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This book explores the ways in which the origins of time, of the gods, and processes associated with time were conceptualised in antiquity, examining a variety of ancient sources from across the ancient world and addressing issues surrounding the sources themselves.
Time is a key framework through which we understand the world around us. Shared structures to measure the passage of time reveal certain cultural and societal values, while time's less concrete forms are evident across art and literature. This volume examines how the tangible and intangible, direct and complex representations of time are used in ancient sources. The chapters in this book are written by scholars whose work focuses on India, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. Their analyses explore poetic and mythological narratives, philosophical discourse, and representations of the divine, allowing us to see how ideas about time and chronology reveal various cultural understandings of our world. Accessibly written, this volume enables scholars from a variety of disciplines to engage effectively with each chapter.
Time and Chronology in Creation Narratives offers a fascinating interdisciplinary collection suitable for scholars working in ancient literature, philosophy, and religion across Classics, Ancient History, Indology, and Near Eastern Studies.
List of contents
Introduction - Silvie Kilgallon and Fiona Mitchell; 1. Time in Creation Narratives: Some Philosophical Perspectives - Duncan F. Kennedy; 2. Time and Creation in the Timaeus - Ondrej Krása; 3. Models of Chronology in Akkadian Creation Narratives - Ivo Martins; 4. Divine Bodies and the Chronology of Creation in the Orphic Theogonies - Fiona Mitchell; 5. Chronos Apeiros: Zurvan and Zurvanism in Pre-Sasanian Greek Sources - Giorgio Paolo Campi; 6. Notes on the (Re)creative Figure of the Orphic Zeus - Anna Lucia Furlan; 7. Rotation and Temporality in Some Indo-European Mythologies - N. J. Allen; 8. Chronology and Identity: Hesiod's Myth of the Races - Catherine Rozier.
About the author
Silvie Kilgallon is a researcher in classical literature and is based in Germany.
Fiona Mitchell is an honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham, England.
Summary
This book explores the ways in which the origins of time, of the gods, and processes associated with time were conceptualised in antiquity, examining a variety of ancient sources from across the ancient world and addressing issues surrounding the sources themselves.
