Ancient Religions

by Harvard University Press

Overview

Religious beliefs and practices, which permeated all aspects of life in antiquity, traveled well-worn routes throughout the Mediterranean: itinerant charismatic practitioners journeying from place to place peddled their skills as healers, purifiers, cursers, and initiators; and vessels decorated with illustrations of myths traveled with them. New gods encountered in foreign lands by merchants and conquerors were sometimes taken home to be adapted and adopted. This collection of essays by a distinguished international group of scholars, drawn from the groundbreaking reference work Religions of the Ancient World, offers an expansive, comparative perspective on this complex spiritual world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674039186
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	829 KB

About the Author

Sarah Iles Johnston is Professor of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction ? Sarah Iles Johnston ix Note on Translation and Transliteration xv Abbreviations xvii Maps xviii ENCOUNTERING ANCIENT RELIGIONS What Is Ancient Mediterranean Religion? ? Fritz Graf 3 Monotheism and Polytheism ? Jan Assmann 17 Ritual ? Jan Bremmer 32 Myth ? Fritz Graf 45 Cosmology: Time and History ? John J. Collins 59 Pollution, Sin, Atonement, Salvation ? Harold W. Attridge 71 Law and Ethics ? Eckart Otto 84 Mysteries ? Sarah Iles Johnston 98 Religions in Contact ? John Scheid 112 Writing and Religion ? Mary Beard 127 Magic ? Sarah Iles Johnston 139 HISTORIES Egypt ? Jan Assmann and David Frankfurter 155 Mesopotamia ? Paul-Alain Beaulieu 165 Syria and Canaan ? David P. Wright 173 Israel ? John J. Collins 181 Anatolia: Hittites ? David P. Wright 189 Iran ? William Malandra and Michael Stausberg 197 Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations ? Nanno Marinatos 206 Greece ? Jon Mikalson 210 Etruria ? Olivier de Cazanove 220 Rome ? John North 225 Early Christianity ? Harold Attridge 233 Epilogue ? Bruce Lincoln 235 Contributors 000 Index 000