Table Of ContentCOGNITIVE APPROACHES TO ANCIENT
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
For some time interest has been growing in a dialogue between
modernscientificresearchintohumancognitionandresearchinthe
humanities.Thisground-breakingvolumefocusesthisdialogueonthe
religious experience of men and women in the ancient Greek and
Romanworlds.Eachchapterexaminesaparticularhistoricalproblem
arisingfromanancientreligiousactivity,andthecontributionsrange
across a wide variety of ancient contexts and sources, exploring and
integratingliterary,epigraphic,visual,andarchaeologicalevidence.In
ordertoavoidasimplepolaritybetweenphysicalaspects(ritual)and
mentalaspects(belief)ofreligion,thecontributorsdrawontheoriesof
cognition as embodied, emergent, enactive, and extended, accepting
the complexity, multimodality, and multicausality of human life.
Through this interdisciplinary approach, the chapters open up new
questions around and develop new insights into the physical, emo-
tional,andcognitiveaspectsofancientreligions.
isProfessorofAncientHistoryattheUniversityof
Bristol.SheworksonancientGreekculture,specializinginmagicand
religion.SheisadistinguishedfellowoftheReligion,Cognition,and
Culture Unit of Aarhus University, and a founder of the Journal of
CognitiveHistoriography.Sheiscurrentlyleadingaprojectfundedby
theUK’sArtsandHumanitiesResearchCounciltodevelopavirtual
realityexperienceofconsultationoftheoracleofZeusatDodona.
. isEmeritusProfessorintheHistoryofReligions
at Aarhus University. He works on the cognitive science of religion,
evolutionarytheory,andthepsychologyofreligiousexperiences.He
isco-founder/editoroftheJournalfortheCognitiveScienceofReligion
and Advancesin the Cognitive Science ofReligion.
isEmeritusProfessorofHistoryatUniversityCollege
London. He has worked on the religious history of Rome and the
changingcharacterofreligiouslifeintheRomanEmpiredowntothe
riseofChristianity.Heisaco-authorofthetwo-volumehistoryand
sourcebookReligionsofRome(Cambridge).
Series Editors
EstherEidinow,University ofBristol
Thomas Harrison, University ofSt Andrews
Thisseriesseekstotakeadvantageofacriticalmomentinthedevelopmentofthe
study of ancient religion. This is one in which previous models (especially
the sharp oppositions frequently drawn between ritual and belief, or between
the social and the individual) are increasingly being questioned, and in which
scholarsoftheancientworldaremoreandmoredrawingoncognitiveapproaches
in the search for new paradigms. The ‘cognitive science of religion’ draws on
insights developed in a wide range of fields: cognitive and evolutionary psychol-
ogy, cognitive anthropology, and neurobiology, amongst others. In essence,
however, it seeks to understand religious experience as rooted in the ordinary
cognitive capacities of the human brain. The series covers not only Greek and
RomanreligionbutarangeofancientculturesfromtheMediterraneanandNear
East,includingGreece,Rome,Egypt,Babylonia,Persia,andPhoenicia,aswellas
culturesfromIronAgeEurope.Itwillalsoexploretheimplicationsforthestudy
of these cultures of a range of different cognitive approaches to religion and will
include work by scholars from a wide range of disciplines in anthropology, the
study of religion, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience in addition to that
by historians and archaeologistsof the ancient world.
COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO
ANCIENT RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE
ESTHER EIDINOW
UniversityofBristol
ARMIN W. GEERTZ
AarhusUniversity
JOHN NORTH
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:Eidinow,Esther,–editor.|Geertz,ArminW.,–editor.|
North,John,–editor.
:Cognitiveapproachestoancientreligiousexperience/editedbyEstherEidinow,
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religionandcognition|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
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::Experience(Religion)|Cognitionandculture–Greece.|Cognitionandculture–
Rome.|Civilization,Ancient.|Greece–Religiouslifeandcustoms.|Rome–Religiouslifeand
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables page vii
List of Contributors viii
List of Abbreviations xiii
Funder Acknowledgement xiv
Introduction
EstherEidinow,ArminW.Geertz,QuintonDeeley,andJohnNorth
A Cognitive Approach to Ancient Greek Animal Sacrifice
HughBowden
To the Netherworld and Back: Cognitive Aspects of the
Descent to Trophonius
YuliaUstinova
Ancient Greek Smellscapes and Divine Fragrances:
Anthropomorphizing the Gods in Ancient Greek Culture
EstherEidinow
Belief, Make-Believe, and the Religious Imagination:
The Case of the Deus Ex Machina in Greek Tragedy
FelixBudelmann
Chanting and Dancing into Dissociation: The Case of the
Salian Priests at Rome
MaikPatzelt
v
vi Contents
The Bacchants Are Silent: Using Cognitive Science to
Explore the Experience of the Oreibasia
VivienneMcGlashan
Who Is the Damiatrix? Roman Women, the Political Negotiation
of Psychotropic Experiences, and the Cults of Bona Dea
LeonardoAmbasciano
Walls and the Ancient Greek Ritual Experience: The Sanctuary
of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis
MichaelScott
Identifying Symptoms of Religious Experience from Ancient
Material Culture: The Example of Cults of the Roman Mithras
LutherH.Martin
Bridging the Gap: From Textual Representations to the
Experiential Level and Back
AndersKlostergaardPetersen
A Relevant Mystery: Intuitive and Reflective Thought in
Gregory of Nyssa’s Representations of Divine Begetting in
the Against Eunomius
IsabellaSandwell
Index
Figures and Tables
Figure
. Plan of the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis by
J. Travlos ‘The Topography of Eleusis’ Hesperia (.)
pp. –, adapted by M. Scott. page
Tables
. Ritual form hypothesis (adapted from Larson ).
. Ritual form hypothesis applied to the Bona Dea cults.
. Theory of the modes of religiosity (adapted from Whitehouse
: ).
. Organization and experiences of the Bona Dea cults and
Roman state religion (sacra publica) according to the theory
of the modes of religiosity.
vii
Contributors
earned his PhD in historical studies at the
University of Turin, Italy, in with a cognitive, evolutionary, and
genderandsexualityanalysisoftheancientRomancultofBonaDea.In
, he was Visiting Lecturer in Religious Studies at Masaryk
University, Brno, Czech Republic. He also served as Editorial
Assistant and Managing Editor of the Journal of Cognitive
Historiography from to . Ambasciano is the author of
Sciamanesimo senza sciamanesimo (Nuova Cultura ) and An
Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth, and the Quest for
ScientificKnowledge(Bloomsbury).Amonghismostrecentarticles
are ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How the Walt
Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s
Troublesome Legacy,’ Implicit Religion (): –, and ‘An
Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies:
Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational
Beliefs,’ Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (): –.
isProfessorofAncientHistoryatKing’sCollegeLondon.
He has been involved in a series of national and international research
projectsfocusedoncognitiveapproachestoGreekreligion,workingwith
neuroscientists and anthropologists alongside classical scholars. He has
writtenextensivelyinthefieldofancientreligion,withaparticularfocus
on oracles and divination, and on mystery cults. His books include
Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and Democracy
(Cambridge University Press ) and Mystery Cults in the Ancient
World(ThamesandHudson/PrincetonUniversityPress).
is Professor of Classics at the University of
Groningen. He works on Greek literature and has a special interest in
the interface of literature and cognition. A volume on cognitive
approaches to Greek tragedy, jointly edited with Ineke Sluiter, is
viii
