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Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Take a deep dive into the ancient roots of our culture as you explore the religious history of the ancient Mediterranean world.
 
 
Rated 3 out of 5 by from Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World I am enjoying this DVD however there are major concerns regarding facts. I bring attention to Glenn Holland and other readers/viewers with the following: 1. David’s Origins: Not an Israelite? Holland’s assertion that David was not born an Israelite, with a Moabite mother and a father from a “Jebusite” Bethlehem, contradicts the biblical account and lacks clear support from primary sources. Biblical Evidence: The Hebrew Bible identifies David as an Israelite from the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:1, 17:12). His genealogy in 1 Chronicles 2:1–15 traces his lineage through Judah, son of Jacob, to Jesse, his father, with no mention of foreign ancestry. Mother from Moab?: The Bible does not specify David’s mother’s identity or origin. The only Moabite connection in David’s family is through his great-grandmother, Ruth, a Moabite who converted to Israelite religion (Ruth 1:16, 4:13–17). Ruth married Boaz, an Israelite from Bethlehem, and their lineage led to Jesse and David. Holland’s claim about David’s mother being Moabite appears to misapply Ruth’s story or rely on an unsubstantiated tradition. Bethlehem as a Jebusite City?: Bethlehem is consistently described as an Israelite city in Judah (Judges 17:7, 1 Samuel 16:4). It is about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, which was Jebusite-controlled until David’s conquest (2 Samuel 5:6–10). No biblical or archaeological evidence suggests Bethlehem was Jebusite. Holland’s claim may stem from Bethlehem’s proximity to Jerusalem or a speculative view of mixed populations in the region, but this is not supported by texts like Judges 19:1–2 or Micah 5:2, which affirm Bethlehem’s Judahite identity. Historical Context: Archaeological data (e.g., from Tel Beth-Shemesh or Khirbet Qeiyafa) indicate Judahite settlements in the region around 1000 BCE, David’s era, with no evidence of Jebusite control over Bethlehem. The Amarna Letters (14th century BCE) mention Bethlehem as a Canaanite town, but by David’s time, it was firmly Israelite. Holland’s view may reflect a minimalist perspective (e.g., Israel Finkelstein), which sees early Israelite identity as fluid, emerging from Canaanite groups. However, even minimalists don’t claim Bethlehem was Jebusite or that David was non-Israelite. Evaluation: The claim that David was not Israelite due to a Moabite mother and Jebusite Bethlehem is speculative and contradicts the biblical narrative. Ruth’s Moabite heritage is too distant to make David non-Israelite, and Bethlehem’s Jebusite status lacks evidence. Holland may be emphasizing cultural fluidity to challenge traditional views, but this oversteps available data. 2. David Retaining Jebusite Gods? Holland suggests David may have worshipped Jebusite gods, such as El Elyon and Shalem, alongside or instead of Yahweh, influencing Jerusalem’s worship practices. Biblical Evidence: The Bible portrays David as a devoted follower of Yahweh (1 Samuel 17:45, 2 Samuel 7:1–29). Psalms attributed to him (e.g., Psalm 7:17) praise “Yahweh Most High,” equating Yahweh with Elyon, not worshipping Elyon as a separate deity. 2 Samuel 5: After conquering Jerusalem, David brings the Ark of the Covenant there (2 Samuel 6), establishing Yahweh worship as central. There’s no mention of Jebusite gods in his practices. El Elyon and Shalem: Genesis 14:18–20 links El Elyon and Salem (possibly Jerusalem) to Melchizedek, a pre-Israelite priest-king. Some scholars (e.g., Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God) argue Elyon was a Canaanite high god later syncretized with Yahweh. Shalem, possibly a deity or epithet meaning “peace,” is tied to Jerusalem’s name (Urushalim in Egyptian texts). However, no biblical text suggests David worshipped these gods distinctly. Historical Context: Ugaritic texts (13th century BCE) confirm El Elyon as a Canaanite deity, and Jerusalem’s pre-Israelite cult may have included such gods. David’s adoption of Jerusalem as a religious center (2 Samuel 6) likely involved co-opting local sacred sites, as was common in the ancient Near East (e.g., Assyrian kings adopting local temples). Archaeological evidence (e.g., Canaanite cultic remains in Jerusalem) suggests continuity of some practices, but no inscriptions link David directly to non-Yahwistic worship. Holland’s claim aligns with theories of early Israelite henotheism, where Yahweh was primary but other gods were acknowledged (Deuteronomy 32:8–9, Psalm 82). David’s priests, like Zadok (see below), may have incorporated Canaanite elements into Yahweh worship to unify diverse populations. Evaluation: David likely adopted Canaanite religious terminology (e.g., Elyon as a title for Yahweh) to legitimize his rule in Jerusalem, but there’s no evidence he retained Jebusite gods as distinct deities. Holland’s claim exaggerates this syncretism, as the Bible emphasizes David’s loyalty to Yahweh.
