Phrygia in the second and third centuries CE offers more vivid evidence for what has been termed “lived ancient religion” than any other region in the ancient world. The evidence from Phrygia is neither literary nor issued by cities or their powerful inhabitants but rather comes from farmers and herders who left behind numerous stone memorials of themselves and dedications to their gods, praying for the welfare of their families, crops, and cattle. In Religion in Roman Phrygia: From Polytheism to Christianity, Robert Parker opens a rare window into the world of those Sir Ronald Syme called “the voiceless earth-coloured rustics” who have been “conveniently forgotten.” The period in which Phrygian paganism flourished so visibly was also the period in which Christianity was introduced by the apostle Paul and took root. Parker presents a rich body of evidence and uses it to explore one of history’s great stories and enigmas: how and why the new religion overtook its predecessor, with the Christian God meeting needs previously satisfied by Zeus and the other gods.
Author(s): Robert Parker
Series: Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature
Publisher: University of California Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: ix; 254
City: Oakland
Tags: Phrygia—Religious life; Phrygia—Antiquities
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1. Contexts of religious life 9
2. Priesthoods, finance, authority 27
3. Phrygian polytheism I: The gods 34
4. Phrygian polytheism II: Differentiated powers? 66
5. Heavenly and imperial gods 79
6. Consecrations and confessions at the sanctuary of Apollo Lairbenos 83
7. Phrygian gods and death 96
8. Christianity and paganism in Phrygia 118
9. Retrospect 163
10. The masked ball: Interpretatio and its effects 172
11. Envoi 195
Appendix A. Myths and traditions of city origins 203
Appendix B. ‘Honoured by/consecrated to Hekate’ and related texts 215
Appendix C. τὸν θεόν σοι, μὴ ἀδικήσῃς 220
Appendix D. Paganism and Montanism 223
Appendix E. The prose inscription for Epitynchanos and family 227
Appendix F. Iconography and ‘recovering the indigenous’ 233
Bibliography 241
Index 249
