The Names of the Gods in Ancient Mediterranean Religions
The Names of the Gods in Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Ralph Häussler
Ian Rutherford, University of Reading
AUD$149.95
exc GSTFrom Greece to Palmyra, Tyre or Babylon, the names of the gods, like 'Thundering Zeus', 'Three-faced Moon', 'Baal of the Force' or the enigmatic YHWH, reveal their history, family ties, fields of competence and capacity for action. Shared or specific, these names bring to light networks of gods: the Saviour gods, the Ancestral gods, the gods of a city or a family. Names tell stories about the relationship between men and gods, gods and places, places and cultures and so on. They show how gods travel and spread, how they appear and disappear, how they participate in the political, social, intellectual history of each community. Through the study of divine names, the twelve chapters of this book unfold a gallery of portraits that reveal the changing aspects of the divine throughout the ancient Mediterranean.
- Enables the semantic scope of divine names to be understood within their historical contexts
- Provides concrete evidence that polytheistic pantheons are complex networks of divine powers
- Encourages comparison across a wide range of Mediterranean cultures
Product details
March 2024Hardback
9781009394826
306 pages
236 × 157 × 22 mm
0.58kg
47 colour illus. 1 map
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction. In the mirror of Vertumnus
- 1. 'To the Immortals everything is possible': portraits of Homeric gods between savagery and empathy Corinne Bonnet
- 2. All sides of the moon: a Greek incantation from late antique Egypt Thomas Galoppin
- 3. 'May the Force be with you!'. Men and gods in battle in the Phoenician world Maria Bianco
- 4. Dionysos in the mirror of Poseidon: crossed onomastic portraits Sylvain Lebreton
- 5. Lord of the Universe, the World and Eternity: Gods with unlimited powers in Palmyra? Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider
- 6. This is not a name: the polyvalence of divine names in Mesopotamia Marinella Ceravolo
- 7. The sword and the patera: Zeus Helios Great Sarapis Laurent Bricault
- 8. A travelling portrait: the Baal of Tyre, from one rock to another Elodie Guillon
- 9. Pantheus, a 'total' god in the Greek and Roman world Ginevra Benedetti
- 10. 'I will be who I will be' (Exod. 3:14). Portrait of a deity that would be nameless and imageless Fabio Porzia
- 11. Golden locks among the Greeks, or the hair secrets of the beautiful Apollo Adeline Grand-Clément
- 12. Athena – Artemis. An attempt to outline two sisters by their epiclesis Pierre Brulé.
