AUFSTIEG UND NIEDERGANG DER ROEMISCHEN WELT (ANRW) is a work of international cooperation in the field of historical scholarship. Its aim is to present all important aspects of the ancient Roman world, as well as its legacy and continued influence in medieval and modern times. Subjects are dealt with in individual articles written in the light of present day research. The work is divided into three parts: I. From the Origins of Rome to the End of the Republic II. The Principate III. Late Antiquity Each part consists of six systematic sections, which occasionally overlap: 1. Political History, 2. Law, 3. Religion, 4. Language and Literature, 5. Philosophy and the Sciences, 6. The Arts. ANRW is organized as a handbook. It is a survey of Roman Studies in the broadest sense, and includes the history of the reception and influence of Roman Culture up to the present time. The individual contributions are, depending on the nature of the subject, either concise presentations with bibliography, problem and research reports, or representative investigations covering broad areas of subjects. Approximately one thousand scholars from thirty-five nations are collaborating on this work. The articles appear in German, English, French or Italian. As a work for study and reference, ANRW is an indispensable tool for research and academic teaching in the following disciplines: Ancient, Medieval and Modern History; Byzantine and Slavonic Studies; Classical, Medieval Latin Romance and Oriental Philology; Classical, Oriental and Christian Archaeology and History of Art; Legal Studies; Religion and Theology, especially Church History and Patristics. In preparation: Part II, Vol. 26,4: Religion - Vorkonstantinisches Christentum: Neues Testament - Sachthemen, Fortsetzung Part II, Vol. 37,4: Wissenschaften: Medizin und Biologie, Fortsetzung. For further information about the project and to view the table of contents of earlier volumes please visit http://www.bu.edu/ict/anrw/index.html To search key words in the table of contents of all published volumes please refer to the search engine at http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/biblio/anrw.html

Romance of the Perilous Land is a roleplaying game of magic and adventure set in the world of British folklore, from the stories of King Arthur to the wonderful regional tales told throughout this green and pleasant land. It is a world of romantic chivalry, but also of great danger, with ambitious kings, evil knights, and thieving brigands terrorising the land, while greedy giants, malevolent sorcerers, and water-dwelling knuckers lurk in the shadows. As valiant knights, mighty barbarians, subtle cunning folk, and more, the players are heroes, roaming the land to fight evil, right wrongs, and create their own legends.

The popular image of the Viking as a horn-helmeted berserker plying the ocean in a dragon-headed long boat is firmly fixed in history. Imagining Viking "conquerors" as much more numerous, technologically superior, and somehow inherently more warlike than their neighbors has overshadowed the cooperation and cultural exchange which characterized much of the Viking Age. In actuality, the Norse explorers and traders were players in a complex exchange of technology, customs, and religious beliefs between the ancient pre-Christian societies of northern Europe and the Christian-dominated nations surrounding the Mediterranean. DuBois examines Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Mediterranean traditions to locate significant Nordic parallels in conceptions of supernatural beings, cults of the dead, beliefs in ghosts, and magical practices. These beliefs were actively held alongside Christianity for many years, and were finally incorporated into the vernacular religious practice. The Icelandic sagas reflect this complex process in their inclusion of both Christian and pagan details. This work differs from previous examinations in its inclusion of the Christian thirteenth century as part of the evolution of Nordic religions from localized pagan cults to adherents of a larger Roman faith.Thomas DuBois unravels for the first time the history of the Nordic religions in the Viking Age and shows how these ancient beliefs and their oral traditions incorporated both a myriad of local beliefs and aspects of foreign religions, most notably Christianity.

I choose to take back my life. My life. Medea is a wife and a mother. For the sake of her husband, Jason, she's left her home and borne two sons in exile. But when he abandons his family for a new life, Medea faces banishment and separation from her children. Cornered, she begs for one day's grace. It's time enough. She exacts an appalling revenge and destroys everything she holds dear. Ben Power's version of Euripides' tragedy Medea premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2014.

Pharaoh Akhenaten, who reigned for seventeen years in the fourteenth century B.C.E, is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt. His odd appearance and his preoccupation with worshiping the sun disc Aten have stimulated academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. Despite the numerous books and articles about this enigmatic figure, many questions about Akhenaten and the Atenism religion remain unanswered. In Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism, James K. Hoffmeier argues that Akhenaten was not, as is often said, a radical advocating a new religion but rather a primitivist: that is, one who reaches back to a golden age and emulates it. Akhenaten's inspiration was the Old Kingdom (2650-2400 B.C.E.), when the sun-god Re/Atum ruled as the unrivaled head of the Egyptian pantheon. Hoffmeier finds that Akhenaten was a genuine convert to the worship of Aten, the sole creator God, based on the Pharoah's own testimony of a theophany, a divine encounter that launched his monotheistic religious odyssey. The book also explores the Atenist religion's possible relationship to Israel's religion, offering a close comparison of the hymn to the Aten to Psalm 104, which has been identified by scholars as influenced by the Egyptian hymn. Through a careful reading of key texts, artworks, and archaeological studies, Hoffmeier provides compelling new insights on a religion that predated Moses and Hebrew monotheism, the impact of Atenism on Egyptian religion and politics, and the aftermath of Akhenaten's reign.

