Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome

Jack J. Lennon

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139795432

Pollution could come from any number of sources in the Roman world. Bodily functions, sexual activity, bloodshed, death - any of these could cause disaster if brought into contact with religion. Its presence could invalidate sacrifices, taint religious officials, and threaten to bring down the anger of the gods upon the city. Orators could use pollution as a means of denigrating opponents and obstructing religious procedures, and writers could emphasise the 'otherness' of barbarians by drawing attention to their different ideas about what was or was not 'dirty'. Yet despite all this, religious pollution remained a vague concept within the Latin language, and what constituted pollution could change depending on the context in which it appeared. Calling upon a range of research disciplines, this book highlights the significant role that pollution played across Roman religion, and the role it played in the construction of religious identity.

'A sweeping religious and historical study.'

Source: History Today

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Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome

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Contents

Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome - Half title page
pp i-ii

Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Dedication
pp v-vi

Contents
pp vii-viii

Preface
pp ix-x

Introduction
pp 1-28

Chapter 1 - Defining pollution
pp 29-54

Chapter 2 - Birth, sex and bodily margins
pp 55-89

Chapter 3 - Blood
pp 90-135

Chapter 4 - Death and remembrance
pp 136-166

Chapter 5 - Pollution and rhetoric
pp 167-187

Conclusion
pp 188-196

References
pp 197-222

Index
pp 223-229

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Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome

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