Victorious Gods, Defeated Demons, Superstars and Archaeologists

Description

Readers can meet ghosts, spirits of the dead, undiscovered mysterious religious ceremonies of victorious gods like Sol Invictus Mithras (who became defeated demons during the era of Christian emperors), martyrs as superstars of the late antique period, early Christian finds from hidden magazines being published by archaeologists, and last but not least the pagan and Christian human fates and the multicultural diversity of various identities on these pages. The antique Greek-Roman religions, evolved over centuries, were oft en referred to as pagan by ancient Christians. The archaic and classical Greek traditions of mythology were well known narratives depected on wall paintings, mosaics, reliefs, sarcophagi, small artefacts in both Hellenistic and Roman periods up to late antiquity. The chapters of this book were originally published between 2012 and 2018. There is a paper in addition, Chapter 3, published only in this volume. All these writings were originally written and published in connection with the scholarly workshop of the University of Pécs. The volume of the book is closed by a large bibliography that allows the volume to be used as a kind of a seminar manual. Introduction 7 I. Ancient Greek and Roman Ghost Stories. Some New Approaches 27 II. The Short History of Time in the Mysteries of Mithras: The Order of Chaos, the City of Darkness and the Iconography of Beginnings 50 III. Mithraism and Early Christianity in Pannonia in the 3rd – 4th centuries A.D.: Reinterpreting the Evidence 68 IV. The Methodological Problems of Christianization as a Historical Process in the 3rd – 5th century A.D. Pannonia. Can the Written and Archaeological Sources be Considered Together? 88 V. Ascetic Christianity in Panonian Martyr Stories? 117 VI. Aspects of 4th Century Christian Identity in Late Roman Province Valeria 124 VII. Early Christianity in Hungary: a New Research Project 136 VIII. Early Christian Archaeology in Hungary between 2010 and 2016 147 Papers published in this volume 157 List of Figures 159 Abbrevations, Sources, Bibliography 167