The Page World: Ancient Religions before Christianity (course guidebook)

Introduction
	Professor Biography
	Table of Contents
	Course Scope
Lecture Guides
	Lecture 1—Early Pagan Religion in Mesopotamia 
		Ancient Mesopotamian Civilizations
		The Mesopotamian Creation Epic
		The Myth in Context
	Lecture 2—The Rigveda and the Gods of Ancient India
		Vedic Religion
		Ancient Indian Gods
		The Creation of the Universe
		The Origin of Sacrifice
	Lecture 3—State Religion in Ancient Egypt  
		Ancient Egyptian Religion and History
		Egyptian Divinities
		Sites of Creation
	Lecture 4—From Myth to Religion: The Olympian Deities  
		Zeus: Angry Father and Strongman
		Worship of Zeus on Earth
		Temples of Zeus
		Connections to Myth and Literature
	Lecture 5—Household and Local Gods in Ancient Greece  
		Gods of the House
		Serving the Gods of the House
		Religious Responsibilities of Family Members
	Lecture 6—Feeding the Gods: Sacrificial Religion  
		Elements of Sacrifice
		Sacrifice in the Rigveda
		Human Sacrifice
	Lecture 7—Prayers, Vows, Divination, and Omens  
		Prayers and Vows
		Divination and Omens
	Lecture 8—Delphi and Other Greek Sanctuaries  
		Delphi: Site of the Famous Oracle of Apollo
		Other Major Sanctuaries
	Lecture 9—Cults and Mystery Religions  
		Athena, Goddess of the City of Athens
		Demeter, Goddess of Grain
		Dionysus, God of Intoxication
	Lecture 10—Philosophical Critiques of Paganism  
		Plato’s Critiques
		Earlier Philosophical Critiques
		Other Philosophical Schools of Thought
		Ancient Skepticism and Atheism
	Lecture 11—Greek Funerary Practices and the Afterlife  
		Graves of the Mycenaean Bronze Age
		How the Bereaved Dealt with the Dead
		Worship of Ancestral Spirits
	Lecture 12—Egyptian Influences on Ancient Religion  
		Egyptian Texts of the Afterlife
		The Democratization of Death
		Spells for the Egyptian Afterlife
	Lecture 13—Ancient Roman Ancestor Worship  
		Death in the Rigveda
		Roman Conceptions of the Fate of the Dead
	Lecture 14—Gods of the Roman Household  
		Household Deities
		Men’s Role in Household Worship
		Women and Domestic Ceremonies
	Lecture 15—Gods of the Roman State  
		The Pantheon of the Roman City-State
		Jupiter and the Founding of Rome
		Juno, a Goddess of Women
	Lecture 16—Priests and Ceremonies in the Roman Republic  
		The College of Pontiffs
		Vestal Priestesses
		Roman Priesthoods
	Lecture 17—Religion, Politics, and War in Rome  
		Auspices and Augury
		The Sibylline Oracles
	Lecture 18—Rome’s Reactions to Foreign Religions  
		The Interpretation of Portents and Signs
		The Cult of Bacchus
		Celtic versus German Religion
	Lecture 19—The Roman Calendar and Sacred Days  
		Roman Influences on Our Calendar
		Religious Influences
	Lecture 20—Julius Caesar: A Turning Point in Roman Religion  
		Caesar’s Political World
		Caesar’s Life during Civil War
		Caesar’s Political Career
	Lecture 21—Emperor Worship in Rome  
		The Deification of Julius Caesar
		Gaius Octavius’s Rise to Power
		Worship of the Living Ruler
	Lecture 22—Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians  
		Ancient Iranian Religion
		Roman Judaea
		The Rise of Christianity from within Judaism
	Lecture 23—Popular Religions of Late Antiquity  
		The Persecution of Christians
		The Worship of Isis
		Mithraism and Manichaeism
	Lecture 24—The End of Paganism in the Roman Empire  
		The Triumph of Christianity
		Constantine as the Turning Point
		Christianity as the Official State Religion
Supplementary Materials
	Bibliography
	Image Credits