Author Description

This book provides a detailed insight into the typology, characteristics and conceptual and iconographic elements of the solar and lunar divinities of Asia Minor. It has a special focus on native or indigenised cults. Furthermore, Anatolian divinities are studied not only in the Roman, but also during the incipient phases of these cults. The main topics include issues of polymorphism, polyonymy and the specific cultural adaptations of the Anatolian deities, the world of the gods, that of mortals and the relations between dedicators and divinities. The first part studies the origin of the name and of the divinity, an attempt to determine the area of dessemination, epithets, attributes, identifications with other gods, myths and the associated divinities, as well as symbolism and iconographical elements. The second part features the economic life of the temples, the organisation of the sacred space, the nature of the priesthood and the categories of dedicators, association patterns, age and kinship, and the alterations that occurred during this period in the perception of the divine world both in the Anatolian area and throughout the Roman empire. In the last part of the volume the reader can find useful information regarding the typology of inscriptions used by the author and the means of communication between the divine world and the terrestrial one.