Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual. Tome II

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BRILL, 1990 - Religion - 354 pages
This is the second of a two-volume collection of studies on inconsistencies in Greek and Roman religion. Their common aim is to argue for the historical relevance of various types of ambiguity and dissonance. While the first volume focused on the central paradoxes in ancient henotheism, the present one discusses the ambiguities in myth and ritual of transition and reversal. After an introduction to the history of the myth and ritual debate (with a focus on New Year festivals and initiation) in the first chapter, the second and third chapters discuss myth and ritual of reversal-Kronos and the Kronia, and Saturnus and the Saturnalia respectively; the fourth treats two women's festivals-that of Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria; the fifth investigates the initiatory aspects of Apollo and Mars. In the background is the basic conviction that the three approaches to religion known as 'substantivistic', functionalist and cultural-symbolic respectively, need not be mutually exclusive.

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Contents

Chapter I
13
THE RISE AND GROWTH OF MYTH AND RITUAL THEORY
20
OUT AND OUT MYTH AND RITUAL THEORISTS
37
INITIATION A MODERN COMPLEX
48
EPPURE SI MUOVE MYTH AND RITUAL PARI PASSU
74
Chapter II
80
KRONOS AND THE KRONIA
89
THE FESTival of revERSAL
115
The king must die Ritual reenactments
210
THE ROMAN FESTIVAL FOR BONA DEA AND
228
THE THESMOPHORIA
235
MYTH
250
BACK TO BONA DEA
261
TWO FESTIVALS ONE PARADOX
274
CONCLUSION
284
Roscher and AFTER
290

THE AMBIGUity of the KrONIA AND RELATED FESTIVALS
122
THE KING OF A PRIMEVal reverSED WORLD
129
SATURNUS AND THE SATURNALIA
136
THE CARNIVALESQUE SIGNS
150
Licence
157
ORIGINS
164
THE CONTINUING STORY OF MYTH
190
A structuralisT VIEW
296
THE SOCIAL ROOTS OF A STRUCTURAL ANALOGY
313
RITUAL
320
Kindred FUNCTIONS DIFFERENT IMAGES
328
BIBLIOGRAPHY
335
INDEXES
345
Copyright

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About the author (1990)

H.S. Versnel is Professor of Ancient History at Leiden University. His main interests are in Greek and Roman Religion. Publications include: "Isis, Dionysos, Hermes: Three Studies in Henotheism" Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion I, (1990). He is the editor of the Brill series "Studies in Greek and Roman religion," which is brought to completion by the publication of this book, and is co-editor of the new series "Religions in the Graeco-Roman world."

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