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The Demotic Book of Thoth has received surprisingly little attention in exegetical research, although it was a well-known text in Late Period Egypt. Since the Book of Thoth and Prov 1–9 are closely related in terms of dating, cultural background, and genre, a comparison of these two texts is overdue. To address this oversight, this article examines and compares the main female figures of both works: the goddess Seshat and Lady Wisdom. Previous research has pointed to Maat and Isis as archetypes of Lady Wisdom, but this article argues that Seshat must be considered as another goddess who exerted influence on the figure of Lady Wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We start this review in the sanctuaries of archaic and classical Greece. The book Between Deity and Dedicator is the PhD thesis of Sanne Hoffmann. Hoffmann's aim is to examine terracotta votive figurines through their entire lifecycle, following their journey from production to dedication to deposition within the sanctuary (fifteen of which are chosen, with a preponderance, never really fully explained, towards those of female deities). Theories of object agency and an emerging interest in object biographies are extremely well-chosen as the frameworks in which to discuss a set of objects that were surely imagined to have some sort of efficacy in prompting a response from the deity to whom they were dedicated. It is so often the case that introductions lay out long explanations of theories that are then never again mentioned in the rest of the book as the author gets stuck in to the 'content'. Here, though, the theory is evoked effectively and explicitly at key parts throughout the thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inscription carved on the interior corner of the north-west anta of the Temple of Artemis at Sardis records the obligations of a certain Mnesimachos in return for a loan of money he received from the temple funds. Unable or unwilling to pay his loan, Mnesimachos declared his decision to convey his estate to Artemis and accept the conditions of the contract. This estate, including villages, dwellings, and peasant-serfs, had been given to him by King Antigonos Monophthalmos around 300 bce. The present work attempts to focus on the sequence of events in Mnesimachos' life and their relation to the history and architecture of this important temple. The new reading of these events as a result of the last two decades or excavations at Sardis offers us a synthetic understanding of the Hellenistic history of the city and an insight into Mnesimachos' willingness to forgo his estate in a financial deal that ultimately tricks the goddess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the fascination of the protean serpent woman or siren Melusine, demonstrating the illustrious heritage of this hybrid foundress of the Lusignan dynasty. Her supernatural achievements are celebrated through history, literature, and culture, despite her betrayal by her weaker husband. As feminine nymph or maternal foundress, Melusine and her achievements serve as exemplary for powerful women. She represents woman castigated as abject, monstrous, and possessed of a terrifying vagina dentata from the voyeuristic male perspective, whose usurping gaze destroys her authority. She yet remains revered and desired for her creative life force and the phallic or hermaphroditic power represented by her tail. Whether as snake-tailed woman in Eden or connected with fertility goddesses or the Virgin Mary, the protean Melusine emerges as a magnetic, sovereign figure in her self-sufficient sexuality. Her transgressive prowess as a theriomorphic, transformative woman breaks through boundaries and overturns debilitating assumptions regarding her sex, blazoning her unruly force. Castigated as Other while revered as divine, her story rises above any slighting gaze to amaze us with her stunning tale or tail, evoking admiration despite all attempts to diminish her. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kunyaza is a traditional sexual technique reported in some regions of Central Africa that aims to trigger peri-orgasmic fluid production. A personal narrative experience of a 29-year-old unmarried woman from Kenya suggested that this particular technique may have also been practiced in Kenya for a long time. Indeed, an oral tradition about "how to make Lake Victoria", a peculiar local expression used to indicate peri-orgasmic fluid production, is reported here. This tradition is transmitted from grandmothers to granddaughters and concerns not only fluid emission but also teachings on personal hygiene, sexual interactions with a partner, and, interestingly, the importance of the woman's sexual pleasure. In this narrative case report, we compared anecdotes and personal experiences with literature evidence about herbal medicine and traditional practices, suggesting the presence of a particularly woman-centered sexual culture in some more sex-positive ethnic groups in Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the glass vessels found during the excavations of Kurul Kalesi in the Eastern Black Sea Region (Ordu Province, Bayadı Village) in the years 2010-2022 will be examined within the context of their typological features and archaeological contexts. Although a couple of small finds dating to earlier times (4th century BC) have been