Date published: 2025-10-27
Rated 4 out of 5 by from I hope that my review will not be considered presumptuous. I am a rank amateur in the realms of Philosophy and Theology. I do not intend to review this course in terms of religion or Philosophy so much as to identify some of the issues that have been raised in this course and many others concerned with religion and the history of Ideas. I have been revisiting Kant, and Schopenhauer as the culmination of a to identify the nature of millennia long quest to understand Providence,, and not merely to identify it in terms of its origins but in terms of its provenance, and to articulate the aspiration that prompted the quest in terms of their experience and environment and Professor Hollands account seems by his descriptions to be very interesting and helpful. I say I have been revisiting Kant and Schopenhauer,, but also Karl Popper and Luther and Joan of Arc. A strange assortment indeed. In between I have visited courses on Women in the Middle Ages, lost Heroes of the Ancient World and revisited frequently The origin of the Modern Mind, The Intellectual Tradition from Descartes to Derrida, and Great Ideas in Philosophy and here is here my presumption is at its greatest magnitude and my amateurishness perhaps ridiculous. Starting with a question that Holland does not ask, and why should he. A pupil of mine, a typical teenager a girl discovered herself or herself was revealed to her by two exchange visits to France and Germany. In the first she was averted to a world that we had singularly failed to reveal to her. She was taken to the louvre, she went to the Comedie and saw Racine's Athalie, she went down on excursion to the South and saw the great Roman aqueduct that dominates Arles, and there made contact with Van Gogh, and her career as a typical teenager was terminated. She had been put in toucher with her inheritance as a young woman of Europe. It was not the actual items that excited her, as much as that she was made aware of a world beyond her hitherto limited experience and she asked questions, she wanted to know. She was put in contact with Mind, Intellect curiosity, and like herself educated in France what she found exciting was that the host and hostess and the daughter were engaged as well. Her second visit to Germany and her host here was a Professor of Voice at a Musikschule and here t was where fate steps in. She was singing in the shower, a refrain she had heard, one of the Mignon Songs set by Schubert and the host was so impressed by her voice that he and a colleague tested her out and found that she had what we had failed to discover to her, that she had a voice, a Mezzo Voice what we call Contralto, and so impressed ws he that he wrote to the school and expressed the hope that the school would encourage her. I do not intend to dwell on this except that her voice was such that the director of a local opera Society was so thrilled that she changed all her plans she decided to stage 'Orpheo e Eurydice' by Gluck and in the process the girl came up with an original idea, so vivid, so exciting that she startled us all into reappraising the meaning of the opera. What suggested the idea was that since the demise of the Castrato the role was now a breeches role. But my heroine chose to imagine Orpheus as a young woman, her very self distinctly female descending to the under world to retrieve her Feminine. I shall never forget her performance of the Act II scene where she broaches her mission to the Furies, and the Furies were modern commercial culture that were more lasciviously interested in the charms of her female so that the Feminine was not in their interest to surrender. The final scene the girl dared something even more astonishing and even more beautiful , she appeared in the nude, her Feminine and her Female united in unashamed glory . She said. 'When I was ten before my hormones played me up I was a serious, mature little girl of ten and so I remained until I became a girl, prey to male appetites, susceptible to flattery and credulous of commercials and press but on my visit to France and Germany I stumbled on my Mind, unencumbered by teenage culture. My attitude was changed, not only in respect to this opera and teenage girls but to Theology and Philosophy ad things of the Mind .And here is where the Presumption becomes of great magnitude. I remembered Kant's letter to Lichtenberg and how he suspected that Feminine Philosophy had yet to be written. All this erudition which, do not mistake me, is important, but may tend to receive an excess of Scholarship and erudition.to understand the aspiration Perhaps the Quest of all these people, as of today, who had not yet stumbled upon Mind, but they had aspirations, they had mysteries to grapple with and they did so in the manner that we recognise as Theology or Philosophy, but ultimately the idea is not Gods, it is not objective Truths analysed in scholarly apparatus but part of the human evolution of the concept of Mind, and it is not Gods or lack of them but