Cultic Theatres and Ritual Drama. Regional Development & Religious Interchange Between East & West in Antiquity (Studies in Mediterranean Antiquity, 4, Band 4).

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - leicht berieben, ansonsten tadelloser Zustand / slightly rubbed otherwise perfect condition - This book thoroughly investigates the relations between East and West in the Ancient world as seen through the lens of ancient religious practices. The author has concentrated on one aspect of the cult: the ritual drama and its setting, the cultic theatre. -- The point of departure is the presence of a great number of theatrical structures in the sanctuaries of Greece and Italy. Many of these structures contained a primitive row of seats and have never before been examined from a functional viewpoint. The author proposes that their primary reason d'etre was the performance of ritual dramas at the great seasonal feasts. These non-literary dramas re-enacted the story or myth of the divinity, which in symbolic form treated the crises connected with precarious transitions during the agricultural year and human life in general. -- The author suggests that models for these ritual dramas were to be found in the Near East, Egypt and Anatolia, and that these were introduced into the Greek and Italic cults during the orientalizing period. In the West, new settings for a seated audience were then gradually created in the sanctuaries. -- After examining the regional development of cultic theatres and ritual dramas in the East and West, the author finally investigates the consequences of the cultural interchange resulting from this movement of the Oriental cults towards the West, which mainly occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. ISBN 9788772888798