discovered in the fortress, the strongest settlement phase belongs to the reign of Mithradates VI Eupator (120-63 BC) before the town was abandoned after the Roman defeat in c. 65-64 BC. The fact that the settlement had cultic as well as military areas presents a rich collection of small finds including many glass vessels. Among the glass finds found in the fortress, luxury products such as core-formed bottles, undecorated colourless cast bowl/plate (?), opaque blue bowl fragments, reticella and mosaic bowls stand out. However, grooved bowls, which were distributed over a wide geography in the Late Hellenistic Period, are also among the finds as typical forms of the period. It can be concluded that the glass vessels found in the fortress consisting mostly of luxury glasses of their time are the productions of the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean Islands. The findspots where the glass finds are unearthed can be listed as the Inner Fortress, the Northern Terrace, Storage Rooms, the cultic area where the famous marble statue of Kybele was found representing the goddess sitting on her throne within a niche and its surroundings, Dionysus Sanctuary, the area under a pile of stones (an area covered with stacked stones after losing its cultic function, including votive items inside it) and Administrative Buildings Area. In addition to glass vessels, many glass beads of different colours and shapes are among the glass finds of the fortress. Some of the glass vessels as well as the beads were votive objects offered to Kybele and especially Dionysus. This situation reveals that most of the glass objects found in Kurul Kalesi did not have any function in daily life but were votive objects. These glasses include some vessels that have never been recorded in the Eastern Black Sea coast of Anatolia until the excavations in Kurul Kalesi. For this reason, glass vessel dating back to the Hellenistic period found in the excavations in Kurul Kalesi is extremely important for helping us to determine the distribution areas of these glass products and reveal new information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a palliative to despair over climatic and biospheric collapse, classical tragedy, particularly that of Aeschylus and Sophocles, may continue to serve its cathartic function when read in light of Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of tragedy, in which, through catastrophe, 'Nature' is revealed as 'eternally powerful and pleasurable', despite all change and loss. Aeschylus' Oresteia illuminates this divine, chthonic power in the chorus of the Erinyes (Furies), the 'terrible goddesses', who uphold the cosmic order with their power to blight or to bless. Under the shadow of Anthropocenic destruction of entangled life-worlds, the Erinyes emerge as transvalued champions of Earth's primacy, under the sign of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saradamani Mukhopadhyay (1853–1920), more widely known as Sarada Devi and, to her devotees, the Holy Mother, presents an illuminating case study of the various means by which, in many respects, a highly traditional and typical rural Hindu woman of her time, operating from within the categories of Bengali Hindu society, was able to navigate these categories in ways that did not undermine, but rather enhanced, her agency, enabling her to shape her social reality in creative and transformative ways. Inhabiting the traditional role of mother and nurturer while carrying it out in a highly non-traditional manner, Sarada Devi played a central, often behind-the-scenes, role as a major influencer of an important modern Hindu spiritual movement—indeed, the first such movement to be able to boast an international following. Having no biological children of her own, Sarada Devi became the mother to this movement and to the monastic order dedicated to carrying forward the vision of her husband, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886), as interpreted both by herself and his disciples, the most prominent of whom was Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), who is well known for having brought Ramakrishna's teachings to the Western world through his lectures in America, including at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 and his founding of the first Vedanta Societies, starting in New York in 1894. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of conferences in the late nineteenth century significantly changed the ways in which the international scientific community functioned and experienced itself. In the early modern Republic of Letters, savants mainly related through print and correspondence, and apart from at local and later national levels, scholars rarely met. International conferences, by contrast, brought scientists together regularly, in the flesh and in great numbers. Their previously imagined community now became tangible. This paper examines how conferencing reshaped the collective of international scientists by zooming in on the massive meetings of the International Congress of Applied Chemistry, 1893–1914. Drawing on Emile Durkheim's studies of religious gatherings it analyses the ritualization of routine conference practices, such as plenary ceremonies, toasts, ladies' programmes and committee meetings. It looks at how roles were distributed as participants performed as hosts and guests, and in masculine and feminine and