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From even before the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek gods spread throughout the Mediterranean, carried by settlers and largely adopted by the indigenous populations. By the third century BC, gods bearing Greek names were worshipped everywhere from Spain to Afghanistan, with the resulting religious systems a variable blend of Greek and indigenous elements. Greek Gods Abroad examines the interaction between Greek religion and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with which it came into contact. Robert Parker shows how Greek conventions for naming gods were extended and adapted, providing bold new insights into religious and psychological values across the Mediterranean. The result is a rich portrait of ancient polytheism as it was practiced over 600 years of history.
List of contents
Preface
1. Names and Epithets
2. Interpretatio
3. Gods of Many Nations and Their Naming in Greek: Non-Greek Naming Traditions
4. Supreme, Ancestral, and Personal Gods
5. Ad Maiorem Deorum Gloriam: The Growth of Praise Epithets
6. Delos: Where God Meets God
Conclusion
Appendix A. Postclassical Use of the Epithet O?ρ?νιος
Appendix B. Translated Theophoric Names
Appendix C. Interpretatio in India
Appendix D. Some Non-Greek Theonyms in Anatolia
Appendix E. Thasian Herakles
Appendix F. Some Epithets in Bilingual Texts
Appendix G. Divine and Human Names Juxtaposed
Appendix H. Exported Gods: Th e Cults of Hellenistic Colonies
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Robert Parker is Wykeham Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion, Athenian Religion: A History, Polytheism and Society in Athens, and On Greek Religion.
Summary
From even before the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek gods spread throughout the Mediterranean, carried by settlers and largely adopted by the indigenous populations. By the third century b.c., gods bearing Greek names were worshipped everywhere from Spain to Afghanistan, with the resulting religious systems a variable blend of Greek and indigenous elements. Greek Gods Abroad examines the interaction between Greek religion and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with which it came into contact. Robert Parker shows how Greek conventions for naming gods were extended and adapted and provides bold new insights into religious and psychological values across the Mediterranean. The result is a rich portrait of ancient polytheism as it was practiced over 600 years of history.
Additional text
"Parker [shows] the malleability of the ways in which humans use language and structure their ideas. Parker brilliantly analyses that malleability and also its limits, and in so doing he helps us to understand the ancients and ourselves."
