The first book to explore the religious dimensions of the family and the household in ancient Mediterranean and West Asian antiquity.
Advances our understanding of household and familial religion, as opposed to state-sponsored or civic temple cults
Reconstructs domestic and family religious practices in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Israel, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Emar, and Philistia
Explores many household rituals, such as providing for ancestral spirits, and petitioning of a household's patron deities or of spirits associated with the house itself
Examines lifecycle rituals – from pregnancy and birth to maturity, old age, death, and beyond
Looks at religious practices relating to the household both within the home itself and other spaces, such as at extramural tombs and local sanctuaries
About the Author
John Bodel is Professor of Classics and History at Brown University. He writes about Roman social and cultural history, Latin epigraphy, and Latin literature of the Empire. His books include Roman Brick Stamps in the Kelsey Museum (1983), Graveyards and Groves: A Study of the Lex Lucerina (1994), Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient History from Inscriptions (editor, 2001), and Dediche sacre nel mondo greco-romano: Diffusione, funzioni, tipologie (edited with Mika Kajava, 2008).
Saul M. Olyan is Samuel Ungerleider Jr. Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University. He is the author of Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel (1988), A Thousand Thousands Served Him: Exegesis and the Naming of Angels in Ancient Judaism (1993), Rites and Rank: Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult (2000), Biblical Mourning: Ritual and Social Dimensions (2004), and Disability in the Hebrew Bible: Interpreting Mental and Physical Differences (2008).
Features
Advances our understanding of household and familial religion, as opposed to state-sponsored or civic temple cults
Reconstructs domestic and family religious practices in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Israel, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Emar, and Philistia
Explores many household rituals, such as providing for ancestral spirits, and petitioning of a household’s patron deities or of spirits associated with the house itself
Examines lifecycle rituals – from pregnancy and birth to maturity, old age, death, and beyond
Looks at religious practices relating to the household both within the home itself and other spaces, such as at extramural tombs and local sanctuaries
