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Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean
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Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 16183

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Elisa Uusimäki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Interests: Hebrew bible/old testament; early Jewish literature; wisdom and ethics; lived ancient religion, gender, travel and cultural interaction
Dr. Eelco Glas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Interests: ancient Jewish diaspora; Graeco-Jewish literature; classical historiography and (auto)biography, rhetoric, migrant literature, Jewish revolts against Rome
Dr. Rivkah Gillian Glass

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Interests: second temple Judaism; early christianity; apocrypha and pseudepigrapha; ancient fiction; Greek novels; divine encounter; comparative literature and mythology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together a group of scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore intersections between travel and religion in the broadly defined ancient Mediterranean world. The relevant academic fields include, but are not limited to, biblical studies, religious studies, classics, history, and archaeology. The phenomenon of pilgrimage has received a great deal of attention in recent scholarship of Mediterranean antiquity, which has contributed greatly to our understanding of the visits people made in the past to oracles, sanctuaries, and temples. However, the connections between travel and religion are not exhausted by pilgrimage, and there is still work to be done on aspects of this phenomenon, as well. The distinct contribution and aim of this Special Issue are to go beyond the study of visits to sacred spaces as the purpose of travel in order to highlight the manifold ways in which religion was an integral component or function of virtually all types of travel and movement in the ancient world.

We invite contributors with expertise in any aspect of Mediterranean antiquity to explore questions relating to travel and religion, such as: What kinds of religious agendas motivated travel in antiquity? What was the role of religion and ritual behaviour in the preparation for, duration, and/or conclusion of a journey? How did travellers experience their journeys, and what role did religion play in shaping these experiences? What kinds of material objects did travellers carry and travel with, how did they transport their belongings, and what sensory experiences did visitors encounter on the road or at their final destination? With whom did one travel, and why? Could a journey shape or change one’s religious ideas or practices, and, if so, how? What kinds of religious knowledge did travellers gather for the benefit of their communities through both imaginary and real-life trips? As a result of these investigations, a more nuanced notion of ancient travel and its lived and religious aspects will begin to emerge.

This Special Issue is related to the project An Intersectional Analysis of Ancient Jewish Travel Narratives (https://projects.au.dk/aninan.), which is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 948264).

Prof. Dr. Elisa Uusimäki
Dr. Eelco Glas
Dr. Rivkah Gillian Glass
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ancient Mediterranean
  • travel
  • mobility
  • religious practice
  • lived ancient religion
  • intercultural contact
  • history of travel
  • travel literature
  • material culture

