audiobook Gupta Sculpture: Indian Sculpture of the Fourth to the Sixth Centuries A.D. by J. C. Harle in History

Description

The nineteenth century is a key period in the history of the interpretation of the Greek gods. The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship examines how German and British scholars of the time drew on philology; archaeology; comparative mythology; anthropology; or sociology to advance radically different theories on the Greek gods and their origins. For some; they had been personifications of natural elements; for others; they had begun as universal gods like the Christian god; yet for others; they went back to totems or were projections of group unity. The volume discusses the views of both well-known figures like K. O. Muller (1797-1840); or Jane Harrison (1850-1928); and of forgotten; but important; scholars like F. G. Welcker (1784-1868). It explores the underlying assumptions and agendas of the rival theories in the light of their intellectual and cultural context; laying stress on how they were connected to broader contemporary debates over fundamental questions such as the origins and nature of religion; or the relation between Western culture and the 'Orient'. It also considers the impact of theories from this period on twentieth- and twenty-first-century scholarship on Greek religion and draws implications for the study of the Greek gods today.