national and international identities. Importantly, it shows both how the sacralization of chemistry as a higher aim served to instil senses of dedication in order to organize labour and mitigate conflict, and how the self-perception of the international chemical community was based on contemporary understandings of parliament, democracy and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the poems written by an individual identified as the Visiting Perfected- Transcendent in the Declarations of the Perfected (Zhengao ...), there is a new type of celestial journey vehicle, the curtained carriage, which is not mentioned in earlier literary texts. The reasons for the appearance of the curtained carriage are twofold. First, curtained carriages were originally the vehicles used exclusively by noble women to travel, and most of the main characters in the Mao Shan ... Revelations were goddesses. So, the individuals who created the scriptures referenced the vehicles used by Shangqing ... (Highest Clarity) Perfected-Immortals. Second, the authors of the scriptures inherited the Wu ... and Yue ... religious traditions of the Six Dynasties and the folklore of the time, which held that when a goddess came to descend, the vehicle used was a curtained carriage. On this basis, the Shangqing school developed a vehicle for use in celestial journeys, and at the same time, this vehicle, known as the "green curtained carriage," also came to be employed by mortals to ascend to heaven. The prototype of the "green curtained carriage" was the "azure curtained carriage" from the Eastern Jin dynasty, which was the vehicle used by both the empress dowager and the empress to travel to the southern suburbs to worship the sky on the winter solstice. Since then, the "curtained carriage" entered secular texts as a new vehicle for celestial journeys, and the "green curtained carriage" became the exclusive vehicle used in Taoist scriptures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leonora Carrington's novels—Down Below, The Hearing Trumpet, and The Stone Door—offer extraordinary revisionings of the myth most central to the modernist movement of the 20th century: that of the nekyia, or descent to the underworld. In her surrealist memoir, Down Below, the descent to the underworld catalyzes the revelation of alchemical configurations of mythical archetypes. This little surrealist classic of 1943 has much in common with late works of modernism produced during the Second World War, such as Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot, The Death of Virgil by Herman Broch, Joseph and His Brothers and Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, or Trilogy by H. D. In all of these works, the descent to the underworld leads to the revelation of those archetypal forms of the imagination that give them "shape and significance." For Carrington, the forms revealed by the psychotic breakdown recorded in the novel are alchemical as well as mythical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feraferia, ‘a love culture for wilderness’, is a contemporary Pagan religion that celebrates humans’ erotic union with Nature. It was the brainchild of artist, Frederick Adams (1928–2008), who in 1956 had a vision of a universal goddess and subsequently devoted himself to the divine feminine as a ‘Maiden Goddess of the Wilderness’ called Korê. Formally incorporated in 1967, Feraferia became the second Pagan church in US history, and it is still active today. Herein I examine Feraferia through an ecocritical lens, with a particular focus on the role of trees, the anthropomorphisation of nature envisioned as a young female body, ecosexuality, and the construction of henges; circular structures aligned with local topography, used as seasonal and astronomical calendars wherein ritual magic and ‘faerie enchantment’ are employed in order to heal and revitalise the natural world. I demonstrate that Feraferia’s enchanted approach to the world resonates with contemporary ecological activist thought, particularly ecofeminism and ecosexuality. I conclude that many of Feraferia’s ecospiritual concepts have value today because they can heighten conscious awareness of human situatedness within the real physical world, both on our own planet as well as within the wider surrounding space of our part of the universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anahita, a prominent Zoroastrian goddess, has always had importance status and widely revered during the Sassanian period. In the present research, relying on the studies of Sassanian bas-reliefs and stuccos, an attempt has been made to study the role of this goddess in Sassanian art. The results of this research clearly indicate that Anahita, among the other Zoroastrian deities, has always had a valuable place in those eras because she was thought to offer wisdom to those who revered her. Personification and depiction of the goddess Anahita in human icons in Sassanian bas-reliefs and stuccos were an attempt by the Sassanian emperors to legitimize their rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The god, "Elkunirsa" (written: SP d sp I el-ku-ni-ir-sa i */ l qn r /),[110] is the well-known West Semitic god El, who bears the epithet I qn r i "creator/begetter/possessor of earth."[111] The use of the cuneiform sign el in the majority of instances in the myth for the spelling of the first component in the theonym is significant.