Ancient divination and experience

How did people in the ancient world experience their attempts to communicate with divine powers? This volume seeks to re-examine divination in ancient Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and Chinese cultures and to identify and elucidate previously understudied aspects of ancient divinatory experience and p...

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Bibliographic Details
Contributors: Driediger-Murphy, Lindsay Gayle 1983- (Contributor) ; Eidinow, Esther 1970- (Contributor)
Format: Electronic Image
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
WorldCat: WorldCat
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 2019
In:Year: 2019
Edition:First edition.
Series/Journal:Oxford scholarship online
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Greece (Antiquity) / Roman Empire / Ancient Orient / China / Fortune-telling
Further subjects:B Divination
B China ; Religion
B Conference program 2015 (London)
B Iraq ; Religion
B Greece ; Religion
B China Religion
B Rome ; Religion
B Iraq Religion
B Greece Religion
B Rome Religion
Online Access: Inhaltsverzeichnis (Aggregator)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Erscheint auch als: 9780198844549
Description
Summary:How did people in the ancient world experience their attempts to communicate with divine powers? This volume seeks to re-examine divination in ancient Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, and Chinese cultures and to identify and elucidate previously understudied aspects of ancient divinatory experience and practice.
The introduction to this volume describes the contribution that it makes to scholarship on ancient divinatory practices. It analyses previous and current research, arguing that while this predominantly functionalist work reveals important socio-political dimensions of divination, it also runs the risk of obscuring from view the very people, ideologies, and experiences that scholars seek to understand. It explains that the essays in this volume focus on re-examining what ancient people—primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures—thought they were doing through divination. The Introduction provides an overview of the content of each chapter and identifies key themes and questions shared across chapters. The volume explores the types of relationships that divination created between mortals and gods, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised.
Item Description:This edition also issued in print: 2019. - Includes bibliographical references and index. - Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on October 10, 2019)
ISBN:0191880035
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198844549.001.0001