Mystery cults in visual representation in Graeco-Roman antiquity / edited by Nicole Belayche, Francesco Massa.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Belayche, Nicole, editor.

Massa, Francesco, editor.

Series:

Religions in the Graeco-Roman world ; Volume 194.

Religions in the Graeco-Roman World ; Volume 194

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cults--Rome.

Cults.

Mysteries, Religious--Rome.

Mysteries, Religious.

Mysteries, Religious, in art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2021]

Language Note:

English and French.

Summary:

Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity aims to fill a gap in the study of mystery cults in Graeco-Roman Antiquity by focusing on images for investigating their ritual praxis. Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa have gathered experts on visual language in order to illuminate cultic rituals renowned for both their "mysteries" and their images. This book tackles three interrelated questions. Focusing on the cult of Dionysus, it analyses whether, and how, images are used to depict mystery cults. The relationship between historiography and images of mystery cults is considered with a focus on the Mithraic and Isiac cults. Finally, turning to the cults of Dionysus and the Mother of the Gods, this work shows how depictions of specific cultic objects succeed in expressing mystery cults.

Contents:

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Contributors

1 Mystery Cults and Visual Language in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: an Introduction

Nicole Belayche and Francesco Massa

part 1: Do Images Depict Mystery Cults, and If So, How?

2 Sub-Introduction

3 Comment figurer l'ineffable, comment lire les images?

Cornelia Isler-Kerényi

4 Le phallus qui cache le mystère? Les images dionysiaques dans les décors romains: à propos d'une fresque de la Domus Transitoria

Stéphanie Wyler

5 Échos de la Télétè dionysiaque dans la mosaïque romaine tardive

Janine Balty

part 2: Historiography and Images of Mystery Cults

6 Sub-Introduction

7 'The Seven Grades of Mithraism', or How to Build a Religion

Philippa Adrych

8 Les mystères isiaques et leurs expressions figurées. Des exégèses modernes aux allusions antiques

Richard Veymiers

part 3: Depicting Objects to Signify Mystery Cults

9 Sub-Introduction

10 The Liknon and the Bundle: Does the Ritual 'Initiatory' Object Make the Mystery?

Anne-Françoise Jaccottet

11 The Cista, a Hallmark of Mater Magna's Mysteries in the Roman World?

Françoise Van Haeperen

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-44014-3

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004440142 DOI