Until the 1980s, historical treatments of ancient religion focused mainly on myth, cult and ritual as a way to interpret the mental structures or primary emotions of ancient peoples, but, in the last few decades, a "political turn" in the study of religion has taken hold. This volume serves to diversify our understanding of the political conceptualizations and implementations of religious practice in the ancient Mediterranean region from the 7th Century BCE to the 4th Century CE, in both Greek and Roman contexts. The underlying question taken up here is: in what situations was Greco-Roman religious practice articulated, communicated, and perceived in political contexts, both real and imagined? Written by experts in the fields of archaeology, linguistics, art history, historiography, political science and religion, the chapters of this volume engage the plurality and the diversity of the Greco-Roman religious experience as it receives and negotiates power relations

Includes bibliographical references

Dionysius I and the woman of Himera: a case study in the perils of political religion / Frances Pownall -- A contest in charisma: Cynisca's heroization, Spartan royal authority, and the threat of non-royal glorification / Ellen Millender -- The poleis at the center: attribution of divine honors to living monarchs? The case of Amyntas III and Philip II / Alexandra Bartzoka -- Arrian the priest: provincial cultural identity and Roman imperial policy / Elias Koulakiotis -- Cassius Dio, the procession of Alexander's daimon and the manipulation of divine signs in the age of the Severans / Sabine Müller -- Before the magna mater: the mother of the gods and empire / Mark Munn -- Aphrodite and imperialistic politics in classical years: from Cimon to Evagoras I / Panos Christodoulou -- Hellenistic ruler cult: a plutarchan perspective / Michael Lipka -- War and the lawgiver: the civilizing role of religion in Plutarch's Lycurgus-Numa / Michael Nerdahl -- The Peplos of Hera and the council of the sixten women of Elis / Ariadne Gartziou-Tatti -- The manipulation of Panhellenic and local myth in the pedimental compositions of 4th century BCE Peloponnesian temples / Georgios Mostratos -- Federal cults in Hellenistic Aetolia: Laphrieia and Panaitolika / Jacek Rzepka -- Arete in a religious context: Eusebeia and other virtues in Hellenistic honorific decrees / Antiopi Argyriou-Casmeridis -- The topography of the imperial temples in the Greek East: a political answer to a religious question / Maria Kantirea

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