Orakel und Gebete

This volume deals with the two basic forms of religious communication in antiquity. The first of these is prayer, which can be seen as an appeal and an expression of gratitude, a lament and praise, addressed to God or the gods by human beings. The second is the oracle, which can be seen as the discourse of a deity which is imparted by humans and which predicts the future. The authors examine these from the perspective of Egyptology, Ancient Oriental studies, Biblical studies and Classics. They focus on Hellenism as an era of an intense cultural encounter between the Orient and the Occident and the changes in intellectual and literary history associated with this which were also reflected in religions and their forms of language. Thus the articles in this volume provide a general view of the forms and structures of oracles and prayers in Hellenistic Egypt, the Near East, Israel and Greece as well as some interpretations of selected sources.