What’s in a Divine Name? - Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient World

Divine Names are a key component in the communication between humans and gods in Antiquity. Their complexity derives not only from the impressive number of onomastic elements available to describe and target specific divine powers, but also from their capacity to be combined within distinctive configurations of gods. The volume collects 36 essays pertaining to many different contexts – Egypt, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome – which address the multiple functions and wide scope of divine onomastics. Scrutinized in a diachronic and comparative perspective, divine names shed light on how polytheisms and monotheisms work as complex systems of divine and human agents embedded in an historical framework. Names imply knowledge and play a decisive role in rituals; they move between cities and regions, and can be translated; they interact with images and reflect the intrinsic plurality of divine beings. This vivid exploration of divine names pays attention to the balance between tradition and innovation, flexibility and constraints, to the material and conceptual parameters of onomastic practices, to cross-cultural contexts and local idiosyncrasies, in a word to human strategies for shaping the gods through their names.

General

Imprint:	De Gruyter
Country of origin:	Germany
Release date:	December 2023
First published:	2024
Editors:	Alaya Palamidis • Corinne Bonnet
Contributors:	Julie Bernini • Enrique Nieto Izquierdo • Lorena Pérez Yarza
Dimensions:	240 x 170mm (L x W)
Pages:	820
ISBN-13:	978-3-11-132627-6
Categories:	Books
LSN:	3-11-132627-6
Barcode:	9783111326276

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