Awards

• Shortlisted for Runciman Award 2004.
• Winner of Shortlisted for The Runciman Award 2004.

Overview

This is the first edition of and full-length commentary on On the Syrian Goddess, an Ionic ethnography of the Holy City of Hierapolis in northern Syria, where the Syrian goddess Atargatis was worshipped. This treatise is one of the most important literary sources for 'oriental' religions under the Roman Empire. Traditionally ascribed to Lucian of Samosata, the work has often been viewed as satire. Lightfoot argues for a much subtler reading, for the first time combining a literary and philological approach with the evidence of archaeology to set this complex treatise in the fullest possible context. The result bears on the religious culture of Roman Syria; on the genre of Herodotean ethnography and its revival and reception in the Second Sophistic; and on Lucian of Samosata himself. The edition is based on a fresh collation of all existing manuscripts and an English translation is provided.

Full Product Details

9780199251384

Table of Contents

Reviews

... the nature and credibility of de dea Syria and its value as evidence for religious history will continue to be the object of debate in the future as it has been in the past. Jane Lightfoot will not have put an end to such debates, but we can be sure that they will be conducted in future on the sure foundations she has laid by her scholarship, acuity and insight. Scripta Classica Israelica This new work commands admiration Robert L. Fowler, Times Literary Supplement

`Review from other book by this author L. has had the good idea of bringing the verse fragments together with the EP to try at last to restore some flesh to this insubstantial presence.' Richard Hunter, Classical Review. `this is clearly more attention than Parthenius has received in quite a while ... the IP upon which L's work throws much new light and raises many questions of interest to scholars in a number of fields.' Richard Hunter, Classical Review. `a splendid and most welcome tome ... We have a valuable edition of a neglected author, worth attention.' William M. Calder III, Religious Studies Review, Vol.26, No.3.

... the nature and credibility of de dea Syria and its value as evidence for religious history will continue to be the object of debate in the future as it has been in the past. Jane Lightfoot will not have put an end to such debates, but we can be sure that they will be conducted in future on the sure foundations she has laid by her scholarship, acuity and insight. Scripta Classica Israelica This new work commands admiration Robert L. Fowler, Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

J. L. Lightfoot is a Postdoctoral Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford

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