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Mithras Liturgy
The "Mithras Liturgy" is a text from the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, part of the Greek Magical Papyri, numbered ''PGM'' IV.475-834. The modern name by which the text is known originated in 1903 with Albrecht Dieterich, its first translator, based on the invocation of Helios Mithras (Ἥλιοϲ Μίθραϲ) as the god who will provide the initiate with a revelation of immortality. The text is generally considered a product of the religious syncretism characteristic of the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial era, as were the Mithraic mysteries themselves. Some scholars have argued that it has no direct connection to particular Mithraic ritual. Others consider it an authentic reflection of Mithraic liturgy, or view it as Mithraic material reworked for the syncretic tradition of magic and esotericism. The codex containing the text was acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale in 1857. It is thought to date to the early 4th century AD, though Dieterich proposed a date of composition a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Magical Papyri
The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: ''Papyri Graecae Magicae'', abbreviated ''PGM'') is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE.Hans Dieter Betz (ed), ''The Greek Magical Papyri in translation'', University of Chicago Press, 1985, p.xli. The manuscripts came to light through the antiquities trade, from the 1700s onward. One of the best known of these texts is the Mithras Liturgy. The texts were published in a series, and individual texts are referenced using the abbreviation ''PGM'' plus the volume and item number. Each volume contains a number of spells and rituals. Further discoveries of similar texts from elsewhere have been allocated PGM numbers for convenience. History Production The corpus of the ''PGM'' were not based on an an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaldaean Oracles
The ''Chaldean Oracles'' are a set of spiritual and philosophical texts widely used by Neoplatonist philosophers from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. While the original texts have been lost, they have survived in the form of fragments consisting mainly of quotes and commentary by Neoplatonist writers. They were likely to have originally formed a single mystery-poem, which may have been in part compiled, in part received via trance, by Julian the Chaldean, or more likely, his son, Julian the Theurgist in the 2nd century CE. Later Neoplatonists, such as Iamblichus and Proclus, rated them highly. The 4th-century emperor Julian (not to be confused with Julian the Chaldean or Julian the Theurgist) suggests in his ''Hymn to the Magna Mater'' that he was an initiate of the God of the Seven Rays, and was an adept of its teachings. When Christian Church Fathers or other Late Antiquity writers credit "the Chaldeans", they are probably referring to this tradition. An analysis of the Chald ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greco-Roman World
The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were directly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of the Greeks and Romans. A better-known term is classical civilization. In exact terms the area refers to the "Mediterranean world", the extensive tracts of land centered on the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins, the "swimming pool and spa" of the Greeks and the Romans, in which those peoples' cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities became dominant in classical antiquity. That process was aided by the universal adoption of Greek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean and of Latin as the language of public administration and of forensic advocacy, especially in the Western Mediterranean. Greek and Latin w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scarab (artifact)
Scarabs were popular amulets and impression seals in ancient Egypt. They survive in large numbers and, through their inscriptions and typology, are an important source of information for archaeologists and historians of the ancient world. They also represent a significant body of ancient art. For reasons that are not clear (although likely connected to the religious significance of the Egyptian god Khepri), amulets in the form of scarab beetles had become enormously popular in Ancient Egypt by the early Middle Kingdom (approx. 2000 BCE) and remained popular for the rest of the pharaonic period and beyond. During that long period the function of scarabs repeatedly changed. Primarily amulets, they were also inscribed for use as personal or administrative seals or were incorporated into jewelry. Some scarabs were created for political or diplomatic purposes to commemorate or advertise royal achievements. By the early New Kingdom, ''heart scarabs'' had become part of the battery of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Divine Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities. Background Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the author of a sacred book – involves a special illumination of the mind, in virtue of which the recipient conceives such thoughts as God desires him to commit to writing, and does not necessarily involve supernatural communication. With the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, beginning about the mid-17th century, the development of rationalism, materialism and atheism, the concept of supernatural revelation itself faced skepticism. In ''The Age of Reason'' (1794–1809), Thomas Paine developed the theology of deism, rejecting the possibility of miracles and arguing that a revelation can be considered valid only for the original recipient, with all else being hearsay. Types Individual revelation Thomas Aquinas believed in two types of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asp (reptile)
