ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/2021

Instructor: Claudia Tavolieri

As the course will take place in 2nd semester, further updates will follow

Programme

The course will explore the concept of 'Oriental Cults' itself that has come under discussion in recent years, as it has been questioned whether the cults in question really formed a coherent group and to what degree they might be called 'Oriental' at all. Of special interest are the (alleged) origins of some cults, Isis and Osiris, Mithras and Jupiter Dolichenus in Egypt, Persia and Northern Syria their expansion and adaptation within the Roman Empire, their linguistic and visual expressions as well as the architecture and decoration of sanctuaries and the rituals connected with them.

Bibliography

• Svenja Nagel, Entangled Worlds: Religious Confluences Between East and West in the Roman Empire: The Cults of Isis, Mithras, and Jupiter Dolichenus (Orientalische Religionen in Der Antike), Mohr Siebeck, Heidelberg 2017.
• Jaime Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods. Myth, Salvation and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis and Mithras.
• Religions in the Graeco-Roman World,165, Brill, Leiden 2008.
• Beatrice Palma Venetucci (ed.), Culti Orientali. Tra scavo e collezionismo, Artemide, Roma 2008.

Exam modalities

One oral presentation on an agreed specific topic and the final oral examination will verify the acquisition of a sound knowledge of the course programme, adequate competence in the use the specific vocabulary and a coherent argumentative ability