The Homeric Hymn to Demeter

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter PDF Author: Helene P. Foley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140084908X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed in the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E., is a key to understanding the psychological and religious world of ancient Greek women. The poem tells how Hades, lord of the underworld, abducted the goddess Persephone and how her grieving mother, Demeter, the goddess of grain, forced the gods to allow Persephone to return to her for part of each year. Helene Foley presents the Greek text and an annotated translation of this poem, together with selected essays that give the reader a rich understanding of the Hymn's structure and artistry, its role in the religious life of the ancient world, and its meaning for the modern world.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter PDF Author: Helene P. Foley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140084908X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed in the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E., is a key to understanding the psychological and religious world of ancient Greek women. The poem tells how Hades, lord of the underworld, abducted the goddess Persephone and how her grieving mother, Demeter, the goddess of grain, forced the gods to allow Persephone to return to her for part of each year. Helene Foley presents the Greek text and an annotated translation of this poem, together with selected essays that give the reader a rich understanding of the Hymn's structure and artistry, its role in the religious life of the ancient world, and its meaning for the modern world.

Uncorking the Past

Uncorking the Past PDF Author: Patrick E. McGovern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520944682
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
In a lively gastronomical tour around the world and through the millennia, Uncorking the Past tells the compelling story of humanity's ingenious, intoxicating search for booze. Following a tantalizing trail of archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual clues, Patrick E. McGovern, the leading authority on ancient alcoholic beverages, brings us up to date on what we now know about the creation and history of alcohol, and the role of alcohol in society across cultures. Along the way, he integrates studies in food and sociology to explore a provocative hypothesis about the integral role that spirits have played in human evolution. We discover, for example, that the cereal staples of the modern world were probably domesticated in agrarian societies for their potential in fermenting large quantities of alcoholic beverages. These include the delectable rice wines of China and Japan, the corn beers of the Americas, and the millet and sorghum drinks of Africa. Humans also learned how to make mead from honey and wine from exotic fruits of all kinds: even from the sweet pulp of the cacao (chocolate) fruit in the New World. The perfect drink, it turns out-whether it be mind-altering, medicinal, a religious symbol, liquid courage, or artistic inspiration-has not only been a profound force in history, but may be fundamental to the human condition itself. This coffee table book will sate the curiosity of any armchair historian interested in the long history of food and wine.

Dangerous Food

Dangerous Food PDF Author: Peter D. Gooch
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 0889202192
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Recognizing the social meaning of food and meals in Greco-Roman culture and, in particular, the social meaning of idol-food, is an integral part of understanding the impact of Paul’s instructions to the Christian community at Corinth regarding the consumption of idol-food. Shared meals were a central feature of social intercourse in Greco-Roman culture. Meals and food were markers of social status, and participation at meals was the main means of establishing and maintaining social relations. Participation in public rites (and sharing the meals which ensued) was a requirement of holding public office. The social consequences of refusing to eat idol-food would be extreme. Christians might not attend weddings, funerals, celebrations in honour of birthdays, or even formal banquets without encountering idol-food. In this extended reading of 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1, Paul’s response to the Corinthian Christians’ query concerning food offered to idols, Gooch uses a social-historical approach, combining historical methods of source, literary and redaction criticism, and newer applications of anthropological and sociological methods to determine what idol-food was, and what it meant in that place at that time to eat or avoid it. In opposition to a well-entrenched scholarly consensus, Gooch claims that although Paul had abandoned purity rules concerning food, he would not abandon Judaism’s cultural and religious understanding concerning idol-food. On the basis of his reconstruction of Paul’s letter in which he urged the Corinthian Christians to avoid any food infected by non-Christian rites, Gooch argues that the Corinthians rejected Paul’s instructions to avoid facing significant social liabilities.

Pharmakon

Pharmakon PDF Author: Michael A. Rinella
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1461634016
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens examines the emerging concern for controlling states of psychological ecstasy in the history of western thought, focusing on ancient Greece (c. 750-146 BCE), particularly the Classical Period (c. 500-336 BCE) and especially the dialogues of the Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE). Employing a diverse array of materials ranging from literature, philosophy, medicine, botany, pharmacology, religion, magic, and law, Pharmakon fundamentally reframes the conceptual context of how we read and interpret Plato's dialogues. Michael A. Rinella demonstrates how the power and truth claims of philosophy, repeatedly likened to a pharmakon, opposes itself to the cultural authority of a host of other occupations in ancient Greek society who derived their powers from, or likened their authority to, some pharmakon. These included Dionysian and Eleusinian religion, physicians and other healers, magicians and other magic workers, poets, sophists, rhetoricians, as well as others. Accessible to the general reader, yet challenging to the specialist, Pharmakon is a comprehensive examination of the place of drugs in ancient thought that will compel the reader to understand Plato in a new way.