[112] At present, it is the earliest known attestation of the common word for god in combination with the West Semitic divine epithet, though there are other texts from attusa that mention the deity and are likely contemporary. All areas of knowledge belonged to him which meant that Iya/Ea was the deity of incantations, rituals, healing, medicine, dreams, and magic.[66] On this amulet, the snake in relief on the left side (i.e., to the back or behind this deity on the obverse) is a symbol stressing the chthonic nature of the male character. Due to the fluidity envisioned within the concept of divinity in the ancient context,[70] Isimu is an extension of Ea on the one hand; on the other hand, Ea's extention is Ea.[71] With the equation of Iya/Ea with El, the imagery invokes this conceptional move. For over two millennia (ca. 1400 bc-200 ad), the worship of a god known as Elkunirsa is attested. All of this underscores the significance of the appearance of the Janus-headed deity on Barrakib's orthostat at Zincirli.[73] The linkage of Iya/Ea with Syrian El may perhaps be envisioned on a number of levels.[74] The "craft" of the two deities is manifest in the creation of the life, whose culmination point is human beings.[75] Both deities are gods of magic and, therefore, the means for humans to obligate divinity through conjuration. [Extracted from the article]

The rise of a patriarchal society has led to a prevalent perception of male superiority over women, which is reflected in the gender-based disparities within the deity system of China. However, in contrast to the situation in the Central Plains, the Lingnan region assigns a significant social status to women, as evidenced by the active worship of female deities. Among them, the Loong Mother stands out as a highly revered goddess in Lingnan's mythology. This paper investigates the evolution of the Loong Mother's deification from a mortal woman, and explores the varying religious principles of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, as well as their influence on the veneration of female deities in Lingnan. Additionally, this paper analyzes the Loong Mother's portrayal within civil society. Despite undergoing continuous transformation to cater to diverse religious traditions and societal needs, the goddess's actions and functions ultimately reflect her creation and shaping by the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam as a nation is deeply rooted in the wet-rice agricultural civilization, which is characterized by the Yin (female) principle and the religion worshiping Mother Goddess. However, Chinese Confucianism significantly influenced Vietnam throughout the feudal dynasties (10–19th centuries). Confucian kingship propagates symbols of virtuous women to establish the moral order of a male-dominated society. In contrast, by practicing lived religion and spreading folk narratives, Vietnamese people turn virtuous women into Mother Goddess with a liberal, creative and patronage identity. This study, thus, examines the position of women in Confucian Nguyễn Dữ's The Young Woman from Nam Xuong, a canonical story reconstructed from legend. It is important to address the main concern about metaphors of a duality culture and a conflict discourse of Confucian politics and Vietnamese lived religion through the issue of Goddess spirituality. This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate that resistance to Chinese Dominance and anti-Sinicization were significant issues of Vietnamese medieval literature and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hārītī is the first female deity in Buddhism that was credited with responsibility for protecting women during childbirth and protecting children. Since her introduction to China from India, her image has undergone multiple changes, and the rise and fall of her cult is closely related to the social culture around her reception. However, previous research on Hārītī has focused mainly on historiographical aspects, and little attention has been given to image evolution after her introduction into China. Therefore, this paper mainly utilizes iconographic methods to systematically review the characteristics of Hārītī's image in different periods and investigate the social causes and religious meanings behind her evolution. The study revealed that the image of Hārītī has experienced five development phases: Hellenization, Sinicization, demonization, confusion, and parasitization. The most fundamental reason for her rise in China was the strong demand for fertility among the people. The most important reasons for her decline in China include the deep-rooted negative popular view of her yaksha identity and the prevalence of images and stories of the child-giving Avalokitesvara, who replaced her core functions entirely. In this way, Hārītī worship underwent gradual marginalization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious belief, as noted by scholars like Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), Max Weber (1864–1920), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and William James (1842–1910), reflects shared values, shapes human conduct, and provides spiritual strength. Furthermore, it is considered a template that expresses the basic spiritual needs and aspirations of human life, containing many cultural values and characteristics of the thinking of ethnic communities. Moreover, people perceive