how to cope with the transcendental idea Mind', whether we call it God or Faith or voices . What Schopenhauer did with Kant was to illuminate what Luther meant by Faith. For Luther it may be faith in the Gospel but he should not be confined y that any more than Joan of Arch should be contained by her voices or her trousers. They are isotopes of MInd, isotopes of Aspiration. I was made aware of this by this pupil to whom I owe an enormous debt She alerted me to ideas and critical response to more than Gluck's Opera. The English Mystic who wrote Clouds of the Unknowing ad Thomas a Kempis Imitation of Christ. For Joan of Arc, for Luther, for the gods and goddesses of the Mediterranean the clouds cleared and they articulated 'mind' in the only currency and lexicon available but the Quest is Mind, and here my amateurish enters into the scene, The Quest for the Feminine. I thought it to be an idea of recent origin until in another course I was re-alerted to Diotima, and recalled Sappho and all those heroic women whose precocity culminated often enough in ther being libelled, burned or murdered as Hypatia. The common denominator of Philosophy ad Religion seem to me to disguise, to conceal a truth that has survived epochs of study and explanation. God is Mind, and Perhaps what Diotima, and Aspasia and Joan experienced has been lost in the apparatus of scholarship, none the less I found the course essential data for my presumption but perhaps Religion is really only a branch of the Biological History of the Evolution of the Human Mind and just maybe the concealed feminine is our common quest, be it male or female. I leave it to those that followed this course with a much interest, to judge.
Date published: 2025-06-08
Rated 5 out of 5 by from How essential questions -- and approaches live on! I cannot remember when I have enjoyed more "ah ha's" in a course in a long time! As one who attempts to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I am fairly well acquainted with the New Testament, growing in my understanding of the fascinating books of the Old Testament but, however, had until this course had only a more cursory appreciation of other ancient religions of that part of the world. I did know some things about them as an historian, but I didn't really appreciate them. And the distinction is important. Professor Holland's approach is respectful and attempts to present each culture's beliefs -- as well as how those beliefs evolved over time -- in a matter-of-fact manner emphasizing how people of that time would have understood them. When it comes to the Hebrew Bible and the matter of Jesus and the early Christian movement he admits that whether we moderns are "believers" or "church and synagogue goers" or not, we live in a milieu shaped by the Bible and in which few memories of those older religious forms continue to be even known. I admit that his attempt to faithfully present the panoply of the ancient gods and goddesses of Egypt and Mesopotamia at times had my head reeling with the names of these multiple deities (and sub-deities), but as the lectures unfolded I better understood how this helped paint in fuller detail the world that the ancients lived in AND how they understood that world and their relationship to the realm of the divine or sacred. In sum, the principal great lessons I have drawn from this course are these: We continue to ponder the SAME essential questions as did the ancients, namely: 1) How did the world we are in -- as Professor Holland repeatedly expresses it, the "world as it is" -- come to be? and 2) What relationship, if any, do human beings have to this world and to the realm of the sacred and divine? The ancients struggled with the perceived problem of cause and effect: 1) Since all effects have causes, and since "the gods" must be the ultimate "cause," how to explain what happens even to obviously good people? 2) How might we humans propitiate, plead with, and seek to avoid evil in this world (premature death, severe injury, plagues and famines) in our relationship to the divine/sacred realm? What is expected of us -- as a people and as individuals? (For a long time the answer to the last question was understood by all the ancient cultures as being more "the people" than individuals, and also that certain persons -- pharaohs, kings, priests, etc. -- were better positioned to intercede for "the people" than others. If we're not careful, we "moderns" can slip into thinking that our ancestors (in time as well as in faith beliefs) were rather "primitive" and uninformed. This course helps us put such misleading -- and, frankly, unworthy -- forms of thinking aside. Rather, our ancestors were keen observers of "what happened": they understood the annual cycles of the year, they pondered the movement of the sun and moon and stars in the heavens, and they also knew intimately well how brief was the average lifespan of men and women. So, why does this all exist? What is our place in it? Is there meaning to all of this, including to our lives? Or is it just random "noise." Both because our brains are wired to find patterns and explanations and also because we WANT to believe that our brief lives DO mean something, a way to understand humanity's many answers to these essential questions is to study what religions through time have proposed as answers. We yearn for certainty; yet there is little that is certain about the world, and NOTHING that is certain -- let alone really known -- about whether anything at all follows our lives on this planet. A fascinating course, brilliantly told and woven together, and one that found me asking with new respect some very, very old questions!