The first and only Druidic book of spells, rituals, and practice. The Druid Magic Handbook is the first manual of magical practice in Druidry, one of the fastest growing branches of the Pagan movement. The book breaks new ground, teaching Druids how to practice ritual magic for practical and spiritual goals within their own tradition. What sets The Druid Magic Handbook apart is that it does not require the reader to use a particular pantheon or set of symbols. Although it presents one drawn from Welsh Druid tradition, it also shows the reader how to adapt rites and other practices to fit the deities and symbols most meaningful to them. This cutting edge system of ritual magic can be used by Druids, Pagans, Christians, and Thelemites alike!
* The first manual of Druidic magical practice ever, replete with spell work and rituals.
* John Michael Greer is a highly respected authority on all aspects of Paganism.

Offers an introduction to the basic beliefs, practices, and major deities of Greek and Roman religions A volume in the Blackwell Ancient Religions, Greek and Roman Religions offers an authoritative overview of the region's ancient religious practices. The author--a noted expert in the field--explores the presence of divinity in all aspects of ancient life and highlights the origins of myth, religious authority, institutions, beliefs, rituals, sacred texts, and ethics. Comprehensive in scope, the text focuses on myriad aspects that constitute Greco-Roman culture such as economic class, honor and shame, and slavery as well as the religious role of each member of the family. The integration of ethnic and community identity with divine elements are highlighted in descriptions of religious festivals. Greek and Roman Religions presents the evolution of ideas concerning death and the afterlife and the relation of death to concepts of ultimate justice. The author also offers insight into the elements of ancient religions that remain important in our contemporary quest for meaning. This vital text: Offers a comprehensive review of ancient Greek and Roman religions and their institutions, beliefs, rituals, and more Examines how the Roman culture and religions borrowed from the Greek traditions Explores the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Basin Contains suggestions at the end of each chapter for further reading that include both traditional studies and more recent examinations of topical issues Written for students of ancient religions and religious studies, this important resource provides an overview of the ancient culture and history of the general region as well as the basic background of Greek and Roman civilizations.

Addressing the role which divination played in ancient Greek society, this volume deals with various forms of prophecy and how each was utilised and for what purpose. Chapters bring together key types of divining, such as from birds, celestial phenomena, the entrails of sacrificed animals and dreams. Oracular centres delivered prophetic pronouncements to enquirers, but in addition, there were written collections of oracles in circulation. Many books were available on how to interpret dreams, the birds and entrails, and divination as a religious phenomenon attracted the attention of many writers. Expert diviners were at the heart of Greek prophecy, whether these were Apollo's priestesses delivering prose or verse answers to questions put to them by consultants, diviners known as manteis, who interpreted entrails and omens, the chresmologoi, who sang the many oracles circulating orally or in writing, or dream interpreters. Divination was utilised not only to foretell the future but also to ensure that the individual or state employing divination acted in accordance with that divinely prescribed future; it was employed by all and had a crucial role to play in what courses of action both states and individuals undertook. Specific attention is paid in this volume not only to the ancient written evidence, but to that of inscriptions and papyri, with emphasis placed on the iconography of Greek divination.

Byzantium has recently attracted much attention, principally among cultural, social and economic historians. This book shifts the focus to philosophy and intellectual history, exploring the thought-world of visionary reformer Gemistos Plethon (c.1355-1452). It argues that Plethon brought to their fulfilment latent tendencies among Byzantine humanists towards a distinctive anti-Christian and pagan outlook. His magnum opus, the pagan Nomoi, was meant to provide an alternative to, and escape-route from, the disputes over the Orthodoxy of Gregory Palamas and Thomism. It was also a groundbreaking reaction to the bankruptcy of a pre-existing humanist agenda and to aborted attempts at the secularisation of the State, whose cause Plethon had himself championed in his two utopian Memoranda. Inspired by Plato, Plethon's secular utopianism and paganism emerge as the two sides of a single coin. On another level, the book challenges anti-essentialist scholarship that views paganism and Christianity as social and cultural constructions.

