In Isis in a Global Empire, Lindsey Mazurek explores the growing popularity of Egyptian gods and its impact on Greek identity in the Roman Empire. Bringing together archaeological, art historical, and textual evidence, she demonstrates how the diverse devotees of gods such as Isis and Sarapis considered Greek ethnicity in ways that differed significantly from those of the Greek male elites whose opinions have long shaped our understanding of Roman Greece. These ideas were expressed in various ways - sculptures of Egyptian deities rendered in a Greek style, hymns to Isis that grounded her in Greek geography and mythology, funerary portraits that depicted devotees dressed as Isis, and sanctuaries that used natural and artistic features to evoke stereotypes of the Nile. Mazurek's volume offers a fresh, material history of ancient globalization, one that highlights the role that religion played in the self-identification of provincial Romans and their place in the Mediterranean world.

It introduces a religious dimension to the study of ethnic identity and globalization in the provinces of the Roman Empire.

About the Author
Lindsey Mazurek is Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington and co-editor of Across the Corrupting Sea: Post-Braudelian Approaches to the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. Her scholarship has been supported by the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the German Archaeological Institute, the Hardt Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Reviews
'The book is handsomely produced. The images, layout, type of paper, and general presentation are of high quality. Mazurek writes beautifully and clearly ... She analyzes the evidence judiciously and her engagement with the vast bibliography of Isis is thorough, without bogging the reader down with unnecessary detail. Most importantly, this book provides a powerful case for the value of its methodology.' Vassiliki, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
'There is a lot to like in this very nicely put-together publication. Mazurek, an assistant professor of classical studies at Indiana University Bloomington, offers a fresh and appealing discussion on how the Egyptian deities - primarily, but not exclusively, Isis - played an important role in forging a new, globalized Greek identity within the Roman Empire.' Nickolas P. Roubekas, Religious Studies Review



Book Information
ISBN 9781316517017
Author Lindsey A. Mazurek
Format Hardback
Page Count 292
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 760g
Dimensions(mm) 259mm * 182mm * 18mm