Divination and Prophecy in the Ancient Greek World

by: Woodard, R.D.

 
Divination and prophecy in the ancient Greek world
Author:Roger D. Woodard

This volume examines the phenomena of ancient Greek prophecy and divination. With contributions from a cast of distinguished, international scholars, it offers fresh perspectives and interpretations of key aspects of these practices. Considering issues such as comparativism, ethnography, cognitive function, orality, and intertextuality, the volume demonstrates their relevance to the elucidation of Greek prophetic practices. The volume also shows how multi- and interdisciplinary approaches can be applied to a range of topics, from an examination of the very inception of Greek divination, explored within the frame of more archaic cult ideas, through emic elaboration of divinatory practice in the Archaic and Classical periods, to the consideration of intentional manipulation of prophecy, as depicted in Hellenistic and Imperial Roman sources. Collectively, the essays deepen our understanding of ancient Greek prophecy by offering insights into divinition astéhknē, the centrality or marginality of Delphi and the Pythic priestess, prophetic ambiguity, and cognition, including cognitive dissonance

Contents:
General introduction / John J. Peradotto
1. Greek divination as the transformation of an Indo-European European process / Roger D. Woodard
2. On divinatory practices and la raison des signes in classical Greek / Claude Calame
3. Oracle and client / Robert Parker
4. Oracular failure in ancient Greek culture / Esther Eidinow
5. The dynamism of mouvance in the pronouncements of the Delphic Oracle / Gregory Nagy
6. Decentralising Delphi: predictive oracles, local knowledge and social memory / Maurizio Giangiulio
7. Oracular tales before historiography / Nino Luraghi
8. Omens and portents foretelling victory and defeat: ontological, literary, and cognitive perspectives / Michael A. Flower
9. The use of divination by Macedonian kings / F.S. Naiden
19. False prophets and fake prophets in Lucian / Dana Fields
11. Afterword / Roger D. Woodard

x, 319 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Divination and Prophecy in the Ancient Greek World

by: Woodard, R.D.

• ISBN-13: 9781009221610 / 978-1-00-922161-0
• ISBN-03: 1009221612 / 1-00-922161-2
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2023