Socioreligious Aspects of 217 Women’s Letters in Egypt, 300 BC–AD 800

Egyptian women’s religious expressions in papyrus letters (Bagnall and Cribiore, 2006) were divided into five categories: None, no god(s) mentioned; Pray, containing “Pray” without gods; Gods, for Greek Gods; Sarapis/local Gods/προσκυνήµα for letters containing prayers in which obeisance before a Go...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion in Africa
Authors: Luca, Luigi M. De (Author) ; Armey, Laura (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2024
In: Journal of religion in Africa
Further subjects:B women’s letters
B Statistical analysis
B formulae
B Family dynamics
B ostracon
B Pagan
B Egypt
B Christian
B Religion
B Serapis
B Greek
B Papyrus
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Egyptian women’s religious expressions in papyrus letters (Bagnall and Cribiore, 2006) were divided into five categories: None, no god(s) mentioned; Pray, containing “Pray” without gods; Gods, for Greek Gods; Sarapis/local Gods/προσκυνήµα for letters containing prayers in which obeisance before a God is expressed in the Egyptian reverential manner, a προσκυνήµα; Θεός/Κύριος/Χριστός letters to the Christian God. The None category is prevalent during the early 300 BC to 100 AD period followed by an increase in, and then stable, formulaic/religious expressions. The Pray category peaked in the second and third centuries AD, and the Gods category, referring to pagan Gods, showed a steady and significant decline from the first to the fourth century AD inverse to the rise in prevalence of letters in the Θεός/Κύριος/Χριστός category. The shift to monotheism with Christianity is rendered in graphic form, and permits an appreciation of feminine popular sentiment on religion and its Gods in Egypt.
ISSN:1570-0666
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion in Africa
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340270