Undergraduate Course: Mysteria: The Secret Cults of Antiquity (ANHI10095)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Did the initiates of the cult of the Great Mother really bathe in blood? And how could we possibly know, given that the ancient mysteries were supposed to be kept secret? This course offers an indepth look into Greek and Roman cults based on initiation and secrecy. |
| Course description |
Many cults of Greek and Roman antiquity, including some of the most prominent ones, were based on personal initiation. Often this would entail an obligation to keep the cult's core ideas and rituals secret; in some cases, passing them on to non-initiates was punishable by death. For modern scholars, this veil of secrecy creates obvious problems: while many ancient authors offered their own speculations on what was going on in these cults, it is often unclear how they (and hence: we) could possibly know. For some prominent cults, we encounter wild ideas and baseless polemics, whereas for others, we hardly get any information at all. This course offers an in-depth look into what can legitimately be said about ancient mystery cults. Combining literary, archaeological and epigraphical evidence ranging from Classical Athens to Roman East Lothian, students embark on a mission to reconstruct an important aspect of ancient religious life. They learn how to apply (and question) theoretical models of religion, and how to use various forms of evidence to imagine the religious experience of ancient individuals.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | The course is available to all students who have progressed to Honours. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics (at least 1 of which should be in Classical Art and Archaeology) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course ** |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- understand and analyse written and material evidence relating to ancient mystery cults;
- engage primary sources in relation to current scholarship;
- critically evaluate different methodological approaches to ancient religion as a whole;
- construct, in writing, an independent argument on an important aspect of ancient religious experience;
- apply the methodological insights thus gained to religious developments of other epochs, including contemporary developments.
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Reading List
J. Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods. Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras, Leiden 2008.
H. Bowden, Mystery Cults of the Ancient World, Princeton 2010.
J. Bremmer, Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World, Berlin 2014.
W. Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults, Cambridge (MA) 1987.
M. B. Cosmopoulos (ed.), Greek Mysteries. The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults, London 2003.
F. Graf & S. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife. Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets, London 2007.
J. Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine. On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity, London 1990. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Benedikt Eckhardt
Tel: (0131 6)50 9110
Email: B.Eckhardt@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Ord
Tel:
Email: Rachel.Ord@ed.ac.uk |
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