Household and Family Religion in Antiquity

by Bodel, John; Olyan, Saul M.

• ISBN13: 9781405175791
• ISBN10: 1405175796
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-09
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The first book to explore the religious dimensions of the family and the household in ancient Mediterranean and West Asian antiquity. Advances our understanding of household and family religion, as opposed to state-sponsored or civic temple cults Reconstructs domestic and family religious practices in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Israel, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Emar, and Philistia Explores many household rituals, such as providing for ancestral spirits, and petitioning of a household's patron deities or of spirits associated with the house itself Examines lifecycle rituals - from pregnancy and birth to maturity, old age, death, and beyond Looks at religious practices relating to the household both within the home itself and other spaces, such as at extramural tombs and local sanctuaries

Author Biography

John Bodel is Professor of Classics and History at Brown University. He writes about Roman social and cultural history, Latin epigraphy, and Latin literature of the Empire. His books include Roman Brick Stamps in the Kelsey Museum (1983), Graveyards and Groves: A Study of the Lex Lucerina (1994), Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions (editor, 2001), and Dediche sacre nel mondo greco-romano: Diffusione, funzioni, tipologie (edited with Mika Kajava, 2008).

Saul M. Olyan is Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University. He is the author of Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel (1988), A Thousand Thousands Served Him: Exegesis and the Naming of Angels in Ancient Judaism (1993), Rites and Rank: Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult (2000), Biblical Mourning: Ritual and Social Dimensions (2004), and Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences (2008).

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Theorizing the Religion of Ancient Households and Families

Family Religion in Second Millennium West Asia (Mesopotamia, Emar, Nuzi)

The Integration of Household and Community Religion in Ancient Syria

Family, Household, and Local Religion at Late Bronze Age Ugarit

Family Religion in Ancient Israel and Its Surroundings

Family Religion in Israel and the Wider Levant of the First Millennium BCE

Household Religion, Family Religion, and Women’s Religion in Ancient Israel

Ashdod and the Material Remains of Domestic Cults in the Philistine Coastal Plain

Household Religion in Ancient Egypt

Household and Domestic Religion in Ancient Egypt

Household Religion in Ancient Greece

Family Matters: Domestic Religion in Classical Greece

Roman Family Religion

Cicero's Minerva

Comparative Perspectives

Index

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