Description: The first book to explore the religious dimensions of the family and the household in ancient Mediterranean and West Asian antiquity.
Advances our understanding of household and familial religion, as opposed to state-sponsored or civic temple cults
Reconstructs domestic and family religious practices in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Israel, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Emar, and Philistia
Explores many household rituals, such as providing for ancestral spirits, and petitioning of a household’s patron deities or of spirits associated with the house itself
Examines lifecycle rituals – from pregnancy and birth to maturity, old age, death, and beyond
Looks at religious practices relating to the household both within the home itself and other spaces, such as at extramural tombs and local sanctuaries
Subjects: Methods, Historical Approaches, History, History of Religions
Review by Jason Lamoreaux
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Published 4/24/2010
Citation: Jason Lamoreaux, review of John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan, eds., Household and Family Religion in Antiquity, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2010).
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