everything by schemas formed in memory. In this study, the authors chose the subject of the belief in worshiping the Mother Goddess—one of the most popular and ancient beliefs in Vietnam and inscribed by UNESCO as a Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. Employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys, linguistic materials, and field research, the study explores how Vietnamese cultural beliefs shape perception, behavior, and lifestyle. Therefore, understanding and analyzing the characteristics of the beliefs in worshiping the Mother Goddess through the lens of Cultural Linguistics can present the actual spiritual experiences of Vietnamese people. From this unique perspective, the process of perceiving the world has meaning to the language and behavior of a community culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on astrology in 2024 from a feminist and mythic perspective. It notes the significant masculine energy of the year, with Pluto's rare transit into Aquarius, indicating changes in democracy and technology. The article reviews Pluto's past transits, highlighting significant events like the exposure of child abuse in the Catholic Church and the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Two of the books Ted Hughes took with him when he worked as a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter plotter during his two years of compulsory national service, were Robert Graves's The White Goddess and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Both, he read closely and often. He was already familiar, through his interest in the magical preoccupations of W. B. Yeats, with the philosophy of Hermetic Neoplatonism which had made its way to England during Shakespeare's time and influenced the work of poets like Sir Philip Sidney, Gabriel Harvey and Edmund Spencer. All of these poets believed in, and used, the alchemical power of poetry which, as Sidney wrote in his Defence of Poetry, could 'hold children from play, and old men from the chimney corner. And pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue'. This, and his immersion in Shakespeare's work (which as Sylvia Plath told her mother, he 'knew by heart') led Hughes to discern a developing pattern, based on the transformative powers of the Goddess, through which he believed Shakespeare was performing a complex alchemical process. He expounded this theory in detail in Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being, but almost twenty years earlier he had written the poem 'An Alchemy' for a limited edition anthology published in 1973 by the Globe Theatre Trust. 'An Alchemy' is a difficult and allusive poem in which nothing is spelled out. In this article, I look at just one section of the poem in which Hughes created his own alchemical matrix through which he sought to reveal the underlying alchemical theme that he saw as the 'Gold' in Shakespeare's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the Kathmandu Valley, Matrka/Ajima goddesses are worshiped by most Newar castes, whether high or low, Hindu or Buddhist, rural or urban. Their cults take different forms (Asta Matrkas, Navadurgas) and are heavily influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. This article, based on the ethnographic study of three different localities, Thecho village, the small town of Panauti and Kathmandu city, stresses the existence of an older autochthonous substratum particularly visible in the veneration of aniconic stones and the dichotomy between shrines located outside the settlement and temples erected within the locality. The two forms, aniconic and iconic, of the deities are ceremonially reunited once a year. Moreover, in Kathmandu, Matrkas are mostly referred to by a Newari word: Ajima, "divine mother." The indigenous components of these goddesses are particularly striking among the Jyapu rice cultivator caste and prevail mostly in the south and central part of the Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the pagan classical world was subsumed into Christianity sexually hyperactive gods and goddesses transmuted into saints, their former statues that glorified the perfection of their bodies smashed into pieces and reimagined as austere two-dimensional icons to be worshipped by the new faithful. That dualistic and polemic narrative, where the soul's purpose was to annihilate the body, survives today in the distinction between software and hardware, algorithms and robots, the former as the "ghosts" that animate the empty vessels, the "machines". But how does this narrative impact our cultural and social fantasies in the twenty-first century as we accelerate toward coexisting, uniting, or merging with intelligent artifacts? How does "humanness" blur when it is claimed by no-biological human-like entities too, or when humans augment their perception, consciousness and physical power through genetic engineering, drugs, or software and mechanical prostheses? Suppose we are destined to remake ourselves in the image of our ancient gods. Will it be through the embodiment of technologies in the physical reality, or through the complete disembodiment of our minds inside virtual worlds? