Ancient divination and experience
This volume sets out to re-examine what ancient people - primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures - thought they were doing through divination, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised. The...
| Subtitles: | "This volume is the result of a conference held in London, in July 2015, on the topc of divination in ancient cultures ..." |
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| Contributors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford
Oxford University Press
2019
|
| In: | Year: 2019 |
| Volumes / Articles: | Show volumes/articles. |
| Edition: | First edition |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Greece (Antiquity)
/ Roman Empire
/ Ancient Orient
/ China
/ Fortune-telling
|
| RelBib Classification: | BE Greco-Roman religions |
| Further subjects: | B
Greece
B Divination B Conference program 2015 (London) B China B Rome (Empire) B Religion B Iraq B China Religion B Iraq Religion B Greece Religion B Rome Religion |
| Online Access: |
Table of Contents Blurb Volltext (doi) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | This volume sets out to re-examine what ancient people - primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures - thought they were doing through divination, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised. The chapters, authored by a range of established experts and upcoming early-career scholars, engage with four shared questions: What kinds of gods do ancient forms of divination presuppose? What beliefs, anxieties, and hopes did divination seek to address? What were the limits of human 'control' of divination? What kinds of human-divine relationships did divination create/sustain? The volume as a whole seeks to move beyond functionalist approaches to divination in order to identify and elucidate previously understudied aspects of ancient divinatory experience and practice. Special attention is paid to the experiences of non-elites, the perception of divine presence, the ways in which divinatory techniques could surprise their users by yielding unexpected or unwanted results, the difficulties of interpretation with which divinatory experts were thought to contend, and the possibility that divination could not just ease, but also exacerbate, anxiety in0practitioners and consultants |
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| Item Description: | "This volume is the result of a conference held in London, in July 2015, on the topic of divination in ancient cultures, with particular focus on Greece and Rome." - Introduction |
| ISBN: | 0198844549 |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198844549.001.0001 |