such as long-suffering Andromache, murderous Clytemnestra and joyous Iphis. Alongside each story, a character portrait, captivating illustration and explanation of their historic roles by ancient historian Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts provide an indispensable contemporary perspective on these extraordinary women.

This text focuses on the legal status of the Jews within the Roman Empire and the changes that this underwent when the empire became Christian. Conflicts between Roman and Jewish jurisdiction form an important theme, while particular studies deal with questions of conversion, the observance of the Sabbath and Festivals, Hadrian's decree prohibiting circumcision, and with the treatment given to the Samaritans. In the field of family law, Profesor Rabello looks at issues to do with the patria potestas, family courts, marriage and divorce, and it is in these areas, he would hold, that a basic understanding can be found of how the early Catholic Church treated Jews and Judaism.

Disputation literature is a type of text in which usually two non-human entities (such as trees, animals, drinks, or seasons) try to establish their superiority over each other by means of a series of speeches written in an elaborate, flowery register. As opposed to other dialogue literature, in disputation texts there is no serious matter at stake only the preeminence of one of the litigants over its rival. These light-hearted texts are known in virtually every culture that flourished in the Middle East from Antiquity to the present day, and they constitute one of the most enduring genres in world literature. The present volume collects over twenty contributions on disputation literature by a diverse group of world-renowned scholars. From ancient Sumer to modern-day Bahrain, from Egyptian to Neo-Aramaic, including Latin, French, Middle English, Armenian, Chinese and Japanese, the chapters of this book study the multiple avatars of this venerable text type.

This is an illustrated reference to the art, architecture, religion, society and culture of the Roman world with over 450 pictures, maps and artworks. How the Romans lived: an authoritative and highly accessible exploration of Roman society. It is beautifully illustrated with over 450 photographs of painting and sculpture, architecture and art, artworks and maps that explore the glory that was Rome. You can find out how people in the ancient Roman Empire lived, worked, played and behaved during one of the cultural peaks of world history. This wonderfully illustrated history celebrates the great public buildings, palaces and villas of the Roman Empire, including the Colosseum, the Pantheon and other World Heritage buildings. Daily life in ancient Rome is explored through contemporary accounts of sports and games in the arenas, work and play at the baths, the forum and the woman's world of home. You can discover the scandalous lives of such notorious emperors as Caligula and Nero. With its wealth of pictures and artworks, and an authoritative and enthusiastic text, this is the perfect book for study projects or anyone planning to visit Italy or other sites of the ancient Roman world.

The shift from polytheism to monotheism changed the world radically. Akhenaten and Moses-a figure of history and a figure of tradition-symbolize this shift in its incipient, revolutionary stages and represent two civilizations that were brought into the closest connection as early as the Book of Exodus, where Egypt stands for the old world to be rejected and abandoned in order to enter the new one.The seven chapters of this seminal study shed light on the great transformation from different angles. Between Egypt in the first chapter and monotheism in the last, five chapters deal in various ways with the transition from one to the other, analyzing the Exodus myth, understanding the shift in terms of evolution and revolution, confronting Akhenaten and Moses in a new way, discussing Karl Jaspers' theory of the Axial Age, and dealing with the eighteenth-century view of the Egyptian mysteries as a cultural model.

In the early nineties, after Reinholds first publication "Die Beziehungen Altisraels zu den aramaischen Staaten in der israelitisch-judaischen Koenigszeit" an archaeological find came to light with the broken pieces of the early Aramaic written Tel Dan Stela, which has greatly illuminated the portrait of Aram and ancient history of Israel. The author offers a renewed overview to the Aramaean history on the foundation of the forced researches in the last 50 years. This begins with the early testifying of Aram in cuneiform sources of the 3rd/2nd Mill. B.C. from the Mesopotamian and Syrian area and ends with the decline of Aram-Damascus. The Volume incorporates a revised edition of the researches history and two excurses about the newest palaeographic results to the second line of the Bar-Hadad Stela of Aleppo in Syria on the base of precision photographs and computer-enhancements and presents a new transcription and translation of the Tel Dan Stela fragments. These are a certain basis to build on the royal line of sucession in Aram-Damascus and to illuminate their historical background in the Ancient Near East. Reinhold emphasizes, that the results of archaeology could always be adapted or replaced by recent discoveries; but he hopes that the "New Studies on Aram and Israel" will be served as a base for the future research of the Near Eastern Archaeology and History.

This study raises that difficult and complicated question on a broad front, taking into account the expressions and attitudes of a wide variety of Greek, Roman, Jewish, and early Christian sources, including Herodotus, Polybius, Cicero, Philo, and Paul. It approaches the topic of ethnicity through the lenses of the ancients themselves rather than through the imposition of modern categories, labels, and frameworks. A central issue guides the course of the work: did ancient writers reflect upon collective identity as determined by common origins and lineage or by shared traditions and culture?

This book concerns the origins, structure, purpose, meaning, and significance of libation, developments and change within the ritual, and its distribution in the Afrikan world. Libation is a liquid offering by and on behalf of all humanity, those living and those yet-to-be-born, to ancestors, to the Creator, to other divinities, and to the environment. Through this ritual Afrikans affirm and re-establish Ma'at: cosmic harmony, balance, interconnection and interdependence within, between and among humans, the environment, the spirit world, and the Creator. The text connects the practice of libation throughout the prodigious time/space correlation occupied by the Afrikan experience of life, connects Afrikans to their social history, and so to themselves across generations in different spaces and times. The methodology is at once both multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary. The methods and techniques of history, linguistics, cultural studies, literature and other human sciences are deployed to develop a comprehensive reconstruction, description and analysis of a ritual that has been antique for millennia, but has never become antiquated.