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burning ground is both a place and a metaphor in the religion of Shaktism or goddess worship in West Bengal, India. As a place, it is where corpses are cremated. As a metaphor, it refers to the human heart, which has been left as a wasteland through sorrow and tragedy. It is when the soul loses its attachment to this world, when the heart is desolate and alone, that the dark goddess Kali descends from the heavens. She may bring the gift of salvation, bringing the soul to her paradise, or she may save it from unhappy rebirth by bringing a new and better life. She may also bring the universal consciousness that is moksha or liberation. Transcendence from the bondage of worldly attachments, which are left behind amid the ashes of the burning ground, brings divine vision and realization. This paper explores the roles of negation and desolation in ritual practice and religious experience in Bengali Shaktism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At her farewell lecture in Bern, Silvia Schroer reviewed her feminist theological work by tracing stages of her preoccupation with the earth as a common thread, both biographically and in terms of research. Silvia Schroer's interest in the iconography of earth goddesses, in the traces of an earth goddess in the biblical creation narratives, her focus on the material culture of Palestine/Israel and her political commitment to the preservation of planet earth are intertwined. These entanglements and many of the themes of her farewell lecture are also reflected in the Festschrift presented to her on her 65th birthday. The majority of the contributions to this commemorative publication are strongly related to gender research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though Nabû is well known in Babylonian religion as the minister of its patron god Marduk, and Tašmētu as Nabû's wife, this paper argues that they were not originally envisioned as such. Instead, both the god and goddess seem to have been introduced into Marduk's circle over the course of the Old Babylonian period, having previously been venerated in independent cults. Unexpected appearances of Tašmētu within the ritual practices of Babylon also suggest that she was only recognized as Nabû's wife after they were both integrated into the Babylonian pantheon. Evidence of their early independence and subsequent assimilation is drawn from a wide pool of contemporary sources, including god lists, onomastics, and seal inscriptions, as well as descriptions of traditional ritual arrangements from later periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have always been fascinated by birds. In the Roman period, birds (particularly chicken) were still largely employed in several rituals. Although Roman writers, such as Cicero, Livy, Pliny the Elder, and Aelian, inform us about the use of birds in a number of rituals, the archaeological evidence rarely allows us to associate the collected zooarchaeological remains with a single deity. In 2017, a well‐preserved archaeological context located in the vicinity of the temple of Isis in Pompeii and related to a single ritual event (dated to the mid‐1st century CE), revealed a number of faunal remains as well as ceramic and archaeobotanical finds. Chicken dominates the assemblage, followed by goose, pigeon, and turtle dove. A few remains of pig and a marine bivalve, the truncate donax, were also recovered. Skeletally young chickens were largely employed in the ritual, whereas the other bird taxa are only represented by mature bones. Chicken eggshell, taxonomically identified using ancient protein analysis, was also found. Taphonomic evidence indicates that bird bones were still covered with meat when exposed to the ritual fire. The results obtained have been linked to relevant written and iconographic sources dated to the Roman period. This work confirms that bird sacrifice was an important part of the Isis rituals. Among the birds involved, goose could be considered a possible marker of that goddess. The evidence from Pompeii adds new insights into our knowledge of the animals in the Isis cult during the 1st century CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A little-studied mosaic from Praeneste represents a scene of a beauty contest, which may be the Judgment of the Goddesses, although possible interpretations also include the contest between Cassiopeia and the Nereids. It has been overlooked that the inscription in the mosaic is metrical: a part of an iambic trimeter. This is probably a fragment of a comedy or a satyr play, from the scene that the mosaic depicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents four hitherto unpublished Neo-Assyrian documents from the private collection of the late Jørgen Læssøe. It mentions that debt notes are of considerable interest to the legal historian as two of them contain a relatively rare clause that explicitly assigns joint responsibility to a group of co-debtors.

