Munn The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia

A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion
1. Auflage 2006
ISBN: 978-0-520-93158-9
Verlag: University of California Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 476 Seiten

Among maternal deities of the Greek pantheon, the Mother of the Gods was a paradox. She is variously described as a devoted mother, a chaste wife, an impassioned lover, and a virgin daughter; she is said to be both foreign and familiar to the Greeks. In this erudite and absorbing study, Mark Munn examines how the cult of Mother of the Gods came from Phrygia and Lydia, where she was the mother of tyrants, to Athens, where she protected the laws of the Athenian democracy. Analyzing the divergence of Greek and Asiatic culture at the beginning of the classical era, Munn describes how Kybebe, the Lydian goddess who signified fertility and sovereignty, assumed a different aspect to the Greeks when Lydia became part of the Persian empire. Conflict and resolution were played out symbolically, he shows, and the goddess of Lydian tyranny was eventually accepted by the Athenians as the Mother of the Gods, and as a symbol of their own sovereignty.


This book elegantly illustrates how ancient divinities were not static types, but rather expressions of cultural systems that responded to historical change. Presenting a new perspective on the context in which the Homeric and Hesiodic epics were composed, Munn traces the transformation of the Asiatic deity who was the goddess of Sacred Marriage among the Assyrians and Babylonians, equivalent to Ishtar. Among the Lydians, she was the bride to tyrants and the mother of tyrants. To the Greeks, she was Aphrodite. An original and compelling consideration of the relations between the Greeks and the dominant powers of western Asia, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia is the first thorough examination of the way that religious cult practice and thought influenced political activities during and after the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Munn, Mark H.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction


1. Sovereignty and Divinity in Classical Greek Thought

The Study of Religion in Greek History

Sovereignty and Tyranny

Sovereignty and Greek Religion

Theogony; or, The Conditions of Sovereignty

Humanity and Divine Sovereignty

The Passing of an Age of Innocence

The Quest for Transcendent Divinity


2. The Mother of the Gods and the Sovereignty of Midas

The Mother of the Gods and "the Phrygian Man" at Athens

The Land of Midas

The Home of Kybele, the Mother of the Gods

The Mother of Midas

Sovereignty and the Gods of Phrygia

The Legacy of Midas


3. The Mother of the Gods and the Ideals of Lydian Tyranny

The Lover of Gordius

Sovereigns and Their Concubines

Aphrodite and Lydian Tyranny

Aphrodite, Kybebe, and Kubaba

Kubaba, Kybebe, and Kybele

Mistress of Lions and the Consort of the King

The Ideals of Lydian Tyranny: A Summary So Far


4. The Mother of the Gods and the Practices of Lydian Tyranny

Tyranny and Fertility

The Grief of the Goddess

Grieving for Atys

The Tribute of Tyranny

Deifying the Mother of Kingship

Eunuchs, Tyranny, and the Mother of the Gods

Artemis and the Mother

The Legacy of Lydia


5. Asia, the Oikoumen9, and the Map of the World

The Idea of Asia

Anaximander’s Map

Kingship and the Oikoumen9

The Itinerary of the Oikoumen9

The Balance of Justice in the World

The Landscape of Creation at Sardis

The Purification of Delos

The Rulership of the Sea

Hecataeus’ Map


6. The Mother of the Gods and Persian Sovereignty

Earth and Water

The Persians and the Gods of Lydia

Scythia and the Oikoumen9

Athens, Tyranny, and Persia

The Ionian Revolt

The Heralds of Darius

The M9tragyrt9s at Athens

The Legacy of the M9tragyrt9s: The Argument So Far


7. Persian Sovereignty and the Gods of the Athenians

The Mother of the Gods Rejected

Placating Artemis and Honoring Demeter

Miltiades, Themistocles, and the Mother of the Gods

Founding the League at Delos

The Peace of Callias

Honoring Athena on the Acropolis


8. Herodotus and the Gods

Religion in Greek Historical Thought

Herodotus and the Unnamed Divinity

Religion and Universal History

Herodotus’ Way of Knowing the Past

The Knowledge Herodotus Shared with His Audience

Herodotus, the Gods, and History


9. The Mother of the Gods at Athens

Alcibiades’ Tyrannical Ambitions

The Symbiotic Sovereignty of Greeks and Persians

The Mother of the Gods Accepted

The Mother of the Gods and the Sovereignty of the Laws

The Names of the Mother

The Mother of the Gods in Greek Historiography

The Mother of the Gods, Spartan Hegemony, and War

The Mother of the Gods, Athenian Hegemony, and Peace


Conclusions

Bibliography

General Index

Index of Select Greek Terms

Index Locorum

Über Autor(innen)

Munn, Mark H.
Mark Munn is Associate Professor of History and Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of The School of History: Athens in the Age of Socrates (2000) and The Defense of Attica: The Dema Wall and the Boiotian War of 378-375 B.C. (1993), both from California.