Conquering Death Through Ritual

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Patricia Sauthoff
Keyword(s):  
Natural Products ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Demonic Possession

Chapter 7 traces the historical development of possession to argue in favor of a literary tradition that undermines the argument that such beliefs were only held by the disempowered. It shows that exorcism and demonic possession have a long history in literary Tantra and therefore must not have been an idea that existed only among the non-elite. The chapter then explores ideas of immortality and the conquering of death in the Sanskrit literary tradition. This sheds light on the corporeal yoga tradition of the Netra Tantra. The first of three chapters on yoga, the Netra Tantra’s sixth chapter offers a detailed description of ritual oblation to escape death. The translated passage offers a look at the natural products offered to the ritual fire. These objects must be protected with enveloping mantras and accompanied by recitation.

scholarly journals The Dorian Invasion reviewed in the light of some New Evidence

1921 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-221
Author(s):  
Stanley Casson
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Greek History ◽  
New Evidence

The Dorian invasion, as an episode in Greek history, exhibits few complexities. Ancient tradition is unanimous upon the fact that the invasion was at once a more or less definite event or series of events in time and a clear turning-point in historical development. Modern historians of ancient Greece have largely twisted the comparatively clear tradition of antiquity into a variety of theories, and the whole question in their hands remains a problem which from their point of view is still sub iudice.Archaeological research on the other hand, as is not infrequently the case, serves to amplify and explain the ancient traditions in a more satisfactory way. No very clear attempt has as yet been made by archaeologists to establish the facts of the Dorian invasion or to track down the historical Dorians. But the results of recent research in the Peloponnese on sites where tradition places the Dorians in fullest force points to a culture at these sites which, appearing about the eleventh century B.C, has all the characteristics of the culture of an invader, and differs radically and completely from what we know to have been mainland culture during the millennium preceding the eleventh century B.C.The purpose of this paper is to review the archaeological evidence concerning the Dorians in the light both of the literary tradition and of some new archaeological discoveries.

scholarly journals Ancient “Nomadology” – Knowledge of the Ancients About the Main Issues of Nomadic Studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-112
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Medvedev
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Comprehensive Description ◽  
Early State ◽  
Narrative Tradition ◽  
Fourth Book ◽  
Mode Of Production

Introduction. Based on the study of the ancient literary tradition, the article analyzes the fundamental beliefs of the ancient Greeks and Romans about early nomads, the Scythians and the Sarmatians: origins of nomadism and nomads, their lifestyle, relations with settled neighbors, patterns of historical development of nomadic societies, etc. The interest of the Greeks and Romans in their contemporary nomads was largely explained by the fact that their lifestyles were very different. Methods. The author discusses the formation of the image of a nomad from Homer to Herodotus, emergence of its mandatory attributes that eventually became a literary topos. Analysis. The researcher points out the fact that it was Herodotus who gave a brief but comprehensive description of the Scythian nomadism in the fourth book of his Histories. Moreover, in his third narration about of the Scythians origins he actually described a phenomenon that was later called the steppe pulsation law. The paper also provides the analysis of the views of Aristotle toward the nature of nomadism and natural causes of nomadic lifestyle (Dionysius Periegetes). Based on the works of ancient authors, the author specifies several types of nomadism and stages of historical development of early nomads. It appears that the full cycle was completed only by the Scythians who created an early state. The author reveals its socioeconomic nature based on the exopolitary mode of production dominated by so-called remote (war, plunder, extortion of gifts) and tributary forms of exploitation of dependent settled populations. Results. The analysis of the ancient narrative tradition shows that ancient authors who were contemporary to the Scythians and the Sarmatians made a number of important observations in the field of nomadology that later served as a theoretical basis for this emerging discipline.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document