Date published: 2024-07-25
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent course This course is a very thorough scholarly endeavor. It conveys a tremendous amount of material; I found the series on ancient Egypt, Israel and Rome particularly strong. The course does require a large commitment with respect to time and concentration but rewards its readers amply. I have read the negative reviews that have been posted, many of which concern his treatment of early Christianity. I thought Professor Holland addressed it fairly, although I do agree that his use of “Common Era” is tedious. Our convention of dating is rooted in Christianity. If you want to use a different convention – after the Hadj, after the French Revolution, after Pol Pot, etc. – feel free to do so. But it’s silly to use a Christian convention and pretend it is something different.
Date published: 2024-01-14
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Excellent overview from a knowledgeable professor I bought this course on Instant Video several years ago and have watched the entire course several times. While I admit that it took me several lectures to get used to and appreciate the lecturer's speaking style, I am so glad that I did because I learned as much from this course as any of the dozens of other Great Courses I have watched over the years. Yes, his speaking style can be dry at times but so can his wit, which I very much appreciated. Please be aware that this is an older course, however, so don't buy expecting the latest research.
Date published: 2023-09-02
Rated 3 out of 5 by from Plodding Comparative Religion This course surveys the most important religions relevant to Western Civilization. These religions include Egyptian religion, Mesopotamian religions, Judaism, Greek and Roman religion, and ultimately the origins of Christianity. Dr. Holland examines the superstitious origins and development of each of these religions. He also compares common mythological stories in each of these religions such as a flood epic. In some respects, this is what used to be called “comparative religion.” Dr. Holland is a methodical, perhaps plodding, lecturer. (The course has 48 lectures instead of the normal 24.) He is generally formal in style, even to the point of dressing in a jacket and tie. I do not recall seeing him smile at all. It did not seem to me that he interacted with his audience; rather, he seemed to be satisfied with transmitting the material. This paragraph is a personal rant. If you are not interested in my personal opinion, please skip to the next paragraph. Dr. Holland spends a lecture on the quest for the historical Jesus, duplicating some of the material in the courses by Dr. Bart Ehrmann. Although I recognize this is a major scholarly endeavor, it seems to me to this is bad scholarship because it ignores the central question. Consider a quest into the historical Socrates that excludes philosophy (which cannot be proved historically) and instead asks whether he was right handed or left handed. What’s the point? Next to his philosophy, his handedness is immaterial. Without his philosophy, Socrates is not worth studying. Similarly, the better scholarly approach would be to present what the proponents contend *in their own terms*, what was the impact on society, and what were the objections of the opponents. The course guide is average by The Great Courses (TGC) standards. It is written in outline format, which makes it more difficult to follow than paragraph format. There are only about 5 pages per lecture, which is well below the TGC average. The only graphic is a map of the Mediterranean world. However, the appendix includes extensive and useful timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and bibliography. I used the video version of this course. There were few graphics that added anything of significance even when graphics, such as maps or pictures of artwork, would make the material more understandable. The audio version would be just as good. The course was published in 2005.
Date published: 2023-08-29
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Extremely informative Dr Holland is an excellent lecturer and makes what could be a rather dry subject enjoyable.
Date published: 2023-03-16
Rated 5 out of 5 by from Insightful Excellent series of lectures. I learned much and have a greater appreciation for the world of the past that has shaped my thinking today.
Date published: 2023-02-04
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Talking About Ancient Religious Cultures