"Asp" is the modern anglicisation of the word "''aspis''", which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. The specific epithet, ''aspis'', is a Greek word that means "viper".Gotch AF. 1986. ''Reptiles – Their Latin Names Explained''. Poole, UK: Blandford Press. 176 pp. . It is believed that ''aspis'' referred to what is now known as the Egyptian cobra. __TOC__ Historic representation Throughout dynastic and Roman Egypt, the asp was a symbol of royalty. Moreover, in both Egypt and Greece, its potent venom made it useful as a means of execution for criminals who were thought deserving of a more dignified death than that of typical executions. In some stories of Perseus, after killing Medusa, the hero used winged sandals to transport her head to King Polydectes. As he was flying over Egypt, some of her blood fell to the ground, which spawned asps and amphisbaena. According to Plutarch, Cleopatra tested various deadly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amulet
An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a person from trouble". Anything can function as an amulet; items commonly so used include statues, coins, drawings, plant parts, animal parts, and written words. Amulets which are said to derive their extraordinary properties and powers from magic or those which impart luck are typically part of folk religion or paganism, whereas amulets or sacred objects of formalised mainstream religion as in Christianity are believed to have no power of their own without faith in Jesus and being blessed by a clergyman, and they supposedly will also not provide any preternatural benefit to the bearer who does not have an appropriate disposition. Talisman and amulets have interchangeable meaning. Amulets refer to any object which has the power to av ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew language, Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', ''he (letter), he'', ''waw (letter), waw'', and ''he''. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass".Translation notes for While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form ''Yahweh'' is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization ''Jehovah'' continues to have wide usage. The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Book of Esther, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and (with Tetragrammaton#Texts with similar theonyms, a possible instance of the Jah, short form in verse 8:6) the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew language, Hebrew name. Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce nor do they re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aion (deity)
Aion ( el, Αἰών) is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac. The "time" which Aion represents is perpetual, unbounded, ritual, and cyclic: The future is a returning version of the past, later called ''aevum'' (''see'' Vedic Sanskrit ''Ṛtú''). This kind of time contrasts with empirical, linear, progressive, and historical time that Chronos represented, which divides into past, present, and future. Aion is thus a god of the cyclic ages, and the cycle of the year and the zodiac. In the latter part of the Classical era he became associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, the Dionysian mysteries, Orphic religion, and the Mithraic mysteries. In Latin, the concept of the deity may appear as Aeternitas, Anna Perenna, or ''Saeculum''. He is typically in the company of an earth or mother goddess such as Tellus or Cybele, as on the Parabiago plate. Iconograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth (classical Element)
Earth is one of the classical elements, in some systems being one of the four along with air, fire, and water. European tradition Earth is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the terrestrial world. Due to the hero cults, and chthonic underworld deities, the element of ''earth'' is also associated with the sensual aspects of both life and death in later occultism. Empedocles of Acragas proposed four '' archai'' by which to understand the cosmos: ''fire'','' air'', ''water'', and ''earth''. Plato (427–347 BCE) believed the elements were geometric forms (the platonic solids) and he assigned the cube to the element of ''earth'' in his dialogue ''Timaeus''. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) believed ''earth'' was the heaviest element, and his theory of '' natural place'' suggested that any ''earth–laden'' substances, would fall quickly, straight down, towards the center of the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water (classical Element)
Water is one of the classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy along with air, earth and fire, in the Asian Indian system ''Panchamahabhuta'', and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system ''Wu Xing''. In contemporary esoteric traditions, it is commonly associated with the qualities of emotion and intuition. Greek and Roman tradition Water was one of many ''archai'' proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom tried to reduce all things to a single substance. However, Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495 – c. 435 BC) selected four archai for his four roots: air, fire, water and earth. Empedocles roots became the four classical elements of Greek philosophy. Plato (427–347 BC) took over the four elements of Empedocles. In the Timaeus, his major cosmological dialogue, the Platonic solid associated with water is the icosahedron which is formed from twenty equilateral triangles. This makes water the element with the greatest number of sides, which Plato regarded as appropri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire (classical Element)
Fire is one of the four classical elements along with earth, water and air in ancient Greek philosophy and science. Fire is considered to be both hot and dry and, according to Plato, is associated with the tetrahedron. Greek and Roman tradition Fire is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with the qualities of energy, assertiveness, and passion. In one Greek myth, Prometheus stole ''fire'' from the gods to protect the otherwise helpless humans, but was punished for this charity. Fire was one of many '' archai'' proposed by the pre-Socratics, most of whom sought to reduce the cosmos, or its creation, to a single substance. Heraclitus considered ''fire'' to be the most fundamental of all elements. He believed fire gave rise to the other three elements: "All things are an interchange for fire, and fire for all things, just like goods for gold and gold for goods." Diels-Kranz B90 (Freeman 9481970p. 45. He had a repu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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