Divining the Etruscan World
Divining the Etruscan World
$135.00
USDThe Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar is a rare document of omens foretold by thunder. It long lay hidden, embedded in a Greek translation within a Byzantine treatise from the age of Justinian. The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, this book provides an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text, especially the Etruscans' concerns regarding the environment, food, health and disease. Jean MacIntosh Turfa also analyzes the ancient Near Eastern sources of the Calendar and the subjects of its predictions, thereby creating a picture of the complexity of Etruscan society reaching back before the advent of writing and the recording of the calendar.
- This is the first English translation of this rare Etruscan document, preserved only in a Greek translation within a Byzantine treatise from the age of Justinian
- Comprises a discussion of life in Iron Age Etruria, with material not previously accessible in English, on ancient foods, health and disease, and social phenomena (such as revolts staged by 'the women and the slaves')
- Presents the influences of climate and environment on ancient religion, particularly the phenomenon of cosmic ray activity and global cooling known as the Hallstatt Minimum, and also the profound influence, now recognised, of Mesopotamian divination texts on Etruscan religion
Reviews & endorsements
"Divining the Etruscan World is a stimulating and pioneering work of interest and value for all Etruscan researchers and to a wide spectrum of scholars of ancient religion in Etruria, Italy and the Mediterranean."
Nancy de Grummond, The Journal of Roman Studies
Product details
July 2012Adobe eBook Reader
9781139534093
0 pages
0kg
24 b/w illus.
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Part I. Background:
- 1. The Brontoscopic Calendar and its transmission
- 2. Etruscan religion in the classical world
- 3. An ominous time: thunder, lightning, weather, and divination
- Part II. The Brotoscopic Calendar: Greek Text and English Translation
- Part III. Thematic Analysis of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:
- 4. Analysis of the Brontoscopic Calendar
- 5. 'Reptiles with trouble habitations' – weather, fauna, agriculture, pests
- 6. 'Plague, but not exceptionally life-threatening' – health and disease
- 7. 'The women and the slaves will carry out assassinations' – the society of the Brontoscopic Calendar
- Part IV. Sources and Successors of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:
- 8. Mesopotamian influences and Near Eastern predecessors of the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar
- 9. Other Brontoscopia in the classical tradition
- 10. Conclusion: assessing the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar and its heritage.