01: Talking About Ancient Religious Cultures

The lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea provide the basis for most religious beliefs and practices in the modern Western world. Professor Holland previews the major features of the course, which will use stories as a primary means to gain insight into the religious cultures of the region.

33 min
What is Religion?

02: What is Religion?

What is religion? Our working definition includes the idea of the sacred, the systematic unity of beliefs and practices, and the community created through those common beliefs and practices.

30 min
Early Prehistoric Religion

03: Early Prehistoric Religion

This lecture explores the earliest forms of human religious expression by examining the material culture of the Old and Middle Stone Ages. The evidence shows a desire for harmony and equilibrium among human beings, and between human beings and the spiritual world.

30 min
Prehistoric Religion—The Neolithic Era

04: Prehistoric Religion—The Neolithic Era

We move on to the great revolution in the human way of life represented by the New Stone Age, or Neolithic era, and the acceleration of cultural change that ultimately resulted in the beginnings of the first great civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world: Egypt and Mesopotamia.

30 min
Egypt—A Unique Religious Culture

05: Egypt—A Unique Religious Culture

This lecture considers the beginnings of Egyptian civilization and some of its typical depictions of the gods. All of Egyptian religion and its stories refer either directly or indirectly to the three primary realities of life in ancient Egypt: the sun, the Nile, and the divine pharaoh.

30 min
Egyptian Creation Stories and Their Meaning

06: Egyptian Creation Stories and Their Meaning

There are four means of creation in Mediterranean mythic cosmogonies: creation by making, creation by combat, creation through sexual generation, and creation by word. We study Egyptian creation stories to learn what they tell us about the relationships among gods, humanity, and the cosmos.

30 min
The Egyptian Pantheon

07: The Egyptian Pantheon

The Egyptian pantheon may be divided into gods that represent natural phenomena, regional gods, funerary gods, and gods identified with professions. There was inevitable overlap in association and function among the gods, as evidenced by the many solar deities.

31 min
Egyptian Myths of Kingship

08: Egyptian Myths of Kingship

The pharaoh was at the center of Egyptian religious culture. He was responsible for establishing divine order and justice, enabling the proper functioning of the human and divine worlds. His legitimacy and authority were supported by the myth of the contest between Horus and Seth.

30 min
Egyptian Myths of the Underworld

09: Egyptian Myths of the Underworld

The Egyptians show more concern with preparation for the afterlife than any other ancient civilization known to us. We examine the range of Egyptian beliefs and practices related to death, especially the spiritual and physical preparation for the dead to enter the realm of Osiris.

30 min
Egypt—The Power of Goddesses

10: Egypt—The Power of Goddesses

Goddesses play an important role in Egyptian creation mythology, both as personifications of the cosmic elements and as mothers to new generations of gods. As a group, the Egyptian goddesses display strength, initiative, cleverness, and other virtues traditionally associated with women.

30 min
Egypt—Religion in Everyday Life

11: Egypt—Religion in Everyday Life

We study official and popular religious practices in ancient Egypt. Official daily rituals included washing, dressing, and "feeding" the cult statue of the temple. Popular religion focused on magic and rituals, including the use of spells and amulets, and attempts to see the future.

30 min
Egypt—The Beginning of Wisdom

12: Egypt—The Beginning of Wisdom

Proverbial wisdom is part of the cultural heritage of all peoples throughout history. We conclude our examination of Egyptian religious culture with a discussion of its literature of ethical instruction, which provides our earliest example of the Mediterranean world's wisdom tradition.

30 min
Mesopotamia—The Land Between the Rivers

13: Mesopotamia—The Land Between the Rivers

We begin our study of the religious beliefs and practices of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The region was home to a succession of related but distinct civilizations that shared a common religious culture, albeit one that was constantly evolving through the centuries.

30 min
Mesopotamia—Stories of Creation

14: Mesopotamia—Stories of Creation

Mesopotamian gods are like overlords in a political hierarchy, but with divine authority and power. This lecture reviews the gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon and discusses two stories, Enuma Elish and the myth of Adapa, that describe the origins of all things and the human situation.

