Ancient mystery cults / Walter Burkert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burkert, Walter, 1931-2015.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mysteries, Religious.

Greece--Religion.

Greece.

Religion.

Rome--Religion.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

ix, 181 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Half t.p. has title: Carl Newell Jackson lectures

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1987.

Summary:

The foremost historian of Greek religion providers the first comprehensive, comparative study of a little-known aspect of ancient religious beliefs and practices. Secret mystery cults flourished within the larger culture of the public religion of Greece and Rome for roughly a thousand years. This book is neither a history nor a survey but a comparative phenomenology. Concentrating on five major cults. In defining the mysteries and describing their rituals, membership, organization, and dissemination, Walter Burkert displays the remarkable erudition we have come to expect of him; he also shows sensitivity and sympathy in interpreting the experiences and motivations of the devotees.

Contents:

Personal needs in this life and after death

Organizations and identities

Theologia and mysteries: myth, allegory, and Platonism

The extraordinary experience.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 120-132).

Includes indexes.

Local Notes:

CAJS copy: Acc.# 204622

ISBN:

0674033868

9780674033863

0674033876

9780674033870

OCLC:

15489190