Facing the Gods
Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion

This book explores divine manifestations and their representations not only in art, but also in literature, histories and inscriptions.

Verity Platt (Author)

9781316619193, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 August 2016

502 pages, 53 b/w illus.
24.5 x 17 x 2.8 cm, 0.88 kg

'… a stimulating, wide-ranging work that should be of interest to all those studying the classical world; it will certainly become standard reading for anyone with an interest in Greek religion, Greek and Roman iconography, or the literary and philosophical discourses of the Second Sophistic. Elegantly written and argued.' Jenny Wallensten, Time and Mind

This is the first history of epiphany as both a phenomenon and a cultural discourse within the Graeco-Roman world. It explores divine manifestations and their representations both in art and in literary, historical and epigraphic accounts. The cultural analysis of epiphany is set within a historical framework that examines its development from the archaic period to the Roman Empire. In particular, a surprisingly large number of the images that have survived from antiquity are not only religious but epiphanically charged. Verity Platt argues that the enduring potential for divine incursions into mortal experience provides a reliable cognitive structure that supports both ancient religion and mythology. At the same time, Graeco-Roman culture exhibits a sophisticated awareness of the difficulties in apprehending deity and representing divine presence, and of the potential for the manmade sign to lead the worshipper back to an unmediated epiphanic encounter.

Introduction
Part I: 1. Framing epiphany in art and text
2. Material epiphany: encountering the divine in cult images
3. Epiphany and authority in Hellenistic Greece
4. The poetics of epiphany in Hellenistic epigram
Part II: 5. Virtual visions: piety and paideia in Second Sophistic literature
6. Dream visions and cult images in Second Sophistic literature
7. The apologetics of representation in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana
Part III: 8. Dying to see: epiphanic sarcophagi from Imperial Rome.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]