Religious beliefs and practices, which permeated all aspects of life in antiquity, traveled well-worn routes throughout the Mediterranean: itinerant charismatic practitioners journeying from place to place peddled their skills as healers, purifiers, cursers, and initiators; and vessels decorated with illustrations of myths traveled with them. New gods encountered in foreign lands by merchants and conquerors were sometimes taken home to be adapted and adopted. This collection of essays by a distinguished international group of scholars, drawn from the groundbreaking reference work "Religion in the Ancient World," offers an expansive, comparative perspective on this complex spiritual world.

Introduction Sarah Iles Johnston Note on Translation and Transliteration Abbreviations Maps Encountering Ancient Religions What Is Ancient Mediterranean Religion? Fritz Graf Monotheism and Polytheism Jan Assmann Ritual Jan Bremmer Myth Fritz Graf Cosmology: Time and History John J. Collins Pollution, Sin, Atonement, Salvation Harold W. Attridge Law and Ethics Eckart Otto Mysteries Sarah Iles Johnston Religions in Contact John Scheid Writing and Religion Mary Beard Magic Sarah Iles Johnston Histories Egypt Jan Assmann and David Frankfurter Mesopotamia Paul-Alain Beaulieu Syria and Canaan David P. Wright Israel John J. Collins Anatolia: Hittites David P. Wright Iran William Malandra and Michael Stausberg Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations Nanno Marinatos Greece Jon Mikalson Etruria Olivier de Cazanove Rome John North Early Christianity Harold W. Attridge Epilogue Bruce Lincoln Contributors Index