Greek and Roman necromancy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Greek and Roman necromancy
（Princeton paperbacks）
Princeton University Press, 2004, c2001
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-302) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In classical antiquity, there was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination. People could seek knowledge from the dead by sleeping on tombs, visiting oracles, and attempting to reanimate corpses and skulls. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language. Daniel Ogden surveys the places, performers, and techniques of necromancy as well as the reasons for turning to it. He investigates the cave-based sites of oracles of the dead at Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron, as well as the oracles at the Acheron and Avernus, which probably consisted of lakeside precincts. He argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Readers meet the personnel--real or imagined--of ancient necromancy: ghosts, zombies, the earliest vampires, evocators, sorcerers, shamans, Persian magi, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, Roman emperors, and witches from Circe to Medea.
Ogden explains the technologies used to evocate or reanimate the dead and to compel them to disgorge their secrets. He concludes by examining ancient beliefs about ghosts and their wisdom--beliefs that underpinned and justified the practice of necromancy. The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in the rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.
Table of Contents
List of Figures vii Preface ix Abbreviations xi Introduction xv PART I: PLACES 1 Chapter 1: Tombs and Battlefields 3 Chapter 2: Oracles of the Dead 17 Chapter 3: The Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron Nekuomanteia 29 Chapter 4: The Acheron Nekuomanteia 49 Chapter 5: The Avernus Nekuomanteia 61 Chapter 6: Incubation and Dreaming 75 PART II: PEOPLE 93 Chapter 7: Evocators, Sorcerers, and Ventriloquists 95 Chapter 8: Shamus, Pythagoreans, and Orphics 116 Chapter 9: Aliens and Witches 128 Chapter 10: Necromancy among the Romans 149 PART III: TECHNOLOGY 161 Chapter 11: Traditional Rites of Evocation 163 Chapter 12: From Bowl Divination to Boy-Sacrifice 191 Chapter 13: Reanimation and Talking heads 202 PART IV: THEORY 217 Chapter 14: Ghosts in Necromancy 219 Chapter 15: The Wisdom of the Dead 231 Chapter 16: Between Life and Death 251 CONCLUSION: Attitudes toward Necromancy 263 Bibliography 269 Index 303
by "Nielsen BookData"
