It is perhaps a truism to note that ancient religion and rhetoric were closely intertwined in
Greek and Roman antiquity. Religion is embedded in socio-political legal and cultural
institutions and structures while also being influenced or even determined by them. Rhetoric
is used to address the divine to invoke the gods to talk about the sacred to express piety
and to articulate refer to recite or explain the meaning of hymns oaths prayers oracles
and other religious matters and processes. The 13 contributions to this volume explore themes
and topics that most succinctly describe the firm interrelation between religion and rhetoric
mostly in but not exclusively focused on Greek and Roman antiquity offering new
interdisciplinary insights into a great variety of aspects from identity construction and
performance to legal political practices and a broad analytical approach to transcultural
ritualistic customs. The volume also offers perceptive insights into oriental (i.e. Egyptian
magic) texts and Christian literature.