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 454 KiB  
Article
Authority from the Back of Beyond: Cosmic Travel as a Rhetorical Strategy across the Myth of Er, the Book of the Watchers, and the Dream of Scipio
by R. Gillian Glass
Religions 2024, 15(10), 1161; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101161 - 25 Sep 2024
Viewed by 712
Abstract
Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cosmologies shared general assumptions about the interconnectivity of heaven and earth. Plato’s Myth of Er, the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch, and Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, narrate the travels of Er, Enoch, and Scipio, respectively, [...] Read more.
Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cosmologies shared general assumptions about the interconnectivity of heaven and earth. Plato’s Myth of Er, the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch, and Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, narrate the travels of Er, Enoch, and Scipio, respectively, into the Beyond, where they each learn astonishing things about the cosmos, and are tasked with imparting a message to humanity. This comparative study argues that cosmic travel is an integral means of constructing a rhetoric of authority designed to recruit its audiences to its socio-political vision. By analysing literary conventions like pseudepigraphy and epiphany in the features that make up cosmic travel, we better understand how each story bridges the gap between the narrated (story) world and the external (real) world. The ability to blend the realities of a story and its audiences stems from the ways in which tropes of legitimacy render spatio-temporal reality malleable, but is also imperative to the very authority these tropes offer. Without arguing for deliberate intertextuality between all these sources, this study compares the use of heavenly voyages as a literary device for legitimising worldview across cultures, times, and places. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
10 pages, 346 KiB  
Article
Death, Rebirth, and Pilgrimage Experience in Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi
by Georgia Petridou
Religions 2024, 15(8), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080899 - 25 Jul 2024
Viewed by 762
Abstract
The close conceptual links between symbolic death, rebirth, and pilgrimage are widely known to modern sociologists and anthropologists and can be observed in several modern pilgrimage traditions. This study argues that the same connections can already be detected in Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi, [...] Read more.
The close conceptual links between symbolic death, rebirth, and pilgrimage are widely known to modern sociologists and anthropologists and can be observed in several modern pilgrimage traditions. This study argues that the same connections can already be detected in Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi, “the earliest detailed first-person account of pilgrimage that survives from antiquity”. In terms of methodology, this article follows recent scholarly work on ancient lived religion perspectives and religiously motivated mobility that favours a broader understanding of the notion of pilgrimage in the Greek-speaking world. Rutherford, in particular, has produced a plethora of pioneering studies on all aspects of ‘sacred tourism’ experience in various media including documentary papyri, inscriptions, and graffiti. This chapter builds further on Rutherford’s work and focuses on Aristides’ accounts of his visits to smaller, less-well known healing centres. The main aim is to demonstrate how Aristides’ pilgrimage experience to the healing temple of Asclepius at Poimanenos or Poimanenon (a town of ancient Mysia near Cyzicus) is wholly recast and presented in terms of travelling to the sacred site of Eleusis, one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Roman Empire in the Antonine Era. Thus, Aristides’ pilgrimage experience to Poimanenos is successfully reframed as a mystic initiation that marks the death of the previous ill self and the birth of the new, enlightened, and healthy self. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
11 pages, 320 KiB  
Article
Travelling Thomas: Slave Trade and Missionary Travel in the Acts of Thomas
by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow
Religions 2024, 15(7), 808; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070808 - 3 Jul 2024
Viewed by 766
Abstract
The Acts of Thomas is a long, rich, and fascinating narrative about the Apostle Thomas who was forced to travel to India as a missionary. When Thomas hesitates to go, his master Jesus literally sells him as a slave to an Indian merchant. [...] Read more.
The Acts of Thomas is a long, rich, and fascinating narrative about the Apostle Thomas who was forced to travel to India as a missionary. When Thomas hesitates to go, his master Jesus literally sells him as a slave to an Indian merchant. Like other Apocryphal Acts, the Acts of Thomas revolves around the apostolic figure battling both human and demonic adversaries. Celibacy is central, although familiar narrative elements from ancient romances and novels are also present. On his way, Thomas sings, prays, teaches, heals, converts, and baptizes. His travel follows open trade routes in the ancient world, by land and by sea. He participates in various social events like parties, weddings, and family celebrations. His own status as a foreign slave/apostle, with a strange religion, is negotiated and contested: Sometimes he is treated like a foreign slave, suffering violence and harassment. On other occasions, his exotic strangeness in language and religion gives him access to royal palaces and influential men and women. By examining the role played by slavery in initiating this travel, as well as various intersections of religion and gender in the overall narrative, this article explores the Acts of Thomas to draw a more nuanced picture of travel in the ancient world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
24 pages, 467 KiB  
Article
Journeys without End: Narrative Endings and Implied Readers in Acts of the Apostles and Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana
by Pieter B. Hartog
Religions 2024, 15(5), 606; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050606 - 14 May 2024
Viewed by 1061
Abstract
This contribution compares the final sections of Acts of the Apostles and Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Through this comparison, I aim to show that these two writings resemble one another in their attention to travel as a literary theme. Both [...] Read more.
