Philostratus S Heroikos

This multidimensional collection of essays explores the interrelation of religion, cultural identity, politics, literature, myth, and memory during the Roman Empire by focusing on the cultural dynamics embedded in and surrounding Philostratus s Heroikos, an early third-century C.E. dialogue about Homer and the heroes of the Trojan War. The essays focus on ritual and literary dimensions of hero cult; cultural and community identity reflected in the Heroikos and in early Christianity; and the cultural, literary, and political turn toward heroes in the negotiation of difference, particularly with those outside the Roman Empire. Contributors to this volume include classicists, archaeologists, ancient historians, and scholars of early Christianity: Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, Susan E. Alcock, Hans Dieter Betz, Alain Blomart, Walter Burkert, Casey Dué, Simone Follet, Sidney H. Griffith, Jackson P. Hershbell, Christopher Jones, Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean, Francesca Mestre, Gregory Nagy, Corinne Ondine Pache, Jeffrey Rusten, M. Rahim Shayegan, James C. Skedros, and Tim Whitmarsh.Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

Philostratus's Heroikos, available here in English for the first time, is a fictional dialogue set at the tomb of Protesilaos, the first hero to die in the Trojan War. Returning to life, Protesilaos reveals his insights about Homer, the Trojan War, its heroes, and their cults. The author of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana here molds heroic traditions to promote for his own day a renewed Greek cultural and religious outlook, providing fresh material for comparing the construction of cultural identity by various groups--including the early Christians--in the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity. In their introduction and notes, Maclean and Aitken, trained in the classics and early Christianity, discuss how issues of authority, revealed knowledge, religious practice, and gender were treated in this early-third-century C.E. text. With Greek text and English translation on facing pages, an extensive glossary and maps, this volume offers an insightful introduction to the Heroikos for both scholars and students.

This English translation, with introduction and notes, an extensive glossary, maps, and topical bibliographies, explores religious authority and revealed knowledge and is indispensable for the study of Homer, heroes, literature, religion, and culture in the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

In the writings of Philostratus (ca. 170-ca. 250 CE), the renaissance of Greek literature in the second century CE reached its height. His Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Lives of the Sophists, and Imagines reconceive in different ways Greek religion, philosophy, and art in and for the world of the Roman Empire. In this volume, Heroicus and Gymnasticus, two works of equal creativity and sophistication, together with two brief Discourses (Dialexeis), complete the Loeb edition of his writings. Heroicus is a conversation in a vineyard amid ruins of the Protesilaus shrine (opposite Troy on the Hellespont), between a wise and devout vinedresser and an initially skeptical Phoenician sailor, about the beauty, continuing powers, and worship of the Homeric heroes. With information from his local hero, the vinedresser reveals unknown stories of the Trojan campaign especially featuring Protesilaus and Palamedes, and describes complex, miraculous, and violent rituals in the cults of Achilles. Gymnasticus is the sole surviving ancient treatise on sports. It reshapes conventional ideas about the athletic body and expertise of the athletic trainer and also explores the history of the Olympic Games and other major Greek athletic festivals, portraying them as distinctive venues for the display of knowledge.

Between Magic and Religion represents a radical rethinking of traditional distinctions involving the term 'religion' in the ancient Greek world and beyond, through late antiquity to the seventeenth century. The title indicates the fluidity of such concepts as religion and magic, highlighting the wide variety of meanings evoked by these shifting terms from ancient to modern times. The contributors put these meanings to the test, applying a wide range of methods in exploring the many varieties of available historical, archaeological, iconographical, and literary evidence. No reader will ever think of magic and religion the same way after reading through the findings presented in this book. Both terms emerge in a new light, with broader applications and deeper meanings.

This book covers the many varied works of Philostratus, the great essayist, biographer and historian of Greek culture in the Roman world.

Back cover: In this work, John Granger Cook argues that there is no fundamental difference between Paul's conception of the resurrection body and that of the Gospels; and, the resurresction and translation stories of antiquity help explain the willingness of Mediterranean people to accept the Gospel of a risen savior.

This special issue of Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1, entitled 'Space in the Ancient Novel', brings together a collection of revised papers, originally presented at the International conference under the same title organized by the Department of Philology (Division of Classics) of the University of Crete and held in Rethymnon, on May 14-15, 2001. This conference inaugurated what is hoped to become a new series of biennial International meetings on the Ancient Novel (RICAN, Rethymnon International Conferences on the Ancient Novel) which aspires to continue the reputable tradition of the Groningen Colloquia on the Novel, established by Heinz Hofmann and Maaike Zimmerman. Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1 includes two additional contributions by Catherine Connors and Judith Perkins, both originally presented in ICAN 2000 at Groningen in July 25-30, 2000 and included here in revised form, and an article by Stelios Panayotakis, which closely relates to the theme of the Rethymnon conference.