Phrygia in the second and third centuries CE offers more vivid evidence for what has been termed “lived ancient religion” than any other region in the ancient world. The evidence from Phrygia is neither literary nor issued by cities or their powerful inhabitants but rather comes from farmers and herders who left behind numerous stone memorials of themselves and dedications to their gods, praying for the welfare of their families, crops, and cattle. In Religion in Roman Phrygia: From Polytheism to Christianity, Robert Parker opens a rare window into the world of those Sir Ronald Syme called “the voiceless earth-coloured rustics” who have been “conveniently forgotten.” The period in which Phrygian paganism flourished so visibly was also the period in which Christianity was introduced by the apostle Paul and took root. Parker presents a rich body of evidence and uses it to explore one of history’s great stories and enigmas: how and why the new religion overtook its predecessor, with the Christian God meeting needs previously satisfied by Zeus and the other gods.
Table of Content
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1. Contexts of religious life
2. Priesthoods, finance, authority
3. Phrygian polytheism I: The gods
4. Phrygian polytheism II: Differentiated powers?
5. Heavenly and imperial gods
6. Consecrations and confessions at the sanctuary of Apollo Lairbenos
7. Phrygian gods and death
8. Christianity and paganism in Phrygia
9. Retrospect
10. The masked ball: Interpretatio and its effects
11. Envoi
Appendix A. Myths and traditions of city origins
Appendix B. ‘Honoured by/consecrated to Hekate’ and related texts
Appendix C. τὸν θεόν σοι, μὴ ἀδικήσῃς
Appendix D. Paganism and Montanism
Appendix E. The prose inscription for Epitynchanos and family
Appendix F. Iconography and ‘recovering the indigenous’
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Robert Parker is Wykeham Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at Oxford University. He is author of five monographs on Greek religion, most recently Greek Gods Abroad. His book Polytheism and Society at Athens won the Criticos Prize for 2005.
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