In China, Magu is a household name for a female Daoist immortal. As a symbol of longevity, people believe that she can prolong their lives and bring them good luck. This paper takes the fact that Magu has hands that look like birds' feet as a clue to sort out the evolution of the image of Magu. In this article, it is argued that the prototype for the image of the Daoist immortal, Magu, is the bird goddess of the Neolithic goddess and that Magu's hands, which look like bird claws, are a symbol of the goddess's divine power. After entering the patriarchal society, the figure of Magu was eroticized and her hands, which represented divine power, became a tool for men to scratch their backs. Daoism, however, inherited the matriarchal society's worship of women and retained the image of Magu with her hands that resembled the feet of a bird. When Daoism incorporated Magu into its system of deities, the image of Magu was remodeled to conform to the teachings of Daoism, thus making Magu a beautiful, kind-hearted immortal with high moral sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on fieldwork and the analysis of the historical literature, this article studies the development of material culture in the cult of popular goddess Mazu, exploring in particular the materialization mechanisms and strategies deployed by various actors in her worship nowadays. Through the ages, people in China have expressed their religious feelings and experiences in the objects they display, worship, and exchange, as well as in the spaces that they build and inhabit. In this process, religious beliefs are externalized in forms of material culture, including symbols, texts, relics, music, and temples. As a result, these artifacts and places carry individual and collective memories and affects that allow believers to experience religion not only at special events like festivals and pilgrimages, but in everyday life. In modern China, the connotations and forms of material carriers have diversified. The rise of souvenirs and other forms of cultural consumption have transformed the materialization of religiosity. In the worship of Mazu, the relationship between pilgrimage, tourism, entertainment, and the production and circulation of commodities has become increasingly tight, changing the cult's beliefs and their physical expression. That connection also brings social and economic sustenance to the local community. Taking the Mazu Temple in Meizhou as a case, this paper adopts a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to examine the pilgrimage–tourism–commerce nexus, as well as other contemporary forms of the materialization of her cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mast-step coins have been discovered in Roman shipwrecks dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE, and their placement at the foot of the ship's mainmast was a deliberate act with significant maritime and religious meaning. This article argues that, in antiquity, mast-step coins were votive offerings to a deity associated with the mast and sails of ancient sailing vessels, and it is proposed that this deity was Isis Pelagia, the inventor of navigation and mistress of the sea. Through a discussion of Isis Pelagia's iconography and other aspects of Isis' cult, including her sailing festivals and aretalogy, it is posited that the mast came to symbolize the goddess whose natural place was on the decks of Roman ships, holding their billowing sails and guiding them safely to shore. Allegorically, these coins may thus have been placed at the feet of Isis Pelagia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tradition of female alchemy is established in the view that the female body, like the Earth, is the form of a living goddess and endowed with the fertile energy to nurture all life. This fertile energy is concentrated and reflected in women's menstruation. Because of this energy, women can cultivate themselves as immortals through meditation and self-effort. At this level, the goddess and women share the same power. Therefore, every woman possesses this inner power; indeed, every woman is a goddess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mother Goddess Worship's (MGW) private shrine—Điện thờ Mẫu tư gia—has been a prominent worshipping place of a Vietnamese folk religion; however, it is rarely documented in scholarship in both Vietnamese and English. This paper is based mainly on in-depth interviews and numerous follow-up conversations with sixteen MGW spirit mediums in Hanoi capital city, additionally verified and supported by the authors' field notes. The findings reveal that worshipping Buddha(s) at MGW private shrines is a remarkable phenomenon and becoming common; however, they vary at different levels because of different reasons in which non-religious causes are significantly considered. The absence of worshipping Buddha(s), if there is any, is explained by the problems of lacking space or being in serious spiritual conflicts that cannot be avoided. In those cases, a Buddha(s) altar is often immediately added when the space is improved, and Buddha(s) statues/pictures are still displayed. Furthermore, the continuous blending of MGW—a Vietnamese folk religion—with Buddhism—a world religion—is proved to be not only a way that religious people choose to nurture their faith and seek preferable religious practices but additionally to be flexible to adapt their religion in the modern era. Finally, regarding religious freedom and tolerance, we argue that private shrines are able to be active freely without any control by the government such as they used to be prohibited in the past. In some circumstances, government officers also benefit from services offered by local mediums, even though they might not be MGW followers. Furthermore, mediums' neighbors are friendly to or even enjoy shrines' activities. Such facts show the improvement in religious freedom in Vietnam in recent decades, as well as once again proving the tolerance of the Vietnamese people towards different religions and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]