| Description |
1 online resource (xii, 516 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Contents |
Exploring uncertainty -- A lapse into unreason -- Individuals and oracles -- The dwelling of the spirit -- A catalogue and summary of published questions by individuals and responses from the Dodona Oracle -- Oracles and daily life -- Curses! -- Urban drama -- The best defence -- Business as usual? -- Love and curses -- Curses and risk |
| Summary |
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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 456-480) and indexes |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
|
English |
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Print version record |
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digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Subject |
Oracles, Greek.
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Blessing and cursing -- Greece
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RELIGION -- Antiquities & Archaeology.
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BODY, MIND & SPIRIT -- Spirituality -- Paganism & Neo-Paganism.
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Blessing and cursing
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Oracles, Greek
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Angst.
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Onzekerheid.
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Orakels.
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Vervloekingen.
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Griekse oudheid.
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Orakel -- grekisk religion.
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Förbannelser -- grekisk religion.
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880-01 Greece -- Religious life and customs
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880-01/(S Ελλάδα -- Θρησκευτική ζωή και έθιμα |
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Greece
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Griekenland.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2007021611 |
| ISBN |
9781435614109 |
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1435614100 |
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9780191557224 |
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0191557226 |
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1281164771 |
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9781281164773 |
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9780191708114 |
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0191708119 |
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9786611164775 |
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6611164774 |
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