Household and Family Religion in Antiquity

341 Pages·2008·2.2 MB·English

by  John Bodel

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Household and Family Religion in Antiquity
Household and Family Religion in Antiquity Ed ited by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan
© 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-405-17579-1
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The Ancient World: Comparative Histories
Series Editor: Kurt A. Raaflaub
Published
War and Peace in the Ancient World
Edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub
Household and Family Religion in Antiquity
Edited by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan
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Household and Family
Religion in Antiquity
Edited by
John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan
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© 2008 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
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The right of John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan to be identified as the author(s) of the
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First published 2008 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Household and family religion in antiquity : contextual and comparative
perspectives / edited by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan.
p. cm. – (Ancient world–comparative histories)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-7579-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Family–Religious life.
2. Religions. I. Bodel, John P., 1957– II. Olyan, Saul M.
BL625.6.H68 2008
204′.4109014–dc22
2007043652
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors x
Series Editor’s Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Map xvi
1 Introduction 1
John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan
2 Theorizing the Religion of Ancient Households and Families 5
Stanley K. Stowers
3 Family Religion in Second Millennium West Asia
(Mesopotamia, Emar, Nuzi) 20
Karel van der Toorn
4 The Integration of Household and Community Religion
in Ancient Syria 37
Daniel E. Fleming
5 Family, Household, and Local Religion at Late Bronze Age Ugarit 60
Theodore J. Lewis
6 Family Religion in Ancient Israel and its Surroundings 89
Rainer Albertz
7 Family Religion in Israel and the Wider Levant of the
First Millennium bce 113
Saul M. Olyan
8 Household Religion, Family Religion, and Women’s
Religion in Ancient Israel 127
Susan Ackerman
9 Ashdod and the Material Remains of Domestic Cults
in the Philistine Coastal Plain 159
Rüdiger Schmitt
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vi Contents
10 Household Religion in Ancient Egypt 171
Robert K. Ritner
11 Household and Domestic Religion in Ancient Egypt 197
Barbara S. Lesko
12 Household Religion in Ancient Greece 210
Christopher A. Faraone
13 Family Matters: Domestic Religion in Classical Greece 229
Deborah Boedeker
14 Cicero’s Minerva, Penates, and the Mother of the Lares:
An Outline of Roman Domestic Religion 248
John Bodel
15 Comparative Perspectives 276
John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan
Bibliography 283
Index 314
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List of Figures
5.1 Terracotta imprints of children’s feet when they were sold
into servitude to the chief diviner and scribe Ba‘al-malik.
From Temple M1 at Tell Meskene (Emar) 78
5.2 Terracotta figurine of a nude from the City Center (Ugarit) 80
6.1 Reconstruction of cult room 340 within the tenth-century bce
Building 338 at Megiddo. From Zevit, The Religions of
Ancient Israel, p. 229, Fig. 3.60 95
6.2 Reconstruction of the cult corner, locus 2081,
at Megiddo. From Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel,
224, Fig. 3.55 98
6.3 Cult room 49 at Lachish. From Aharoni, Investigations
at Lachish: The Sanctuary and the Residency (Lachish V),
p. 28, Fig. 6. Courtesy of the Institute of Archaeology,
