Greek Religion and Cults in the Black Sea Region
Goddesses in the Bosporan Kingdom from the Archaic Period to the Byzantine Era

A pioneering study of Greek religion and cults at a key colonial frontier, with major consequences for antiquity at large.

David Braund (Author)

9781107182547, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 May 2018

329 pages, 22 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.4 x 15.9 x 1.9 cm, 0.67 kg

This is the first integrated study of Greek religion and cults of the Black Sea region, centred upon the Bosporan Kingdom of its northern shores, but with connections and consequences for Greece and much of the Mediterranean world. David Braund explains the cohesive function of key goddesses (Aphrodite Ourania, Artemis Ephesia, Taurian Parthenos, Isis) as it develops from archaic colonization through Athenian imperialism, the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire in the East down to the Byzantine era. There is a wealth of new and unfamiliar data on all these deities, with multiple consequences for other areas and cults, such as Diana at Aricia, Orthia in Sparta, Argos' irrigation from Egypt, Athens' Aphrodite Ourania and Artemis Tauropolos and more. Greek religion is shown as key to the internal workings of the Bosporan Kingdom, its sense of its landscape and origins and its shifting relationships with the rest of its world.

Introduction: aims, contexts and connectivity
1. Crimean Parthenos, Artemis Tauropolos and human sacrifice
2. Crimean Parthenos in Greece, Anatolia and the Mediterranean world
3. Artemis of Ephesus in the Bosporan Kingdom
4. Bosporan Isis
5. The 'Mistress of Apatouron': Aphrodite Ourania and the Bosporan Apatouria
6. Epilogue: Artemis, Aphrodite and Demeter.

Subject Areas: Religious groups: social & cultural aspects [JFSR], Church history [HRCC2], History of religion [HRAX], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]