The scope is breathtaking, the sources cited are thorough and wide-ranging, and the author's own biases are either nonexistent or kept completely under control. Furthermore, the subject matter is so provocative and the writer's style is so direct and fast paced that it is difficult to put the book down once begun.
Whether one sits down to read the book cover to cover or comes to it as a resource tool, there will be no disappointment. Garrison, Religious Studies Review. The fascinating material it covers has never been collected and discussed in one volume, in spite of the current surge of interest in ancient magic and its intersection with religion. The author's command of the sources is excellent.
He has made an exhaustive survey of all the relevant evidence, so that the coverage of the subject is satisfyingly complete. Damiel argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Most users should rmoan in with their email address.
The title says Greek and Roman but the focus is on the Greek necromancers with their rituals, and the influences that came with the interaction between Romans, Egyptians and Persians. BUT, it is not ogdeh the layman. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language.
But the text cited Mela does not bear this out With such an unashamed tabloid take on antiquity, how could he resist this long? The fact that ghosts are often compared to dreams in literary sources e.
Princeton University Press, The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in necromanccy rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.
Not all things that go bump in the night were necessarily identical to each other within what we fondly call the ancient mentality. Citing articles via Google Scholar. Princeton University Press, Because most of these practices were condemned by Christianity and to a lesser degree Judaism as matters into which we should not inquire and therefore came to share a tantalizing air of the forbidden?
Megan rated it really liked it May 07, Smaller, but similar, methodological problems dog O. Although in two of them deceased persons are the source of divination, it is not necromancy, but the extension of divinatory practices onto important dead.
The simple fact, which solves all such quandries but which O. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language.
Daniel Ogden surveys the places, performers, and techniques of necromancy as well as the reasons for turning to it.
He investigates the cave-based sites of oracles of the dead at Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron, as well as the oracles at the Acheron and Avernus, which probably consisted of lakeside precincts. He argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Readers meet the personnel--real or imagined--of ancient necromancy: ghosts, zombies, the earliest vampires, evocators, sorcerers, shamans, Persian magi, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, Roman emperors, and witches from Circe to Medea.
Ogden explains the technologies used to evocate or reanimate the dead and to compel them to disgorge their secrets. He concludes by examining ancient beliefs about ghosts and their wisdom--beliefs that underpinned and justified the practice of necromancy. The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in the rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.
Greek and Roman Necromancy. Get Books. In classical antiquity, there was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination.
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