31 min
Mesopotamia—Inanna the Goddess

15: Mesopotamia—Inanna the Goddess

The Mesopotamian fertility goddess was worshiped in Sumer as Inanna and later in Babylon as Ishtar. We consider the different attributes, titles, and powers that made her the most important and powerful goddess in the Mesopotamian pantheon.

30 min
Mesopotamia—Gilgamesh the King

16: Mesopotamia—Gilgamesh the King

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest surviving epic poem. This lecture discusses the first part of this haunting masterpiece, which narrates the adventures of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, two heroes who set out on a long journey to slay Humbaba, a monster of the wilderness.

30 min
Mesopotamia—The Search for Eternal Life

17: Mesopotamia—The Search for Eternal Life

We continue our discussion of The Epic of Gilgamesh by reviewing the two heroes' encounter with Ishtar, which results in Enkidu's death and Gilgamesh's quest for eternal life. The quest has many parallels in the wisdom literature we have already considered.

30 min
Mesopotamia—The Great Flood

18: Mesopotamia—The Great Flood

The story of Ut-napishtim and the primeval flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh has clear parallels with the story of another Mesopotamian hero, Atrahasis, and the biblical story of Noah. The differences reflect a fundamental incongruity between Mesopotamian and Israelite conceptions of the divine.

31 min
Ancient Concepts of the Divine

19: Ancient Concepts of the Divine

This lecture looks at the different concepts of the divine that lie behind polytheism (belief in many gods), henotheism (belief and trust in one chief god among the many gods that exist), and monotheism (belief and trust in the one and only God who exists).

32 min
The Gods of Syria-Palestine

20: The Gods of Syria-Palestine

We begin our study of Syria-Palestine, whose chief god was 'El, creator of all things. His son Ba'al, god of storms and fertility, recalls several Mesopotamian myths. The worship of the Lord in Israel was both different from and consistent with other Syro-Palestinian religious traditions.

30 min
Israel's Ancestral History

21: Israel's Ancestral History

The stories about Israel's ancestors in Genesis reflect the life of nomadic herders in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. We examine these stories and the development of Israelite religious culture in the aftermath of the Exodus, which established a new relationship between the Lord and Israel.

30 min
Israel's National History

22: Israel's National History

When the Israelites settled in Palestine, their way of life changed profoundly, a change reflected in their religious culture, as Ba'al became a rival to the Lord. We review Israel's history primarily in terms of its evolving understanding of its covenantal obligations to the Lord as the God of Israel.

31 min
Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

23: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

A significant factor in the development of religious culture in Israel during the monarchy was the independent religious voice of prophecy. We consider prophecy as a cross-cultural phenomenon and how it resembles other methods of divining the will of the gods or of foreseeing the future.

29 min
Early Prophecy in Israel

24: Early Prophecy in Israel

Scholars have identified three types of prophecy in ancient Israel: guild prophecy carried out by groups under a leader; official prophecy carried out through the royal court or the cult; and independent prophecy carried out by prophets who speak on the Lord's behalf without official sanction.

30 min
Classical Israelite Prophecy

25: Classical Israelite Prophecy

Continuing our discussion of prophecy, we look at the prophetic messages and careers of some of the great prophets of Israel, those usually referred to as the "writing prophets" because they have biblical books of prophetic oracles named after them.

30 min
Israel's Great Crisis

26: Israel's Great Crisis

This lecture examines the religious crisis that surrounded the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of many of its people to Babylon. We see how the prophets made sense of this disaster, and in doing so, reaffirmed the Lord's faithfulness and loving concern for his people.

31 min
Syria-Palestine—The Problem of Evil

27: Syria-Palestine—The Problem of Evil

Polytheistic and henotheistic religions can blame evil on conflicts between gods, but monotheistic religions must reconcile belief in an all-powerful and morally perfect God with the existence of evil. We look at two responses to the problem of evil: the book of Job and apocalyptic literature.

30 min
Early Aegean Civilizations

28: Early Aegean Civilizations

We begin our discussion of the civilizations around the Aegean Sea, examining Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations and their religious cultures. The nature of Minoan civilization is deeply mysterious; Mycenaean civilization is the historical setting for events in the Iliad and Odyssey.

