No description available.

No description available.

Religious Studies & Arabic / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

Magic and the supernatural have always been fascinating topics for investigation, none more so than the belief in prophecy. Actually being able to predict future occurrences, sometimes long before they take place, is certainly a desirable ability, and so naturally it was something that was much sought after in ancient Greece and amongst the Zulu people of South Africa. This is the domain of this dissertationbelief in the power of divination and how this belief could appear to be interrelated between two distinct peoples who are separated not only by the passage of time and their geographical locations, but also by socio-economic changes like industrialization and globalisation. The beliefs of both societies in this particular area are sometimes strikingly similar, especially in how each group understood such esoteric notions as the human soul and the afterlife or underworld. The function of magic in these cultures is also of -importance, since divination is almost always classed as a magical activity. The relative closeness to each other of their metaphysical knowledge allows a closer study of the figure of the diviner or prophet, more specifically who it was that could become a diviner and the reasons for this 'calling'. Several examples like Teiresias, the blind seer, are also useful in demonstrating certain beliefs and patterns. The major part of this dissertation deals with certain ritual practices of diviniilg. Although there exist many variations on a theme, the most important forms studied here are dreams, oracles, oionomancy (divining by understanding the song or flight of birds) and necromancy' (divining with the aid of the spirits of the dead). The method of divining by studying one's dreams is a universal constant and seems to take place in all cultures, making the practice useful for the purposes of comparative study. In terms of oracles, I contend that oracular divination is not a uniquely ancient fonn,but can be clearly seen in certain elements of the practice of Zulu divining, especially in the work of the abemilozi (diviners working with familiar spirits) Because of these similarities it is quite difficult to maintain that oracular divination· as occurred in ancient Greece, is not also practiced among the Zulu to some extent. Birds have always held a certain fascination for people and so it is not surprising that they are also used for divining. For the Greeks they could herald the favour of the gods, while the Zulu made use of them mostly for foretelling changes in the weather. Finally, necromancy because of its connection with ghosts and the dead was often frowned upon, but for both the Greeks and the Zulu it was one of the most powerful methods of divining because it was the spirits, who had already crossed to the other side and so were believed to have access to supernatural knowledge, that were thought to be able to answer the questions posed by the diviner. Most importantly I conclude that there is an indication that the souls of these two peoples were close to each other. The beliefs and the manner in which they go about establishing, using and confirming them are much the same for the ancient Greeks and the Zulu, despite the fact that they are separated by time, space and socio-economic context. In all, the only real difference is that the Greeks came to later explore science as another knowledge system. For the Zulu, one system was enough. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2003.

No description available.

Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

Orientador: Alcides Hector Rodriguez Benoit / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T18:50:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MatosJunior_FabioAmorimde_D.pdf: 2293251 bytes, checksum: 14cd95337ca664e719b3e95416a09155 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Como denunciado pelo título, o tema da presente tese desenvolve-se a partir da análise do tratamento conferido à imputação de impiedade no contexto dramático do diálogo Eutífron de Platão. Mediante o mesmo, a hipótese tética, que tentaremos edificar e consolidar ao longo do texto postula a existência, no contexto dramático do referido diálogo, de uma refutação da atribuição de impiedade dirigida a Sócrates nos versos das Nuvens. Contraposição essa que, ao complementar as lacunas presentes no discurso de defesa que Platão atribuiu a Sócrates, assume o status de uma extensão apologética / Abstract: As reported by the title, the theme of this thesis is developed from the analysis of the treatment given to the imputation of impiety in the dramatic context of the Plato's dialogue Euthyphro. Before the same, the central hypothesis, we will try to build and consolidate throughout the text, attributes the existence, in the dramatic context of this dialogue, of a refutation of the assignment of impiety directed to Socrates in verses of the Clouds. Contrast to this, complementing the gaps present in the discourse of defense that Plato attributed to Socrates, assumes the status of an extension apologetics / Doutorado / Filosofia / Doutor em Filosofia

The thesis examines the religious topography of Arcadia through two particular aspects: the built and the natural landscape, and how each relates to human communities, their places of living, and their understanding of the world around. It relies on the assumption commonly made in the field that, since ritual practice was of prevalent importance for the Greeks, cult sites are the most important places for the communities, and therefore they can tell us a lot about the people who built, visited and looked after them. The first part rests on the acknowledgement that sanctuaries are places of interaction for a certain community of cult (which can but need not overlap with a given polis) and explores how they can be indicators of social change, defined here as responses to changes with large impact on the human milieu. These changes and their response articulated in sacred space are identified in four chapters. The first sets the stage and surveys the known sacred sites of Arcadia at the end of the Bronze Age and during the Early Iron Age. The second looks at how the building of temples after the eighth century indicates a significant change in the way communities were structured in Arcadia. The third looks at how Arcadian sanctuaries responded to the increased religious mobility of the Classical and Hellenistic period. Finally, chapter four evaluates the impact of the Roman conquest on Arcadian religious sites. The second part explores how myths and rationalising discourses allowed the Greeks to make sense of the salient characteristics and numen of their surrounding natural landscape. Each of the three chapters departs from a situation observed in Arcadia by ancient sources and examines the responses articulated to explain it. Among the variety of topics to pursue, three have been selected because they exemplify a typical characteristic of Arcadia: its wetness. They also allow spatial areas that were less prominent in part one to be explored. The first chapter investigates the attribution of Mycenaean waterworks in Arcadia to Herakles in myth. The second chapter examines the connection made in ancient sources between Poseidon's lordship over the Peloponnese, earthquakes, floods and cults of Poseidon Hippios in Arcadia. Finally, the last chapter explores the apparent contradiction of having infernal rivers observable in the world of the living, such as the Styx flowing in the Aroania Mountains.