This contribution compares the final sections of Acts of the Apostles and Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Through this comparison, I aim to show that these two writings resemble one another in their attention to travel as a literary theme. Both Acts and Life employ this theme to communicate their message and, in their narrative endings, set up their implied readers as travelers who are meant to continue the journeys of the protagonists in these writings. At the same time, Acts and Life differ in how exactly they envision their readers to continue the journeys of their protagonists. I will argue that these similarities and differences can be explained by the shared social and intellectual climate that Acts and Life inhabit: both writings result from discourses on travel and self that were rife among intellectuals in the Roman Empire in the first three centuries of our era, irrespective of their ethnic, legal, or cultural affiliations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
14 pages, 540 KiB  
Article
Ancient Travellers, Intercultural Contact, and the Fear of Gods
by Elisa Uusimäki
Religions 2024, 15(4), 452; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040452 - 3 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1191
Abstract
Although the fear of Yhwh has been presented as an intrinsic feature of the ancient Israelite religion, the fear of God(s) is not limited to the people of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, and similar ideas of fearing deities occur in various texts [...] Read more.
Although the fear of Yhwh has been presented as an intrinsic feature of the ancient Israelite religion, the fear of God(s) is not limited to the people of Israel in the Hebrew Bible, and similar ideas of fearing deities occur in various texts produced by neighbouring cultures in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. This article investigates the prosocial role of this virtue in situations of human mobility and intercultural contact in the light of the Hebrew Bible and the Odyssey. First, I analyse those Hebrew Bible texts in which the fear of God(s) characterizes or is presented as being intelligible to non-Israelite people in situations involving movement and cultural encounter (Gen 20:11; 42:18; Exod 1:17, 21; Deut 25:18; Jon 1:9). Second, I explore the fear motif in other texts from the ancient eastern Mediterranean region and argue that biblical scholars have overlooked illuminating intertexts found in ancient Greek literature. I especially highlight the interpretative importance of the Odyssey, which frequently stresses the prosocial role of the virtue of fearing deities in the context of travel and contact with outsiders. In so doing, the Odyssey helps us see how the Hebrew Bible texts portraying the fear of God(s) as a universalistic virtue are rooted in and belong to a broader ancient Mediterranean milieu. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
13 pages, 345 KiB  
Article
Pursuing Partners: Traveling for Marital Partners in the Hebrew Bible
by Søren Lorenzen
Religions 2024, 15(3), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030324 - 8 Mar 2024
Viewed by 966
Abstract
Pursuing marital partners far from home can be a complicated endeavor, and the motives to travel for a companion can be a combination of pushes from one’s locality and pulls toward something new. In the Hebrew Bible, several narratives concern pursuing a partner [...] Read more.
Pursuing marital partners far from home can be a complicated endeavor, and the motives to travel for a companion can be a combination of pushes from one’s locality and pulls toward something new. In the Hebrew Bible, several narratives concern pursuing a partner far from home, but the motives of the person traveling have not seen much scholarly attention. In this contribution, the entangled motives are traced in three select narratives (Judg 14; Gen 24; Tob) that each represents a specific category of pursuing a partner. Samson pursues a known partner, Isaac and his family pursue an unknown partner, and Tobias unknowingly pursues a partner. These three narrative categories are explored utilizing the framework of actor-network theory to tease out the entangled human and non-human actants that affect the motives and the pursuit itself. This contribution reveals that motives are always entangled in more extensive networks, agency is distributed among various actants, and no pursuit of a companion in the Hebrew Bible is exactly like another. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
16 pages, 618 KiB  
Article
Muslim Women Travelling Alone
by Sahin Baykal
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1456; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121456 - 23 Nov 2023
Viewed by 9736
Abstract
Whether women can travel alone has been debated for centuries in Islamic law. This article examines the Islamic legal principles concerning women travelling alone, whether it be for Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) or any journeys. Despite the explicit Quranic order about the duty [...] Read more.
Whether women can travel alone has been debated for centuries in Islamic law. This article examines the Islamic legal principles concerning women travelling alone, whether it be for Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) or any journeys. Despite the explicit Quranic order about the duty of Hajj for all believers, depending upon the fulfilment of specific conditions, Sunni scholars have introduced additional criteria, particularly related to women, which have led to the establishment of gender-specific regulations. These interpretations are based on the ḥadīth of the Prophet rather than explicit verses from the Qur’an. The view that prevents women from travelling alone has gained dominance among Sunni scholars, and a maḥram (a male relative) becomes a requirement for a journey. However, Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba (d. 1064) presents an opposing perspective that significantly differs from this consensus. Ibn Ḥazm believes that women can travel and participate in the Hajj without a maḥram, emphasising the importance of Hajj as a personal responsibility in terms of the religious obligation. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the ḥadīth concerning women’s travel alone, the varying opinions of Sunni scholars, and the distinctive position adopted by Ibn Ḥazm. The text explains that Ibn Ḥazm’s analysis mainly based on a preference for reasonable arguments and egalitarian principles, prioritising them over literal interpretations of the ḥadīths regarding the topic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Travel and Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean)
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