Studying ancient religions often means facing objects, gestures, and ritual formulas that appear “curious” or even “strange”. It is precisely these “strangenesses” that give anthropological inquiry its strength: they reveal cultural distance and invite us to understand them within their historical and social context. This volume reflects on such “curiosities”: Roman legal norms allowing gods to inherit, objects safeguarding Rome’s stability, relics of foundational moments, “sweeper” deities, the agency of fabrics, a Phoenician god with a feminine name, Jewish dietary prohibitions, and small Mexican gods made of amaranth. How were these perceived? What was their meaning? To grasp them, we must try to see with the eyes of the cultures that produced them.
University of Siena, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-3682-7427
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, France - ORCID: 0000-0002-1766-0545
Ginevra Benedetti, Francesca Prescendi
Religioni antiche, domande nuove. Il valore euristico della ‘curiosità’pp.7-9
Ginevra Benedetti, Francesca Prescendi
Res est romana. Oggetti di ‘potere’ e ‘reliquie’ di memoria a Romapp.15-28
Mario Lentano
Gli dèi spazzini. Deverra, Averrunco e il mistero dell’everriatorpp.29-42
Silvia Romani
Tes(su)ti pesanti. Qualche considerazione sull’agency dei tessuti da Omero, Iliade VI, alla commedia nuovapp.43-60
Anna Angelini
Riti strani tra avversione e fascino. I divieti alimentari ebraici agli occhi dei Greci e dei Romanipp.61-79
Corinne Bonnet
«Eshmun è (mia) madre». Osservazioni su una curiosa parentelapp.81-97
pp.99-119
Book Title
Piccole ‘curiosità’ delle religioni antiche. Un approccio antropologico
Book Subtitle
Atti delle giornate di studio - Siena, 4 e 5 aprile 2024
Editors
Ginevra Benedetti, Francesca Prescendi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
124
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press, USiena Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0767-6
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0766-9
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0767-6
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0768-3
Series Title
Studi di Antichistica