Worlds Full of Signs : Ancient Greek Divination in Context

Kim Beerden

ISBN 10: 9004252398 / ISBN 13: 9789004252394

Published by Brill Aug 2013, 2013

About this Item

Neuware - Worlds Full of Signs compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome. It argues that the character of Greek divination differed fundamentally from that of the two comparanda. Ample attention is given to background and method at first. Subsequent chapters discuss the divinatory elements - sign, homo divinans, and text, relating divination to time and uncertainty. This book brings together sources originating from various times and places, questioning these to consider both generalities of ancient divination and specifics of Greek divination. Greek divination was inherently flexible on many levels: these findings should be connected to Greek views on time and the future as well as the relatively low level of divinatory institutionalization.

Seller Inventory # 9789004252394

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Worlds Full of Signs : Ancient Greek Divination in Context
• Publisher: Brill Aug 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004252398
• ISBN 13: 9789004252394
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 244W x 161H x 22D millimeters 244 millimeters width by 161 millimeters height by 22 millimeters depth
• Weight: 531 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Worlds Full of Signs compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome. It argues that the character of Greek divination differed fundamentally from that of the two comparanda. Ample attention is given to background and method at first. Subsequent chapters discuss the divinatory elements – sign, homo divinans, and text, relating divination to time and uncertainty. This book brings together sources originating from various times and places, questioning these to consider both generalities of ancient divination and specifics of Greek divination. Greek divination was inherently flexible on many levels: these findings should be connected to Greek views on time and the future as well as the relatively low level of divinatory institutionalization.

About the Author

Kim Beerden, Ph.D. (Leiden 2013), is Lecturer in Ancient History at Leiden University. Her main research interest is the history of ancient mentalities, especially the fields of food and religion.