Religion : Antiquities & Archaeology

Murder; Dismemberment; Last Judgement; Resurrection; Cults; Mummies -- the myth of Osiris, the ancient Egyptian ruler of the Underworld and judge of the dead was central to ancient Egyptian religion. Murdered by his brother Seth, who scattered his dismembered body all over Egypt, Osiris was saved by his loyal sister-wife Isis, who found all the pieces and miraculously conceived Horus, his son and avenger. Horus slew Seth and restored Osiris to kingship in the Underworld. This cycle of death and rebirth formed one of the basic precepts of ancient Egyptian religion. It gave rise to the cult of the dead and the custom of mummification. As ruler of the Underworld, Osiris inspired magnificent tombs, statues, paintings and literary compositions that granted magical protection and guidance in the world beyond. The myth of Osiris played a central part in the religious life of pharaohs and people of all classes in ancient Egypt. The power of his image as shepherd to immortality made him the most prominent and enduring of all the gods of ancient Egypt and perhaps of the entire ancient world. His cult grew in popularity through the ages and his saviour-figure resonated in all the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. Yet the origins of this god and his arrival in history remain obscure. This book draws together the numerous records about Osiris from the third millenium BC to the Roman conquest of Egypt. It explores his pivotal role as the primeval ruler of Egypt and as lord of resurrection, describing the ways in which he was worshipped and exploring the innermost mysteries of his cult. The book outlines the development of the cult through three thousand years of Egyptian history. It collects records from all epochs of Egyptian history, including most recent Predynastic and Old Kingdom finds from Abydos. Tombs of the first Egyptian kings and the mysterious 'tomb of Osiris' are discussed here in the light of new discoveries. Middle Kingdom texts are analyzed in the co more...

Price: $69.95

Early in the first century B.C. a Greek philosopher named Posidonius began an ambitious and dangerous journey into the little-known lands of the Celts. A man of great intellectual curiosity and considerable daring, Posidonius traveled from his home on the island of Rhodes to Rome, the capital of the expanding empire that had begun to dominate the Mediterranean. From there Posidonius planned to investigate for himself the mysterious Celts, reputed to be cannibals and savages. His journey would be one of the great adventures of the ancient world. Posidonius returned home and wrote a book about his travels among the Celts, which became one of the most popular books of ancient times. His work influenced Julius Caesar, who would eventually conquer the people of Gaul and bring the Celts into the Roman Empire, ending forever their ancient way of life. Thanks to Posidonius, who could not have known that he was recording a way of life soon to disappear, we have an objective, eyewitness account of the lives and customs of the ancient Celts. more...

Price: $17.95

Probably more is known about the religious life of Athens than of any other ancient city. This book attempts for the first time to give a comprehensive account of that religion from every angle - public festivals are there, including the Eleusinian Mysteries, but so are private rites and magic, and the treatment of religion by the great playwrights of Athens. The Athenians emerge as both very pious and very down-to-earth. - ;This book is the first attempt that has ever been made to give a comprehensive account of the religious life of ancient Athens. The city's many festivals are discussed in detail, with attention to recent anthropological theory; so too, for instance, are the cults of households and of smaller groups, the role of religious practice and argumentation in public life, the authority of priests, the activities of religious professionals such as seers and priestesses, magic, the place of. theatrical representations of the gods within public attitudes to the divine. A long final section considers the sphere of activity of the various gods, and takes Athens as a uniquely detailed test case for the structuralist approach to polytheism. The work is a synchronic, thematically organized. complement (though designed to be read independently) to the same author's Athenian Religion: A History (Oxford 1996). - ;...[this book] points the way to future developments in the study of both Athenian and Greek religion...an important contribution which certainly deserves its 2005 Criticos Award. - Julia L. Shear, Journal of Hellenic Studies;No other book takes such a holistic approach to Greek religious practice and experience, or deals with the acute historical and theoretical complexities in such a jargon-free and attractive manner. - Peter Jones, Sunday Telegraph;...one of the best books I have read on ancient religion and one of the most useful. - London Review of Books, Vol. 29;Parker's lively style makes this substantial and detailed book highly readabl more...

Price: $60.00

This book contributes to the small but growing literature on the interaction between religion and power in antiquity. Edwards focusses on the eastern "Greek" provinces in the first and second centuries A.D.--the period during which Christianity, Judaism, and numerous other religions and cults exploded across the Roman Empire. His purpose is to show how the local elite classes appropriated and manipulated mythic and religious images and practices to establish and consolidate their social, political, and economic power. Edwards considers both archaeological and literary evidence. He examines coins, epigraphs, statuary, building complexes, mosaics, and paintings from across Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine looking for evidence of sponsorship by local elites and the meaning of such sponsorship. On the literary side, Edwards selects one representative figure from each of the three major religio-cultural traditions: the Greek writer, Chariton of Aphrodisias; the Jewish historian, Josephus; and the Christian evangelist, the author of Luke Acts. He illustrates how each writer's use of religion reflects the interaction of local elite groups with the "web of power" that existed in political, cultural, and social spheres of the Roman Empire. more...

Price: $110.00

This work covers the issues of rituals and their embedded ritual theory in the religion of ancient Israel. It states that rituals are an autonomous form of expression of the human mind. It argues that the ritual theory is not in any general theory of ritual but embedded in the ritual act itself. more...

Price: $134.00