Conceptions of the Watery World in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Description

This book explores ancient efforts to explain the scientific, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of water. From the ancient point of view, we investigate many questions including: How does water help shape the world? What is the nature of the ocean? What causes watery weather, including superstorms and snow? How does water affect health, as a vector of disease or of healing? What is the nature of deep-sea-creatures (including sea monsters)? What spiritual forces can protect those who must travel on water? This first complete study of water in the ancient imagination makes a major contribution to classics, geography, hydrology and the history of science alike.
Water is an essential resource that affects every aspect of human life, and its metamorphic properties gave license to the ancient imagination to perceive watery phenomena as the product of visible and invisible forces. As such, it was a source of great curiosity for the Greeks and Romans who sought to control the natural world by understanding it, and who, despite technological limitations, asked interesting questions about the origins and characteristics of water and its influences on land, weather, and living creatures, both real and imagined.

Georgia L. Irby is Professor of Classical Studies at William and Mary, USA. Her many books include Military Religion in Roman Britain (1999), Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook (edited with Paul Keyser, 2002), Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and its Many Heirs (edited with Paul Keyser, 2008), A New Latin Primer (with Mary C. English, 2015) and A Companion to Science, Technology and Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome (2 volumes, 2016).

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction
Interpreting the Watery Framework: Philosophy, Cosmogony, and Physics1. Water and the Creation of the World
2.Seas and Lakes
3. The Interplay between Water and Land
Explaining Watery Phenomena4. Watery Weather
5. Paradoxical Waters
6. Water, Health, and Disease
Imagining the Watery World7. (Biological) Creatures of the Sea
8. (Mythical) Sea Monsters and Sea Gods
9. Water and Ritual
10. Sailor Cults and Cults of Sea Gods
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

“Conceptions of the Watery-World in Greco-Roman Antiquity together with Using and Conquering the Watery-World in Greco-Roman Antiquity aim to be a definitive resource on all things ‘watery’ in the ancient Mediterranean. The sheer scope and level of detail makes these works incredibly useful for scholars of water in the ancient environment, while the careful discussion of water in its context is relevant for anyone with a broader interest in the natural environment … If you need anything to do with water in Graeco-Roman antiquity, chances are you can find it in these two volumes!” —The Classical Review

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