30 min
Religious Culture in the Iliad and the Odyssey

29: Religious Culture in the Iliad and the Odyssey

The Dark Age following the Mycenaean era saw a drastic decrease in the scale and quality of life in Greece. Writing disappeared, and memories of the Mycenaean era were preserved in oral stories of gods and heroes, most notably in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

30 min
Religious Culture in Archaic Greece

30: Religious Culture in Archaic Greece

This lecture covers the religious culture of the Archaic Age, a period of robust growth and development that established the basis for Classical Greek culture. Two poetic works, the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod's Theogony, give insight into prevailing beliefs and attitudes towards the gods in the Archaic Age.

31 min
Greece—How Things Came to Be

31: Greece—How Things Came to Be

The Greek story of creation in Hesiod's Theogony resembles myths from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Similarly, the Greek story of the flood has many points of contact with the Mesopotamian stories of Atrahasis and Ut-napishtim, as well as with the biblical story of Noah.

30 min
Greece—The Goddess

32: Greece—The Goddess

Although goddesses in polytheistic religious cultures often have associations with fertility, most of them develop beyond this primary identity. This is the case in Greece, where goddesses represent a range of female activities. We look at three: Athena, Demeter, and Aphrodite.

30 min
The Classical Era in Greece

33: The Classical Era in Greece

The Classical Era in ancient Greece fell between the Persian wars and the death of Alexander the Great, when Greek city-states, especially Athens, achieved a remarkable political and cultural synthesis. Greek philosophy from the period saw human reason as a part of divine nature and pursued the virtuous life based on knowledge of the good.

30 min
Greece—Philosophy as Religion

34: Greece—Philosophy as Religion

During the Classical Era many of the elite rejected mythology as unworthy portrayals of the gods, and turned to philosophy as an alternative. We look at philosophy as a means of gaining insight into the divine world and bringing human behavior in line with the divine will.

32 min
Religious Culture in the Hellenistic World

35: Religious Culture in the Hellenistic World

The conquests of Alexander the Great were accompanied by the growth of Hellenistic culture, as key elements of Classical Greek culture were imposed on the subject nations. Religious synthesis arose when gods, rituals, and mythology of one religious culture were combined with those of another.

30 min
Mystery Religions in the Hellenistic World

36: Mystery Religions in the Hellenistic World

The Hellenistic Era saw a return to the worship of earth-based gods by groups practicing secret rituals. The gods of these "mystery religions" were often fertility deities whose myths were reinterpreted as stories of death and rebirth. We look at these cults as expressions of religious yearnings of the period.

30 min
Mystery Religions from the East

37: Mystery Religions from the East

Apuleius's novel The Golden Ass provides information about two mystery religions: the cult of the Syrian goddess and the mysteries of Isis. The Syrian goddess resembles the Great Mother worshiped in Asia Minor, while Isis came the closest of any ancient god to being the focus of a worldwide religion.

31 min
Roman Religious Culture Before the Empire

38: Roman Religious Culture Before the Empire

We turn to the religions of ancient Rome by considering its religious culture in the centuries before the beginning of the Roman Empire. The Romans believed the cosmos was suffused with spiritual power they could perceive in groups, places, activities, and the objects of everyday life.

33 min
Rome—Saviors and Divine Men

39: Rome—Saviors and Divine Men

Augustus Caesar was accorded divine honors in his lifetime, reflecting the era's need for "savior" figures—gods or humans with the spiritual power to aid suppliants. Another sort of savior was the "divine man," endowed with divine power manifested in wisdom and miraculous works.

31 min
Rome—Divination, Astrology, and Magic

40: Rome—Divination, Astrology, and Magic

This lecture looks at three strategies for dealing with the forces of fate: divination was used for discerning the will of the gods in a given situation and gauging how to please them; astrology provided insight into divine intentions; and magic was used for healing, love charms, cursing, and thwarting curses.

31 min
Rome—Critics and Charlatans

41: Rome—Critics and Charlatans

We consider philosophical critiques of Greco-Roman religious traditions. These include attacks on religious beliefs as either unworthy of the true nature of the gods or inconsistent with worldly reality, and criticism of religious people as hypocritical con artists or gullible fools.

