Daniel Ogden – författare

In classical antiquity, there was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination. People could seek knowledge from the dead by sleeping on tombs, visiting oracles, and attempting to reanimate corpses and skulls. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language. Daniel Ogden surveys the places, performers, and techniques of necromancy as well as the reasons for turning to it. He investigates the cave-based sites of oracles of the dead at Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron, as well as the oracles at the Acheron and Avernus, which probably consisted of lakeside precincts. He argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Readers meet the personnel--real or imagined--of ancient necromancy: ghosts, zombies, the earliest vampires, evocators, sorcerers, shamans, Persian magi, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, Roman emperors, and witches from Circe to Medea. Ogden explains the technologies used to evocate or reanimate the dead and to compel them to disgorge their secrets. He concludes by examining ancient beliefs about ghosts and their wisdom--beliefs that underpinned and justified the practice of necromancy. The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in the rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.

The Tyrants of Corinth is the first monograph in English devoted to the archaic tyranny of Corinth and the engaging legends of Cypselus and Periander, which embrace such themes as hidden babies, animal helpers, arbitrary violence, necrophilia and vengeful ghosts.

This detailed study of the ancient sources for the Corinthian tyrants analyses the tales associated with them comprehensively from the perspective of folklore and traditional narrative, including the miraculous birth and deliverance of Cypselus, Periander’s consultation of the ghost of his wife, Melissa, at the Acheron Oracle of the Dead and the saving of the bard Arion from the sea by a dolphin. Any lingering notions that the tales retain historical content are dispelled; Ogden’s radical approach considers all the major episodes associated with both men to be entirely fictive. This allows for reinterpretation of individual details in the tales and for the recovery of lost storylines and symbolism lurking beneath the narrative that our ancient sources preserve for us. All the major sources are supplied in new translations in a convenient appendix, and brief consideration is also given to the tales’ modern reception.

The Tyrants of Corinth is suitable for scholars working on Greek tyranny, Greek history and mythology more broadly, and folklore, while also speaking accessibly to undergraduates encountering the history of Archaic Greece for the first time.