The division of land and consolidation of territory that created the Greek polis also divided sacred from productive space, sharpened distinctions between purity and pollution, and created a ritual ...system premised on gender difference. Regional sanctuaries ameliorated competition between city-states, publicized the results of competitive rituals for males, and encouraged judicial alternatives to violence. Female ritual efforts, focused on reproduction and the health of the family, are less visible, but, as this provocative study shows, no less significant. Taking a fresh look at the epigraphical evidence for Greek ritual practice in the context of recent studies of landscape and political organization, Susan Guettel Cole illuminates the profoundly gendered nature of Greek cult practice and explains the connections between female rituals and the integrity of the community. In a rich integration of ancient sources and current theory, Cole brings together the complex evidence for Greek ritual practice. She discusses relevant medical and philosophical theories about the female body; considers Greek ideas about purity, pollution, and ritual purification; and examines the cult of Artemis in detail. Her nuanced study demonstrates the social contribution of women's rituals to the sustenance of the polis and the identity of its people.
Das Buch bietet einen ausführlichen philologischen Kommentar zum Artemis- Hymnos des Kallimachos und bedient damit ein Desiderat der modernen Forschung. Als Grundlage dient ein Text mit neuem ...kritischem Apparat, unter dem auch ein apparatus locorum similium Platz findet. Die Einleitung behandelt alle Fragenkomplexe, die bei der Interpretation des Gedichtes von Belang sind: die Stellung des Hymnos innerhalb des Hymnenbuchs und seine Bezüge zu den anderen Hymnen; die poetische Einheit, eine alte Streitfrage, der hier durch eine Synthese früherer Positionen begegnet wird; Gestalt und kultischen Aufgabenbereich der Artemis; Datierung und Sitz im Leben des Textes, wobei auch ein systematischer Aufweis der zeitpolitisch-ptolemäischen Dimension versucht wird. Eine metrische Analyse beschließt den Einleitungsteil. Im Kommentar wird größtmögliche Vollständigkeit angestrebt, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem sprachlichen Aspekt sowie auf der feinen Allusionstechnik des alexandrinischen Dichters liegt. Das Buch verfolgt mithin zwei Hauptziele: einerseits will es den Umgang des Dichters mit literarischen Vorbildern beleuchten, andererseits die ptolemäische Ideologie hinter der olympischen Fassade aufzeigen.
This study investigates the reception of contemporary religion in Hellenistic poetry. Using the cult of Artemis as a paradigm, it analyses Callimachus' and Theocritus' references to contemporary ...religious phenomena and their contextualization and transformation in literature.
In this work, the author sets out the evidence for the celebration of Artemis's mysteries against the background of the remarkable urban development of the city of Ephesos during the Roman Empire and ...then proposes an entirely new theory about the great secret that was revealed to initiates into Artemis's mysteries.
Artemis of Ephesos was one of the most widely worshiped deities of the Graeco-Roman World. Her temple, the Artemision, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and for more than half a ...millennium people flocked to Ephesos to learn the great secret of the mysteries and sacrifices that were celebrated every year on her birthday.
In this work Guy MacLean Rogers sets out the evidence for the celebration of Artemis's mysteries against the background of the remarkable urban development of the city during the Roman Empire and then proposes an entirely new theory about the great secret that was revealed to initiates into Artemis's mysteries. The revelation of that secret helps to explain not only the success of Artemis's cult and polytheism itself but, more surprisingly, the demise of both and the success of Christianity. Contrary to many anthropological and scientific theories, the history of polytheism, including the celebration of Artemis's mysteries, is best understood as a Darwinian tale of adaptation, competition, and change.
The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZNW) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded international scholarly book series in the field of New Testament ...studies. Since 1923 it has been a forum for seminal works focusing on Early Christianity and related fields. The series is grounded in a historical-critical approach and also explores new methodological approaches that advance our understanding of the New Testament and its world.
This thesis studies the effects of colonization in Asia Minor on the cult of the Hellenic Artemis, as the Greek goddess comes into contact with and is influenced by her Asian counterparts. The result ...of this contact is a goddess whose nature both remains unchanged and is changed, being at the same time both Greek and Oriental, and whose new image, reshaped after the Asiatic Mother Goddess, reflects the religious needs of her new worshippers, who were themselves a mixture of Greek and indigenous peoples.
The first part of this work investigates the nature and functions of Artemis in Greece, exploring in the greater detail the goddess' connections with nature, childbirth, and the different transitions undergone by individuals and communities. The second part looks at the cult of Artemis in the four major centres of the goddess' worship in Asia: Ephesos, Sardis, Magnesia on the Maiander and Perge. In order to explore more closely Artemis' connections with the Mother Goddess, whom the former replaces, a survey of the Asiatic precursors of Artemis was necessary. Consequently, this study attempts to analyse the nature and functions of other goddesses in Asia, related to the Mother Goddess, namely Kubaba-Kybele, Ma, Atargatis (a conflation of Anat, Astart and Asherah), Anahita and Ishtar, goddesses who share various features not only with each other, but with the Hellenic Artemis as well. The study of these goddesses follows the order in which Greek colonists encountered them.
The thesis concludes with a synthesis and summary of the particular features of the Hellenic Artemis which facilitated her identification with various examples of the Asiatic mother goddess.
