Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of AntiquityIn Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, Jon Davies charts the significance of death to the emerging religious cults in the pre-Christian and early Christian world. He analyses the varied burial rituals and examines the different notions of the afterlife. Among the areas covered are: |
Contents
OSIRIS AND ISIS The lifetheology of Ancient Egypt | 27 |
ZOROASTER AHURA MAZDA AND AHRIMAN | 40 |
CANAANITES AND MESOPOTAMIANS | 47 |
MERE TEXTS OR LIVING REALITIES? The possible influence of the older thanatologies on Judaism and Christianity | 60 |
FROM CAVES AND ROCKCUT TOMBS TO JUDAISM | 69 |
THE GENERAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST | 71 |
JUDAISM Towards the common era | 84 |
BURYING THE JEWISH DEAD | 95 |
ROMAN RELIGION AND ROMAN FUNERALS | 139 |
OVIDS EVERVARYING FORMS Greek mythologies sarcophagi and the boundaries of mortality | 155 |
OVIDS BONDS OF LOVE AND DUTY Funerals epitaphs orations and death in the arena | 167 |
CHRISTIANS MARTYRS SOLDIERS SAINTS | 187 |
CHRISTIAN BURIAL | 191 |
THE NATURE OF MARTYRDOM | 201 |
Epilogue | 217 |
APPENDIX | 221 |
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR RESURRECTION Opening the heavens and raising the dead | 110 |
ROMANS AND GREEKS A theodicy of good fortune? | 125 |
ROMAN AND GREEK PHILOSOPHIES OF DEATH | 127 |
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240 | |