Examines how the similarities of symbols and wisdom across many cultures point to an ancient civilizing plan and system of ancient instruction * Reveals the shared cosmological knowledge of Dogon and Maori cultures, ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, the pre-Indian Sakti civilization, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews * Explores symbols and techniques used to frame and preserve instructed knowledge as it was transmitted orally from generation to generation * Explains how this shared ancient knowledge relates to the precessional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas Exploring the mystery of why so many ancient cultures, separated by time and distance, share remarkably similar cosmological philosophies and religious symbolism, Laird Scranton reveals how this shared creation tradition upholds the idea that ancient instruction gave birth to the great civilizations, each of which preserves fragments of the original knowledge. Looking at the many manifestations of this shared cosmological knowledge, including in the Dogon and Maori cultures and in ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews, Scranton explores the thought processes that went into formulating the archetype themes and metaphors of the ancient symbolic system. He examines how commonly shared principles of creational science are reflected in key terms of the ancient languages. He discusses how the primal cosmology also transmitted key components of sacred science, such as sacred geometry, knowledge of material creation, and the nature of a nonmaterial universe--evidence for which lies in the orientation of ancient temples, the drama of initiations and rituals, and countless traditional myths. He analyzes how this shared knowledge relates to the precessional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas. He also explores evidence of the concept of a nonmaterial twin universe to our own--the "above" to our "below" in the famous alchemical and hermetic maxim. Through his extensive research into the interconnected wisdom of the ancients, Scranton shows that the forgotten instructional tradition at the source of this knowledge was deliberately encoded to survive for countless generations. By piecing it back together, we can discover the ancient plan for guiding humanity forward toward greater enlightenment.

The concept of pharaonic Egypt as a unified, homogeneous, and isolated cultural entity is misleading. Ancient Egypt was a rich tapestry of social, religious, technological, and economic interconnections among numerous cultures from disparate lands. In fifteen chapters divided into five thematic groups, Pharaoh's Land and Beyond uniquely examines Egypt's relationship with its wider world. The first section details the geographical contexts of interconnections by examining ancient Egyptian exploration, maritime routes, and overland passages. In the next section, chapters address the human principals of association: peoples, with the attendant difficulties of differentiating ethnic identities from the record; diplomatic actors, with their complex balances and presentations of power; and the military, with its evolving role in pharaonic expansion. Natural events, from droughts and floods to illness and epidemics, also played significant roles in this ancient world, as examined in the third section. The final two sections explore the physical manifestations of interconnections between pharaonic Egypt and its neighbors, first in the form of material objects and second, in the powerful exchange of ideas. Whether through diffusion and borrowing of knowledge and technology, through the flow of words by script and literature, or through exchanges in the religious sphere, the pharaonic Egypt that we know today was constantly changing-and changing the cultures around it. This illustrious work represents the first synthesis of these cultural relationships, unbounded by time, geography, or mode.

The Epic Distilled is a rich exploration of Virgil's use of sources in the Aeneid, considering elements of history, geography, mythology, and ethnography. Building on and developing the research involved in the author's monumental commentaries on the Aeneid, the volume investigates how the poem was written, what Virgil read, and why particular details are interwoven into the narrative. The volume looks beyond the Aeneid's poetry and plot to focus on the 'matter' of the epic: details of colour, material, arms, clothing, landscape, and physiology. Details which might seem trivial are revealed as carefully deliberate and highly significant. For instance, one Trojan's specifically oriental trousers are suggestive of the Trojans' non-Roman 'otherness' and fit solidly into a complex ethnographic argument. In this way, the meaning and implications of Virgil's heavily allusive style, including practices and techniques of composition, are unpicked meticulously. Particularly difficult and intricate passages are delved into and the significance of specific details, legends, arcane references, places, names, digressions, and inconsistencies are uncovered. By exposing new layers of illuminating material, The Epic Distilled offers readers a fresh approach to understanding the full intellectual texture of Virgil's epic poem.

The nineteenth century is a key period in the history of the interpretation of the Greek gods. The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship examines how German and British scholars of the time drew on philology, archaeology, comparative mythology, anthropology, or sociology to advance radically different theories on the Greek gods and their origins. For some, they had been personifications of natural elements, for others, they had begun as universal gods like the Christian god, yet for others, they went back to totems or were projections of group unity. The volume discusses the views of both well-known figures like K. O. Muller (1797-1840), or Jane Harrison (1850-1928), and of forgotten, but important, scholars like F. G. Welcker (1784-1868). It explores the underlying assumptions and agendas of the rival theories in the light of their intellectual and cultural context, laying stress on how they were connected to broader contemporary debates over fundamental questions such as the origins and nature of religion, or the relation between Western culture and the 'Orient'. It also considers the impact of theories from this period on twentieth- and twenty-first-century scholarship on Greek religion and draws implications for the study of the Greek gods today.

This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of scholarship in ancient Greek religion, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic periods. It presents not only key information, but also explores the ways in which such information is gathered and the different approaches that have shaped the area. In doing so, the volume provides a crucial research and orientation tool for students of the ancient world, and also makes a vital contribution to the key debates surrounding the conceptualization of ancient Greek religion. The handbook's initial chapters lay out the key dimensions of ancient Greek religion, approaches to evidence, and the representations of myths. The following chapters discuss the continuities and differences between religious practices in different cultures, including Egypt, the Near East, the Black Sea, and Bactria and India. The range of contributions emphasizes the diversity of relationships between mortals and the supernatural - in all their manifestations, across, between, and beyond ancient Greek cultures - and draws attention to religious activities as dynamic, highlighting how they changed over time, place, and context.