Goddess Mystery Cults and the Miracle of Minyan Prehistoric Greece

Goddess Mystery Cults and the Miracle of Minyan Prehistoric Greece PDF Author: Dionysious Psilopoulos
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527591190
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
As this book demonstrates, the cradle of the Mystery Cults of the Goddess and of Western civilization is the Aegean region, an area extending from the Balkans to Crete and from the Ionian Sea to Asia Minor. The Eleusinian Mysteries do not originate from Old Europe or Egypt, but from the worship of the Pelasgian goddess Daeira, Mother Earth, who preceded Demeter and whose cult was indigenous to Eleusis. As shown here, in the Mysteries of the Goddess, the initiates descend into the depths of their psyche, perceive the midnight sun, transcend duality, and achieve cosmic consciousness symbolized by the unity and harmony of the Great Goddess. The Pelasgians, Minyans, and Minoans, the Aegean region’s prehistoric tribes and ancestors of the Mycenaeans and modern Greeks, share the same cultural heritage, continuity, and autochthony with the region’s Proto-Greek, pre-Deukalion-Flood inhabitants. The book also argues that religious and scientific traces of pre-Flood knowledge can be discerned in the Mysteries and the technical achievements of prehistoric Minyan and Minoan Greeks. Even from the third millennium, the Minyans and Minoans, with their advanced nautical, geographic, and astronomical knowledge, sailed not only the Mediterranean, but using the Atlantic currents had reached the copper mines of northern Europe and America.

Kykeon

Kykeon PDF Author: H.F.J. Horstmanshoff
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004295941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
A collection of papers with new insights on ancient religion, read at a colloquium in honour of Professor H.S. Versnel ("Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion"). The contributions, presented by nine leading scholars in the field, cover many areas of the religious experience of the Greeks and Romans: myth and ritual (W. Burkert), the gods (F. Zeitlin), cult, festivals, sacrifice. Several papers consider methodological problems and the progress of scholarship; they highlight the contribution of H.S. Versnel to the field. The papers are based on a wide range of sources: pagan and Christian, literary and epigraphical and iconographical. The collection will fascinate all scholars interested in ancient religion, whether they study malign magic, the Imperial cult or general theory.

The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World

The Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World PDF Author: Diana Stein
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000464733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved? Who was involved? Where and when were rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact? In proposing responses, the authors draw upon a wealth of original research in many fields, generating new perspectives and thought-provoking, often surprising, conclusions. With their abundant cross-cultural and cross-temporal references, the chapters mutually enrich each other and collectively deepen our understanding of ecstatic phenomena thousands of years ago. Another noteworthy feature of the book is its illustrative content, including commissioned reconstructions of ecstatic scenarios and pairings of works of Bronze Age and modern psychedelic art. Scholars, students and other readers interested in antiquity, comparative religion and the social and cognitive sciences will find much to explore in the fascinating realm of ecstatic experience in the ancient world.

Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries PDF Author: George Emmanuel Mylonas
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400877296
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The most famous conspiracy of silence in the history of antiquity is examined here by one of the three archaeologists entrusted by the Archaeological Society of Athens with the final excavations of the Sanctuary. He traces the history of the cult in the archaeological remains, from the first traces of habitation at the site in the Middle Bronze Age (around 1900 B.C.) to its final grandeur and decay in Imperial Roman times. A guided tour of the Museum at Eleusis, illustrated with photographs of objects in the Museum, as well as air views, plans, and detailed photographs of the ruins closely correlated with the text, takes into account the needs of the visitor at the site as well as the reader at home. Originally published in 1961. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames

Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames PDF Author: Ross Clare
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135015721X
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This volume presents an original framework for the study of video games that use visual materials and narrative conventions from ancient Greece and Rome. It focuses on the culturally rich continuum of ancient Greek and Roman games, treating them not just as representations, but as functional interactive products that require the player to interpret, communicate with and alter them. Tracking the movement of such concepts across different media, the study builds an interconnected picture of antiquity in video games within a wider transmedial environment. Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames presents a wide array of games from several different genres, ranging from the blood-spilling violence of god-killing and gladiatorial combat to meticulous strategizing over virtual Roman Empires and often bizarre adventures in pseudo-ancient places. Readers encounter instances in which players become intimately engaged with the “epic mode” of spectacle in God of War, moments of negotiation with colonised lands in Rome: Total War and Imperium Romanum, and multi-layered narratives rich with ancient traditions in games such as Eleusis and Salammbo. The case study approach draws on close analysis of outstanding examples of the genre to uncover how both representation and gameplay function in such “ancient games”.

Tasting History

Tasting History PDF Author: Max Miller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982186186
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Begin your very own food journey through the centuries and around the world with the first cookbook from the beloved YouTube channel Tasting History with Max Miller What began as a passion project when Max Miller was furloughed during Covid-19 has become a viral YouTube sensation. The Tasting History with Max Miller channel has thrilled food enthusiasts and history buffs alike as Miller recreates a dish from the past, often using historical recipes from vintage texts, but updated for modern kitchens as he tells stories behind the cuisine and culture. From ancient Rome to Ming China to medieval Europe and beyond, Miller has collected the best-loved recipes from around the world and has shared them with his fans. Now, with beautiful photographs portraying the dishes and historical artwork throughout, Tasting History compiles over sixty dishes such as: -Tuh’u: a red beet stew with leeks dating back to 1740 BC -Globi: deep-fried cheese balls with honey and poppy seeds -Soul Cakes: yeasted buns with currants from circa 1600 -Pumpkin Tourte: a crustless pumpkin cheesecake with cinnamon and sugar on top from 1570 -And much more. Including the original recipe and Miller’s modern recreation, this cookbook is a must-have for any avid cook or history fan looking to experience delicious recipes from the past.