Some Considerations about Toponymic and Other Local Deities in the Roman Near East

Abstract

Patterns of worship reflect ancient society. By studying the ways in which various deities received their cult, lessons can be learned about the local societies in which the worshippers lived. This paper focuses on what is perhaps the most obvious method to turn any deity into a specifically local one, namely the use of the toponymic epithet. By concentrating on the local perspective of religious life in the Roman Near East, and in particular on the close connection between deity and place (also related to questions of religious topography and the formation of religious identities), the paper aims to address a number of issues that play an important role in current debates about the relationship between localism, regionalism and globalism.

Keywords

• toponymic
• epithets
• locality
• Zeus
• Tyche