Goddesses in Context
Goddesses in Context

Author: Julia M. Asher-Greve

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783525543825

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The authors examine from different perspectives some of the most challenging themes in Mesopotamian religion such as gender switch of deities and changes of the status, roles and functions of goddesses. Julia M. Asher-Greve and Goodnick Westenholz incorporate recent scholarship from various disciplines into their analysis of textual and visual sources, representations in diverse media, theological strategies, typologies, and the place of image in religion and cult over a span of three millennia. Different types of syncretism (fusion, fission, mutation) resulted in transformation and homogenization of goddesses' roles and functions. The processes of syncretism (a useful heuristic tool for studying the evolution of religions and the attendant political and social changes) and gender switch were facilitated by the fluidity of personality due to multiple or similar divine roles and functions. Few goddesses kept their identity throughout the millennia. Individuality is rare in the iconography of goddesses while visual emphasis is on repetition of generic divine figures (hieros typos) in order to retain recognizability of divinity, where femininity is of secondary significance. This richly illustrated book demonstrates that goddesses were never marginalized or extrinsic and that their continuous presence in texts, cult images, rituals, and worship throughout Mesopotamian history is testimony to their powerful numinous impact. This richly illustrated book is the first in-depth analysis of goddesses and the changes they underwent from the earliest visual and textual evidence around 3000 BCE to the end of ancient Mesopotamian civilization in the Seleucid period. Goddesses in Context is a compelling contribution to Mesopotamian religion and history as well as to history, art history, history of religion and gender studies.

Death in Jewish Life
Death in Jewish Life

Author: Stefan C. Reif

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-08-27

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 3110377489

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Jewish customs and traditions about death, burial and mourning are numerous, diverse and intriguing. They are considered by many to have a respectable pedigree that goes back to the earliest rabbinic period. In order to examine the accurate historical origins of many of them, an international conference was held at Tel Aviv University in 2010 and experts dealt with many aspects of the topic. This volume includes most of the papers given then, as well as a few added later. What emerges are a wealth of fresh material and perspectives, as well as the realization that the high Middle Ages saw a set of exceptional innovations, some of which later became central to traditional Judaism while others were gradually abandoned. Were these innovations influenced by Christian practice? Which prayers and poems reflect these innovations? What do the sources tell us about changing attitudes to death and life-after death? Are tombstones an important guide to historical developments? Answers to these questions are to be found in this unusual, illuminating and readable collection of essays that have been well documented, carefully edited and well indexed.

Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier
Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier

Author: Andrew Palmer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1990-04-12

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780521360265

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Tur cAdin is a plateau skirted by the Upper Tigris in south-eastern Turkey. Syrian Orthodox Christians of Aramaic tongue still worship in its Late Antique churches. Monks converted the region and the most powerful monastery, founded in the fourth century, is still flourishing today. This book grew out of an attempt to document more fully the early history of this abbey. It aims to rediscover the practical and symbolic function of the monuments of Tur cAdin and place them in their original social context. A recurring theme is the relationship between village and monastery and, within each, between community and individual. The final chapters also contribute to our understanding of the Syrian Orthodox community under the Abbasid caliphate. A 500-page microfiche supplement contains the first editions of the Qartmin Trilogy, a monastic text to which the book refers, constantly, and the Book of Life, a unique quasi-epigraphical document of a Christian village and its will to surive.

Crowns in Egyptian Funerary Literature
Crowns in Egyptian Funerary Literature

Author: Katja Goebs

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780900416873

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This book presents a new approach to analysing the image of ancient Egyptian kings and gods. The author studies textual evidence rather than the often stereotyped iconography, focusing on mentions of the king's White and Red Crowns and demonstrating that they possess a wide-ranging symbolism that transcends the terrestrial sphere to encompass the divine and the cosmos, death and rebirth. In funerary texts of the Old and Middle Kingdoms (ca. 2300-1700 BC), crowns play a part in the deceased king's ascent to the sky and transfiguration, enabling him to assume the form and powers of a celestial god. Crowns express such attributes as the legitimate rule of gods or of the deceased, as well as radiance; they are also metaphors for cosmic events. Personified as goddesses, they are the deceased's mothers and nurses. These symbolic functions are integrated into richly metaphorical texts that combine the explicit with the allusive and the concrete with the evanescent. The book discusses occurrences of the White, Red, and Double Crowns in the Pyramid and Coffin Texts, as well as other selected examples. A major section reinterprets the famous Cannibal Spell as a description of sunrise that fits seamlessly with the themes of other texts. This study will be of great interest not just to Egyptologists but also for the parallels it offers for styles of royal and divine symbolism that are found in many civilisations.

Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon
Brill's Companion to Ancient Macedon

Author: Robin J. Fox

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-06-22

Total Pages: 729

ISBN-13: 9004206507

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Drawing on the latest archaeology, epigraphy and historical interpretation, this major volume presents a survey of ancient Macedon, important parts of which are published by their excavators for the first time, including the palace of King Philip II. Archaeologists and historians of the ancient Greek worlds will welcome this milestone in the study of this rapidly changing filed, packed with new information, interpretations and essential bibliography.

The Private Collection of Edgar Degas
The Private Collection of Edgar Degas

Author: Julie A. Steiner

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13:

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This catalogue and its companion volume of essays are published in conjunction with the exhibition "The Private Collection of Edgar Degas," held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from October 1, 1997, to January 11, 1998.