Bücher der Reihe Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge

An international team of scholars from different academic disciplines address some of the most important issues, texts, and objects in the study of ancient magic. The volume is divided into three primary sections. The first part offers new approaches to some of the major theoretical and methodological questions in the study of ancient magic. Most importantly, the authors offer a defense of the term "magic" as a scholarly rubric in the study of antiquity. The contributors to the second part provide novel interpretations of some of the most significant defixiones, amulets, recipes and rituals from the ancient world. The essays also engage with questions of gender, materiality, visuality, and scribal practice. The final section examines the transmission of magical practice, both in antiquity and in later periods. Accordingly, the chapters in this final section allow scholars to approach the study of magic over the longue durée. By placing into dialogue the interests, concerns, and methods of scholars from diverse academic fields, this volume provides an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of premodern magic.

This volume examines the way the Belgian historian of religions Franz Cumont (1868-1947) and his contemporaries conceived of early Christianity's relation to the ancient mystery cults. As the comparative study of religion rose to academic prominence in late 19th century Europe, this question provoked fiery debates, fuelling methodological, ideological, and religious divides between scholars of different scientific and personal backgrounds. Cumont was a worldwide authority in the scientific study of the religions orientales, but he expressed his opinion on their relation to Christianity only ambiguously. Yet, his publications deeply impacted the debates of his time because of the numerous similarities they revealed between Christian and pagan traditions. Written by specialists from various academic disciplines (e.g., history of religions, theology, New Testament studies), this collection of papers offers a much-needed study of how Cumont and other leading 19th century scholars discussed this theme. It also offers critical reflections on what is left of their ideas in present-day research on this most fascinating subject matter in the study of ancient religion.

La nemesis, espressione presso i Greci della censura sociale, e Nemesis potenza divina omonima, il cui santuario di maggior prestigio è collocato a Ramnunte in Attica, sono esplorate in questo volume in cui storia delle emozioni, storia culturale, sociale e religiosa si intersecano. Prendendo le mosse dalla ricezione della figura divina, l'analisi si concentra sulle forme della nemesis attribuite a mortali e immortali, per passare poi a ricostruire il profilo della divinità, quale emerge dalle tradizioni sulla sua genealogia, dalla sua vicenda mitica e dagli attributi onomastici con cui i Greci la invocavano. Infine, la ricerca si focalizza sulle pratiche cultuali e punta lo sguardo sul contesto documentario di Ramnunte che consente di ricostruire il paesaggio religioso in cui Nemesis era inserita. Indagando la relazione tra una pulsione emotiva e il teonimo corrispondente, il volume affronta la complessa questione dei culti riservati a concetti astratti, virtù o moti dell'animo, per esplorarne le dinamiche di funzionamento da una prospettiva storica, sul filo della tensione tra rappresentazioni note a livello "panellenico" e prassi religiose locali.

Die heutige Vorstellung der Zweiten Sophistik ist vor allem geprägt von der rhetorischen Tätigkeit gebildeter Griechen in der römischen Kaiserzeit und der Vorbildfunktion des klassischen Griechenlands. Was aber geschieht, wenn der Text, statt nur vorgetragen zu werden, als Lektüre vorliegt? Wie ändern sich dann die Möglichkeiten der Rezeption?Anhand ausgewählter Schriften, die Dion Chrysostomos, Aelius Aristides und Lukian von Samosata zugeschrieben werden, zeigt sich, dass die Anspielungen auf das klassische Erbe im Falle rhetorischer Texte insbesondere als Angebot an ein tatsächlich lesendes Publikum zu verstehen sind, das sich durch die Beschäftigung mit den Texten der eigenen elitären Stellung im Bildungsdiskurs vergewissern kann. Dafür spielen die Werke mit den Sprecheridentitäten, dem gesellschaftlichen Kontext und vor allem mit der literarischen Vergangenheit. Durch komische, ironische oder verfremdende Effekte sieht sich die Leserschaft herausgefordert, immer wieder die eigene Bildung unter Beweis zu stellen. Das klassische Griechenland ist dabei nicht nur Vorbild, vielmehr werden die Klassiker auch für die eigene Gegenwart produktiv gemacht.

Ancient religion is traditionally understood in terms of myths, rituals and institutions, as transmitted in ancient texts. The studies gathered here focus instead on the lived experience of ancient cult and the places in which that experience was formed. They build on recent explorations of Lived Ancient Religion and also on new approaches to Material Ancient Religion. All ancient societies constructed elaborate sanctuaries. Their architecture and the collective rituals that took place there shaped collective experiences. Through case studies drawn from Ancient Egypt, the Greek World and the Roman Empire these themes are explored and elaborated. Together they indicate new ways of approaching ancient religious experience, collective and individual.