31 min
Jesus of Nazareth as a Figure in History

42: Jesus of Nazareth as a Figure in History

In this lecture, we start with the hypothesis that Jesus believed he was called to reform the Judaism of his time. This idea is tested and supplemented with widely accepted historical data about Jesus. The result is a theory of Jesus' intentions consistent with his standing as a unique religious thinker.

31 min
Creating Jesus Communities

43: Creating Jesus Communities

The Jesus movement began as a sectarian group within Judaism, with its own rituals and prayers. We discuss the movement's growth and development as a nonconforming religious community in the early Roman Empire, and the break with Judaism that left it open to persecution by Roman authorities.

31 min
Living and Dying for the God(s)

44: Living and Dying for the God(s)

The idea that death is sometimes preferable to life has a strong grounding in the Greek religious and philosophical tradition. We discuss the idea of martyrdom, and the idea that a person's philosophical or religious convictions are best demonstrated by a fitting death.

30 min
Women's Religious Roles in the Early Empire

45: Women's Religious Roles in the Early Empire

We discuss women's participation in Roman, Jewish, and Christian religious cultures, which included both domestic and official duties. For example, the Vestal Virgins performed priestly duties for the Roman state, and early Christian women served as congregational patrons and missionaries.

31 min
The Jesus Movement in the Greco-Roman World

46: The Jesus Movement in the Greco-Roman World

Responses to a series of crises in the late 1st century shaped the New Testament and other works of the Jesus movement. We discuss reactions to the Jesus movement among Roman elites, and the movement's attempts to explain its doctrines in philosophical terms.

33 min
The Death and Rebirth of the Old Gods

47: The Death and Rebirth of the Old Gods

Christianity steadily gained strength in Roman society from the late 2nd century onward. This lecture considers how the polytheistic religious heritage of the ancient Mediterranean world was overcome by a triumphant Christianity, and to some extent, synthesized into it.

30 min
Conclusion—Persisting Ideas and Yearnings

48: Conclusion—Persisting Ideas and Yearnings

In this final lecture, Professor Holland reviews the major themes of the course and discusses some of the enduring ideas characteristic of ancient Mediterranean religious culture that still exert an influence on religious thinking in the West today.

31 min

Overview Course No. 6340

Step back to a time when the mysteries of the universe could seem overwhelming. Cycles of nature kept predictable time with the sun, the moon, and the stars, yet crops failed, disease struck, storms ravaged, and empires fell without warning. In the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, people responded to such tumult with a rich variety of religious beliefs.

From these beliefs, we get some of Western civilization's most powerful texts: the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, the Hebrew Bible, the Greek epics of Homer, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the New Testament, among many others. Composed largely of stories of human interaction with the divine, these narratives gave ordinary people a window into the unfathomable realm of the sacred.

Archaeological remains show that ancient peoples also responded with a complex array of religious rituals, and their temples, cultic statues, funerary goods, and household devotional items are among the world's greatest cultural treasures.

Using such textual and archaeological evidence, these 48 marvelous lectures explore the religious cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, from the earliest indications of human religious practices during prehistoric times to the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity in the 4th century of the Common Era.

You'll discover the religious traditions of a wide range of civilizations, including the ancient kingdom of Egypt; ancient Mesopotamia; ancient Syria-Palestine, including Israel and Judah; Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and the successive civilizations of the Greek mainland; and the city of Rome, whose empire dominated the entire Mediterranean world at the end of the ancient era.

About

Glenn S. Holland
Glenn S. Holland

To learn about religion is to learn about what motivates and inspires people at the most basic level, leading them to look beyond the everyday business of life to something more meaningful and ultimately more satisfying.

INSTITUTION

Allegheny College

Dr. Glenn S. Holland is the Bishop James Thoburn Professor of Religious Studies at Allegheny College. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, his M.A. in Theology from the University of Oxford, and his Ph.D. in the Bible and New Testament Studies from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Professor Holland is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the Thoburn Chair in Religious Studies in 1992, and the Divisional Professorship in Humanities at Allegheny College in 2003. Professor Holland wrote and edited several books, including Philodemus and the New Testament World and Divine Irony, a study of irony as the adoption of the divine perspectives on events in the human world. Professor Holland is a contributor and assistant editor for the award-winning journal Common Knowledge.

By This Professor

Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
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