Tel Aviv University 99
8.1a Site plan showing individual houses clustered in larger
household compounds at Tel Masos. From Fritz and
Kempinski, Ergebnisse, Plate 3 129
8.1b Site plan showing individual houses clustered in larger
household compounds at Khirbet Raddana. From Callaway,
“A Visit with Ahilud,” p. 47 130
8.2 Artist’s reconstruction showing several multi-house
compounds within a typical ancient Israelite village.
From Fritz and Kempinski, Ergebnisse, Vol. 1, Fig. 2 131
8.3 Plan showing the location of Room 65 at Ai. From
Marquet-Krause, Fouilles de ‘Ay (et-Tell), Pl. XCVII 133
8.4 Plan showing the benched gate shrines that flank the
entry of Building A at the site of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud.
From Meshel, Kuntillet ‘Ajrud 134
8.5 Artist’s reconstruction of Room 65 at Ai. From Zevit,
Religions of Ancient Israel, p. 155, Fig. 3.16 135
8.6 Fenestrated offering stand from Ai. From Dever,
Did God Have a Wife?, p. 112 136
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viii List of Figures
8.7 Plan of twelfth-century bce Ai showing multiple clusters
of houses. From Kempinski and Reich, Architecture of
Ancient Israel, p. 235 137
8.8 Site plan showing the location of Cult Room 340 within
the tenth-century bce Building 338 at Megiddo. From
David Ussishkin, “Schumacher’s Shrine,” p. 157, Fig. 4 142
9.1 Typological chart of Philistine terracotta figurines 161
9.2 Ashdod, Area D, Str. VIII. Potter’s quarter with find spots
of figurines and selected material. Redrawn and compiled
by Rüdiger Schmitt after Dothan, Ashdod, II/III,
Plan 8 and Figs. 38–47 162
9.3 Ashdod, Area H, Stratum XI. Find spots of figurines and
selected pottery items. Compilation by Rüdiger Schmitt after
Dothan, Ashdod II/III, Plan 21 and Figs. 86, 87, 91, 92 165
9.4 Ashdod Area G, Stratum XI with assemblages from Loci
4109 and 4133. Compilation of Rüdiger Schmitt after
Dothan/Porath, Ashdod V, Plan 12 and Figs. 40, 42 166
10.1 Hieroglyphic determinative indicating the disheveled hair
of a woman giving birth; Courtesy of The Oriental Institute,
The University of Chicago 175
10.2 Hieroglyphic determinative indicating the disheveled hair
of a woman giving birth; Courtesy of The Oriental Institute,
The University of Chicago 175
10.3 “Box-bed” at Deir el-Medina. Photo by Robert K. Ritner 180
11.1 Bes figure and assorted Egyptian amulets. Photo by
L. H. Lesko 200
11.2 Stele showing an offering to an ancestor bust. Reproduced
from F. Friedman’s chapter in Pharaoh’s Workers, the Villagers
of Deir el Medina, ed. by L. H. Lesko, Copyright Cornell
University Press, 1994. Used by permission of the publisher 201
11.3 Female figurine from Medinet Habu (OIM 14603);
Courtesy of The Oriental Institute, The University of Chicago.
Third Intermediate Period, baked clay. L: 13.3; W: 8.3;
H: 11 cm 204
14.1 Denarius of Julius Caesar, reverse type showing Aeneas carrying
Anchises on his shoulder and the Palladium in his right hand.
Photo courtesy of The American Numismatic Society
(1937.158.262.rev) 254
14.2a Drawing of a painted lararium from the so-called “House
of Pansa” (VI.6.1), Pompeii. From Mazois, Les ruines de
Pompéi, Tab. 45, 2 256
14.2b Painted lararium scene from the bakery at VII.12.11, Pompeii.
From Fröhlich, Lararien- und Fassadenbilder, Taf. 1
(no. L 91), photographed by A. Foglia 257
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List of Figures ix
14.3 Side of the so-called “Belvedere altar” showing Augustus
handing statuettes of the Lares Augusti to elected
block-captains at Rome (Rome, Musei Vaticani,
inv. 1115). Courtesy of the Deutsches Archäologisches
Institut-Rom (DAI neg. 75.1290 Rossa) 259
14.4 Findspots of groups of statuettes discovered in caches
in the Roman empire. After Kaufmann-Heinimann,
Götter und Lararien, p. 207 Abb. 144 260
14.5 Drawing of a lararium shrine from the courtyard of a
private house on the Esquiline Hill in Rome (c. 300 ce).
After Visconti, “Del larario,” Tav. III 262