What ancient polytheistic religions can teach us about building inclusive and equitable futures At the heart of this book is a simple comparison: monotheistic religions are exclusive, whereas ancient polytheistic religions are inclusive. In this thought-provoking book, Maurizio Bettini, one of today's foremost classicists, uses the expansiveness of ancient polytheism to shine a bright light on a darker corner of our modern times. It can be easy to see ancient religions as inferior, less free, and remote from shared visions of an inclusive world. But, as Bettini deftly shows, many ancient practices tended to produce results aligned with contemporary progressive values, like pluralism and diversity. In Praise of Polytheism does not chastise the modern world or blame monotheism for our woes but rather shows in clear, sharp prose how much we can learn from ancient religions, underscoring the limitations of how we view the world and ourselves today.

Maurizio Bettinis Buch schildert die Praktiken und Paradigmen des UEbersetzens in der griechischen und roemischen Antike bis hin zu den Bibelubersetzungen des hellenistischen Judentums und der christlichen Spatantike. Es ist zugleich eine materialreiche historische Studie und ein kluger Essay uber die Dimensionen des UEbersetzens als Akt der kreativen Aneignung des Fremden. Im Kontrast zum modernen "postkolonialen" UEbersetzungsverstandnis - das letztlich auf die monotheistische Schrift-UEbersetzung zuruckgeht - versteht Bettini die UEbersetzungspraxis der Antike als Teil einer Kultur der sprachlich-literarischen Umwandlung, als Akt des (Nach-) Erzahlens, zugleich auch als ein der OEkonomie des (sprach-)grenzuberschreitenden Austauschs verpflichtetes Handeln.

There are a surprising number of stories from antiquity about people who fall in love with statues or paintings, and about lovers who use such visual representations as substitutes for an absent beloved. In a charmingly conversational, witty meditation on this literary theme, Maurizio Bettini moves into a wide-ranging consideration of the relationship between self and image, the nature of love in the ancient world, the role of representation in culture, and more. Drawing on historical events and cultural practices as well as literary works, "The Portrait of the Lover" is a lucid excursion into the anthropology of the image.
The majority of the stories and poems Bettini examines come from Greek and Roman classical antiquity, but he reaches as far as Petrarch, Da Ponte, and Poe. The stories themselves--ranging from the impassioned to the bizarre, and from the sublime to the hilarious--serve as touchstones for Bettini's evocative explorations of the role of representation in literature and in culture. Although he begins with a consideration of lovers' portraits, Bettini soon broadens his concerns to include the role of shadows, dreams, commemorative statues, statues brought to life, and vengeful statues--in short, an entire range of images that take on a life of their own.
The chapters shift skillfully from one theme to another, touching on the nature of desire, loss, memory, and death. Bettini brings to the discussion of these tales not only a broad learning about cultures but also a delighted sense of wonder and admiration for the evocative power and endless variety of the stories themselves.

The culmination of a project aimed at showcasing, in a systematic way, the potential of applying anthropological perspectives to classical studies, this volume highlights the fundamental contribution this approach has to make to our understanding of ancient Roman culture. Through the close study of themes such as myth, polytheism, sacrifice, magic, space, kinship, the gift, friendship, economics, animals, plants, riddles, metaphors, and images in Roman society (often in comparison with Greece) - where the texts of ancient culture are allowed to speak in their own terms and where the experience of the natives (rather than the horizon of the observer) is privileged - a rich panorama emerges of the worldview, beliefs, and deep structures that shaped and guided this culture.

Oral culture, just because it does not have an inexhaustible memory at its disposal, by nature tends to preserve its cultural inheritance. Written culture forgets nothing: but when everything can be recalled or somehow retrieved, the problem becomes what to remember and what to comprise to oblivion. This provocative book, written with a light touch, rooted in the Classics but ranging over the whole of Western literary culture, addresses many of the major issues that face us at the turn of the millennium. What is our shared cultural curency? What use - good or bad - do we make of it? Why should anyone involve themselves with the Classics? The tyranny of the anniversary and the magpie nature of the anthology, the urge for instant gratification, the attraction of the cultural canon, the way writing encloses or even imprisons - all these themes are brought together in a passionate plea for the Classics as essentially impervious to these vulgar urges of our age - the Age of Indiscretion.

If you told a woman her sex had a shared, long-lived history with weasels, she might deck you. But those familiar with mythology know better: that the connection between women and weasels is an ancient and favorable one, based in the Greek myth of a midwife who tricked the gods to ease Heracles' birth - and was turned into a weasel by Hera as punishment. Following this story as it is retold over centuries in literature and art, Women and Weasels takes us on a journey through mythology and ancient belief, revising our understanding of myth, heroism, and the status of women and animals in Western culture. Maurizio Bettini recounts and analyzes a variety of key literary and visual moments that highlight the weasel's many attributes. We learn of its legendary sexual and childbearing habits and symbolic association with witchcraft and midwifery, its role as a domestic pet favored by women, and its ability to slip in and out of tight spaces. The weasel, Bettini reveals, is present at many unexpected moments in human history, assisting women in labor and thwarting enemies who might plot their ruin. With a parade of symbolic associations between weasels and women-witches, prostitutes, midwives, sisters-in-law, brides, mothers, and heroes - Bettini brings to life one of the most venerable and enduring myths of Western culture.