Overview

In the religious systems of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, gods and demigods were neither abstract nor distant, but communicated with mankind through signs and active intervention. Men and women were thus eager to interpret, appeal to, and even control the gods and their agents. In ""Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World"", a distinguished array of scholars explores the many ways in which people in the ancient world sought to gain access to-or, in some cases, to bind or escape from-the divine powers of heaven and earth. Grounded in a variety of disciplines, including Assyriology, Classics, and early Islamic history, the 15 essays in this volume cover a broad geographic area: Greece, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Topics include celestial divination in early Mesopotamia, the civic festivals of classical Athens, and Christian magical papyri from Coptic Egypt. Moving forward to Late Antiquity, we see how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each incorporated many aspects of ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman religion into their own prayers, rituals, and conceptions. Even if they no longer conceived of the sun, moon, and the stars as eternal or divine, Christians, Jews, and Muslims often continued to study the movements of the heavens as a map on which divine power could be read.

Full Product Details

Author:   Scott Noegel ,  Joel Walker ,  Brannon Wheeler
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.399kg
ISBN:  

9780271022581

ISBN 10:   0271022582
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   15 June 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations List of Figures Introduction Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler Part I Locating Magic 1. Here, There, and Anywhere Jonathan Z. Smith Part II Prayer, Magic, and Ritual 2. Thessalos of Tralles and Cultural Exchange Ian Moyer 3. The Prayer of Mary in the Magical Book of Mary and the Angels Marvin Meyer 4. Hebrew, Hebrew Everywhere? Notes on the Interpretation of Voces Magicae Gideon Bohak 5. Magic and Society in Late Sasanian Iraq Michael G. Morony Part III Dreams and Divination 6. The Open Portal: Dreams and Divine Power in Pharaonic Egypt Kasia Szpakowska 7. Viscera and the Divine: Dreams as a Divinatory Bridge Between the Corporeal and the Incorporeal Peter Struck 8. Stars and the Egyptian Priesthood in the Graeco-Roman Period Jacco Dieleman 9. Divination and Its Discontents: Finding and Questioning Meaning in Ancient and Medieval Judaism Michael D. Schwartz Part IV The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars 10. Heaven and Earth: Divine-Human Relations in Mesopotamian Celestial Divination Francesca Rochberg 11. Astral Religion and the Representation of Divinity: The Cases of Ugarit and Judah Mark S. Smith 12. A New Star on the Horizon: Astral Christologies and Stellar Debates in Early Christian Discourse Nicola Denzey 13. At the Seizure of the Moon: The Absence of the Moon in the Mithras Liturgy Radcliffe Edmonds Contributors Index

Reviews

This book is as professionally and indeed attractively produced as are the other volumes in the worthy Pennsylvania State Magic in History series. </p> Daniel Ogden, <em>International Journal of the Classical Tradition</em></p>

This book is as professionally and indeed attractively produced as are the other volumes in the worthy Pennsylvania State Magic in History series. --Daniel Ogden, International Journal of the Classical Tradition

Author Information

Scott B. Noegel is Associate Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization at the University of Washington. Joel Thomas Walker is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Washington. Brannon M. Wheeler is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Chair of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington.

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