Research Catalog

Title

Historical and religious memory in the ancient world / edited by Beate Dignas and R.R.R. Smith.

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Dignas, Beate, 1968-
• Smith, R. R. R.
• Price, S. R. F.

Description

xix, 338 p. : ill., maps; 22 cm.

Summary

"Historical and Religious Memory in the Ancient World examines how religious and historical memory was fashioned, distorted, preserved, or erased in ancient societies - and what wide-ranging effects these actions had on the historical process. The volume is interested in how memory intersects with and shapes religious traditions and cultural identities. Its twelve case studies explore different aspects of the memory layers that make up ancient history (social, religious, cultural), and looks at how these layers are represented and refracted in different contexts of the written and material remains of antiquity. The process has its beginnings in the dim pasts of ancient communities, and continues in the later Greek and Roman periods where our most articulate ancient evidence lies. It is a process that continues, in a different way, in contemporary scholarship which draws on selected evidence and a variety of contrasting representations. The three parts of the book vary the lens through which the impact of religious and cultural memory can be grasped. Part I looks at the commemoration of religious tradition in the context of cultural interaction - Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian. Part II focuses on how religious identities are defined and how homogeneous-looking cultures engage in elaborate selective dialogue with their own past. In Part III, contested versions of the past are interpreted in studies of Roman historiography and of religiously motivated behaviour in late antique Asia Minor. This interdisciplinary book highlights and celebrates the work of Simon Price, an important thinker and pioneer in this kind of wider historical research in ancient cultures and religions."--Publisher's website.

Alternative Title

Historical & religious memory in the ancient world

Subjects

• Religion and social status > History > To 1500
• Historiography > History > To 1500
• Memory > Religious aspects > History > To 1500
• Collective memory > History > To 1500
• Group identity > History > To 1500

Note

• Book celebrates the work of Simon Price.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Memory and ancient Greece / Simon Price -- Sappho underground / J.A. North -- Memory and its uses in Judaism and Christianity in the early Roman Empire : the portrayal of Abraham / Martin Goodman -- Statues in the temples of Pompeii : combinations of gods, local definition of cults, and the memory of the city / William Van Andringa -- Rituals and the construction of identity in Attalid Pergamon / Beate Dignas -- Memory and authority in the magical papyri / Richard Gordon -- Epigraphy and ritual : the vow of a legionary from Sulmo / John Scheid -- Building memory : the role of sacred structures in Sphakia and Crete / Lucia Nixon -- "You shall blot out the memory of Amalek" : Roman historians on remembering to forget / D.S. Levene -- The discovery of inscriptions and the legitimation of new cults / Aude Busine -- Abercius of Hierapolis : Christianization and social memory in late antique Asia Minor / Peter Thonemann -- Defacing the gods at Aphrodisias / R.R.R. Smith.

Call Number

JFD 12-3694

ISBN

• 9780199572069
• 0199572062

LCCN

2011277595

OCLC

752069054

Title

Historical and religious memory in the ancient world / edited by Beate Dignas and R.R.R. Smith.

Imprint

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Dignas, Beate, 1968-

Smith, R. R. R.

Price, S. R. F.

Spine Title

Historical & religious memory in the ancient world

Research Call Number

JFD 12-3694