ENGLISH

Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks

By Esther Eidinow

Book information

Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Year
2007
ISBN
0199277788, 9780199277780, 9781435614109
LCC
BF1765 .E33 2007
Open Library ID
OL10146413M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (4442178 bytes)
Pages
480\533
Topic
History
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-04-20 14:05:05

Description

Esther Eidinow sets the published question tablets from the oracle at Dodona side by side with the binding-curse tablets from across the ancient Greek world, and explores what they can tell us about perceptions of and expressions of risk among ordinary Greek men and women, as well as the insights they afford into civic institutions and activities, and social dynamics. Eidinow follows the anthropologist Mary Douglas in defining `risk' as socially constructed, in contradistinction to most other ancient historians, who treat risk-management as a way of handling objective external dangers. The book includes a full catalogue of all published texts from Dodona, as well as the 159 curse tablets discussed, together with translations of all texts.

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