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Zusatztext Professor Daniel Ogden's Drakon is a work of awesome scope and thoroughness, and is also remarkably lively and entertaining to read. ... All these aspects, and many others, are discussed in this fascinating book, a major contribution to the history of Classical religion. Informationen zum Autor Daniel Ogden is currently Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter, and Research Fellow at the University of South Africa. He has published widely on ancient Greek subjects, including myth, religion and magic, traditional narratives, reproduction and sexuality, and Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic dynasties. Klappentext Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds is the first substantial survey to be focally devoted to the 'dragon' or the supernatural serpent, the drakon or draco, in Greek and Roman myth and religion. Almost every major myth cycle of the Greek and Roman worlds featured a dragon-fight at its heart, including the sagas of Heracles, Jason, Perseus, Cadmus, and Odysseus. Asclepius, the single most beloved and influentialof the pagan gods from the late Classical period until Late Antiquity, was often manifest as a giant serpent and even in his humanoid aspect carried a serpent on his staff.Detailed and authoritative, but lucidly presented, this volume incorporates analyses of all of antiquity's major dragon-slaying myths, and offers comprehensive accounts of the rich sources, literary and iconographic. Ogden also explores matters of cult and the initially paradoxical association of dragons and serpents with the most benign of deities, not only those of health and healing, like Asclepius and Hygieia, but also those of wealth and good luck, such as Zeus Meilichios and AgathosDaimon. The concluding chapter considers the roles of both pagan dragon-slaying narratives and pagan serpent cults in shaping the beginnings of the tradition of the saintly dragon- and serpent-slaying tales we cherish still, the tradition that culminates in our own stories of Saints George andPatrick. Zusammenfassung This volume explores the dragon or the supernatural serpent in Graeco-Roman myth and religion. It incorporates analyses, with comprehensive accounts of the rich literary and iconographic sources, for the principal dragons of myth, and discusses matters of cult and the paradoxical association of dragons and serpents with the most benign of deities. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements Contents List of figures Abbreviations Introduction 1: Drakon Fights (i): Drakontes Pure 2: Drakon Fights (ii): Drakontes Composite 3: Fights with Kete, Sea-serpents 4: The World of the Slain Drakontes 5: Masters and Mistresses of Drakontes 6: The Symmetrical Battle between Drakon and Slayer 7: Drakontes, Earth and the Dead 8: Drakon Gods of Wealth and Good Luck 9: Drakon Gods of Healing 10: A Day in the Life of a Sacred Snake 11: The Birth of the Christian Dragon Bibliography Index ...