In this important new book, the distinguished Egyptologist Jan Assmann provides a masterful overview of a crucial theme in the religious history of the West - that of 'religio duplex', or dual religion. He begins by returning to the theology of the Ancient Egyptians, who set out to present their culture as divided between the popular and the elite. By examining their beliefs, he argues, we can distinguish the two faces of ancient religions more generally: the outer face (that of the official religion) and the inner face (encompassing the mysterious nature of religious experience). Assmann explains that the Early Modern period witnessed the birth of the idea of dual religion with, on the one hand, the religion of reason and, on the other, that of revelation. This concept gained new significance in the Enlightenment when the dual structure of religion was transposed onto the individual. This meant that man now owed his allegiance not only to his native religion, but also to a universal 'religion of mankind'. In fact, argues Assmann, religion can now only hold a place in our globalized world in this way, as a religion that understands itself as one among many and has learned to see itself through the eyes of the other. This bold and wide-ranging book will be essential reading for historians, theologians and anyone interested in the nature of religion and its role in the shaping of the modern world.

Continuously inhabited for five millennia, and at one point the most powerful city in Ancient Greece, Thebes has been overshadowed by its better-known rivals, Athens and Sparta.

According to myth, the city was founded when Kadmos sowed dragon’s teeth into the ground and warriors sprang forth, ready not only to build the fledgling city but to defend it from all-comers. It was Hercules’ birthplace and the home of the Sphinx, whose riddle Oedipus solved, winning the Theban crown and the king’s widow in marriage, little knowing that the widow was his mother, Jocasta.

The city’s history is every bit as rich as its mythic origins, from siding with the Persian invaders when their emperor, Xerxes, set out to conquer Aegean Greece, to siding with Sparta – like Thebes an oligarchy – to defeat Pericles’ democratic Athens, to being utterly destroyed on the orders of Alexander the Great.

In Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, the acclaimed classical historian Paul Cartledge brings the city vividly to life, and argues that it is central to our understanding of the ancient Greeks’ achievements – whether politically or culturally – and thus to our own culture and civilization.

The figure of Orpheus has long exercised a potent influence on religious thought. Yet what we know directly about Orphism comes from a scatter of isolated and often very short fragments quoted in the works of Platonists of the Roman period, notably Proclus, Damascius and Olympiodorus. The author's concern here is to establish the context in which these passages were cited, and to trace the development of the written tradition, from the texts which contain a critique of the beliefs of the Homeric era to those, whether newly composed or transformed, which show signs of adaptation to later religious and philosophical movements, among them Stoicism and Platonism. In sharp contrast to views held by others, it is argued that it is possible to map out a process of evolution, amongst other criteria by focusing on the role and place of Chronos in the Orphic theogony. The author also asks whether there really ever existed true Orphic sects with a cult with specific rites, and would conclude that the present evidence cannot be held to substantiate this. Orphee a pendant longtemps exerce une puissante influence sur la pensee religieuse. Cependant, ce que nous connaissons directement de l'OrphA-sme se reduit A une poignee de fragments isoles et souvent tres courts qui se trouvent eparpilles dans les oeuvres de Platoniciens ayant vecu sous l'Empire romain, surtout Proclus, Damascius et Olympiodore. Dans les articles qui composent ce recueil, l'auteur s'est attache A reconstituer les contextes dans lesquels ces passages sont cites, et A comprendre comment s'est developpee la tradition ecrite A laquelle ils appartiennent, depuis les textes qui critiquent les croyances vehiculees par Homere et par Hesiode et qui, ayant fait l'objet d'une redaction ou d'une transformation recente, presentent les signes d'une adaptation A des mouvements religieux ou philosophiques tardifs, le StoA-cisme et le medio-Platonisme entre autres. S'opposant en cela A b

Exploring the Pagan Path brings together a number of well-known authors and other pioneers in the global Pagan community. Together, they take readers through the phases of exploring, learning, and living Paganism as they offer insight into the many facets of Pagan spirituality.

This volume provides a guide to research in the field of Greek Myth, introducing the main questions, theories and methods related to the study of Greek Myth today. The author points out, with critical reappraisal, the key themes and ideas in recent scholarship and makes suggestions for future lines of study. Aimed at students and scholars in Classics, it will also be of interest to larger audiences in the Humanities.

The goddess Hera is represented in mythology as an irascible wife and imperfect mother in the face of a frivolous Zeus. Beginning with the Iliad, many narrative traditions depict her wrath, the infidelities of her royal husband and the persecutions to which she subjects his illegitimate offspring. But how to relate this image to the cults of the sovereign goddess in her sanctuaries across Greece? This book uses the Hera of Zeus to open up new perspectives for understanding the society of the gods, the fate of heroes and the lives of men. As the intimate enemy of Zeus but also the fierce guardian of the legitimacy and integrity of the Olympian family, she takes shape in more subtle and complex ways that make it possible to rethink the configuration of power in ancient Greece, with the tensions that inhabited it, and thus how polytheism works.

The author uses the heb-sed, or Sed-festival, an ancient Egyptian religious festival that can be traced to the Archaic period, as the basis for a comparative study for providing insights into the controversial reign of Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten.