Pollution and Religion in Ancient Rome

A detailed study of pollution and impurity in Roman religion, offering new theories on a previously neglected, yet vital, subject.

Jack J. Lennon (Author)

9781107037908, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2013

235 pages
23.4 x 16.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'A sweeping religious and historical study.' History Today

Pollution could come from any number of sources in the Roman world. Bodily functions, sexual activity, bloodshed, death - any of these could cause disaster if brought into contact with religion. Its presence could invalidate sacrifices, taint religious officials, and threaten to bring down the anger of the gods upon the city. Orators could use pollution as a means of denigrating opponents and obstructing religious procedures, and writers could emphasise the 'otherness' of barbarians by drawing attention to their different ideas about what was or was not 'dirty'. Yet despite all this, religious pollution remained a vague concept within the Latin language, and what constituted pollution could change depending on the context in which it appeared. Calling upon a range of research disciplines, this book highlights the significant role that pollution played across Roman religion, and the role it played in the construction of religious identity.

Introduction
1. Defining pollution
2. Birth, sex and bodily margins
3. Blood
4. Death and remembrance
5. Pollution and rhetoric
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Religious life & practice [HRLM], History of religion [HRAX], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]