Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
71
result(s) for
"Eidinow, Esther"
Sort by:
Oracles, curses, and risk among the ancient Greeks
In this book, question tablets from the oracle at Dodona are set side-by-side with curse tablets (katadesmoi or defixiones) from across the Ancient Greek world (for the period 6th-1st centuries BCE). It explores what these texts reveal about perceptions of and responses to the uncertain future, and the nature of risk among ordinary Greek men and women, as well as the insights they afford into civic institutions and activities, and social dynamics. The author follows the anthropologist Mary Douglas in defining ‘risk’ as socially constructed, in contrast to other ancient historians, who treat risk-management as a way of handling objective external dangers. The use of this theory encourages a new approach to both oracles and curses, and in particular, challenges the categories and theories usually used to describe and explain curses. The book includes a full catalogue of all published texts from Dodona, as well as a number of new tablets not published elsewhere, along with the 159 curse tablets discussed, together with translations of all texts.
eBook
The (Ancient Greek) Subject Supposed to Believe
Abstract
This article discusses the challenges facing scholars exploring the nature of belief in ancient Greek religion. While recent scholarship has raised questions about individual religious activities, and work on ritual, the body, and the senses has broadened our methodological palette, the nature and dynamics of generally held \"low intensity\" beliefs still tend to be described simply as \"unquestioned\" or \"embedded\" in society. But examining scholarship on divine personifications suggests that ancient beliefs were - and our perceptions of them are - more complex. This article first explores the example of Tyche (\"Chance\"), in order to highlight some of the problems that surround the use of the term \"belief.\" It then turns to the theories of \"ideology\" of Slavoj Žižek and Robert Pfaller and argues that these can offer provocative insights into the nature and dynamics of ritual and belief in ancient Greek culture.
Journal Article
The Oxford classical dictionary
\"Completely revised and updated, the fourth edition of this established dictionary offers entries on all aspects of the classical world. With reception and anthropology as new focus areas and numerous new entries, it is an essential reference work for students, scholars, and teachers of classics and for anyone with an interest in the classical era\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Evolving practices in environmental scenarios: a new scenario typology
A new approach to scenarios focused on environmental concerns, changes and challenges, i.e.so-called ‘environmental scenarios’, is necessary if global environmental changes are to be more effectively appreciated and addressed through sustained and collaborative action. On the basis of a comparison of previous approaches to global environmental scenarios and a review of existing scenario typologies, we propose a new scenario typology to help guide scenario-based interventions. This typology makes explicit the types of and/or the approaches to knowledge (‘the epistemologies’) which underpin a scenario approach. Drawing on previous environmental scenario projects, we distinguish and describe two main types in this new typology: ‘problem-focused’ and ‘actor-centric’. This leads in turn to our suggestion for a third type, which we call ‘RIMA’—‘reflexive interventionist or multi-agent based’. This approach to scenarios emphasizes the importance of the involvement of different epistemologies in a scenario-based process of action learning in the public interest. We suggest that, by combining the epistemologies apparent in the previous two types, this approach can create a more effective bridge between longer-term thinking and more immediate actions. Our description is aimed at scenario practitioners in general, as well as those who work with (environmental) scenarios that address global challenges.
Journal Article
“The Horror of the Terrifying and the Hilarity of the Grotesque”: Daimonic Spaces—and Emotions—in Ancient Greek Literature
Not surprisingly, a variety of versions are in evidence. [...]Douris relates how Lamia was a beautiful queen in Libya. [...]in this scene, she appears closely behind the initiates, so this may be a reference to the ritual of the Eleusinian Mysteries, during which, according to Idomeneus of Lampsacus (FGrH 338 F 2), she emerged from out of the darkness (see further Brown 1991.43–46). First of all, there is the space that they inhabit: in Aristophanes’ work, these are creatures of darkness, of the night or underworld. [...]this latter observation draws attention to two other key shifts in focus in these narratives.
Journal Article
Ancient Greco-Roman Magic and the Agency of Victimhood
Scholarship on ancient Greco-Roman magic over time and place, has largely focused on the role and identity of ritual practitioners, investigating the nature and source of their perceived expertise and often locating it in their linguistic skills. Less attention has been paid to those identified as the targets of magical rituals, who tend to be described as passive recipients of the ritual or victims of the social power of another. In contrast, drawing on the theory of ritual form developed by Robert McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson, alongside the ritualization theories of Catherine Bell, this article argues that victims of magic were also agents of ritual. Focusing on an experience of hostile magic reported by the fourth-century c.e. orator Libanius, it explores how conceptions of magical power were co-created by spell-makers and their so-called victims and should be regarded as relational, that is, as emerging from the interactions of people and groups.
Journal Article