Miasma : pollution and purification in early Greek religion / Robert Parker.
Material type:
TextPublication details: Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1983.Description: xviii, 413 pages ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 0198148356
- 0198147422
- 292.2
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book - 7-day loan
|
CYA Library Main Collection | 292.2 PAR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 00000011401 |
Browsing CYA Library shelves, Shelving location: Main Collection Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
| No cover image available | No cover image available | |||||||
| 292.13082 LEF Women in Greek myth / | 292.130902 SEZ The survival of the pagan gods : | 292.130938 INT Interpretations of Greek mythology / | 292.2 PAR Miasma : pollution and purification in early Greek religion / | 292.21 CAM Gods and heroes in the Athenian Agora / | 292.211 BER The myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome / | 292.211 DET Dionysos slain / |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Purification: a science of division -- Birth and death -- The works of Aphrodite -- The shedding of Blood -- Sacrilege -- Curses, family curses, and the structure of rights -- Disease, bewitchment, and purifiers -- Divine vengeance and disease -- Purifying the city -- Purity and salvation -- Some scenes from Tragedy -- Appendices: The Greek for taboo -- The Cyrene cathartic law -- Problems concerning 'Enter pure from...' requirements and sacred laws -- Animals and food -- The ritual status of the justified killer at Athens -- The ritual of purification from homicide -- Exile and purification of the killer in Greek myth -- Gods particularly concerned with purity.
"Anyone who has sampled even a few of the most commonly read Greek texts will have encountered pollution. The pollution of bloodshed is a frequent theme of tragedy: Orestes is driven mad; Oedipus brings plague upon all Thebes. In historical texts, cities intervene in the internal affairs of others to 'drive out the pollution', or make war on account of it. Political orators represent their opponents as polluting demons. Purity is a constant concern in ritual texts. Any Greek underwent many small purifications in his everyday life, and certain abnormal religious movements of the archaic age made 'purification' the path to felicity in the afterlife.
This was th first wor in English to treat the themes of pollution and purification in depth and has become a classic. It brings together the different categories of evidence while doing justice to the diversity and complexity of the phenomenon. No single explanatory principle is adopted but, in contrast to the prevailing tendency in classical studies, the origin of beliefs about pollution is sought in the desire for order rather than in fear or anxiety." -- Back cover.