Brill’s New Pauly
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Subject: Classical Studies
Edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (Antiquity) and Manfred Landfester (Classical Tradition).
English translation edited by Christine F. Salazar (Antiquity) and Francis G. Gentry (Classical Tradition)
Brill´s New Pauly is the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, published by Verlag J.B. Metzler since 1996. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. The section on Antiquity of Brill´s New Pauly are devoted to Greco-Roman antiquity and cover more than two thousand years of history, ranging from the second millennium BC to early medieval Europe. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between Greco-Roman culture on the one hand, and Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic culture, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the other hand. The section on the Classical Tradition is uniquely concerned with the long and influential aftermath of antiquity and the process of continuous reinterpretation and revaluation of the ancient heritage, including the history of classical scholarship. Brill´s New Pauly presents the current state of traditional and new areas of research and brings together specialist knowledge from leading scholars from all over the world. Many entries are elucidated with maps and illustrations and the English edition will include updated bibliographic references.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
English translation edited by Christine F. Salazar (Antiquity) and Francis G. Gentry (Classical Tradition)
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Brill´s New Pauly is the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, published by Verlag J.B. Metzler since 1996. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. The section on Antiquity of Brill´s New Pauly are devoted to Greco-Roman antiquity and cover more than two thousand years of history, ranging from the second millennium BC to early medieval Europe. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between Greco-Roman culture on the one hand, and Semitic, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavonic culture, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on the other hand. The section on the Classical Tradition is uniquely concerned with the long and influential aftermath of antiquity and the process of continuous reinterpretation and revaluation of the ancient heritage, including the history of classical scholarship. Brill´s New Pauly presents the current state of traditional and new areas of research and brings together specialist knowledge from leading scholars from all over the world. Many entries are elucidated with maps and illustrations and the English edition will include updated bibliographic references.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Weather gods
(744 words)
[German version] The cult of the Sumerian god Iškur can be documented for Babylonia from the early 3rd. millennium BC. He was the head of the pantheon of the Middle Babylonian city of Karkar, but remained less significant beyond this area. Iškur was attributed with the threatening power of storms, but also with the rains beneficial for vegetation. Just as Ninurta, he was regarded as a fighter against the power of chaos, and vice versa, Ninurta displayed traits of a storm god in this context. As ea…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Weather portents and signs
(634 words)
[German version] (ἐπισημασίαι/
episēmasíai, διοσημεῖαι/
diosēmeîai, also σημεῖα/
sēmeîa; Latin
signa). The term is used in two ways: to designate a portent of a particular weather phenomenon to be expected, or to refer to a sign expressed by the current weather. The oldest weather forecasts were assembled by the Babylonians on the basis of precise observations (Assurbanipal; Divination; Meteorology), and were often linked with astrological prophecies [6; 7] (Astrology), sometimes compiled in menologies (prophecies by the phase of the moon; cf. calendar [B 2]). The systematic st…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Wedding customs and rituals
(2,114 words)
[German version] I. General comments The purpose of ancient wedding customs and rituals was to achieve the cultic purification of the wedding couple, seal their union by offering sacrifices, enhance fertility and strengthen the couple, as well as to protect the bride from calamity and evil spirits on her way to the bridegroom's house and guide her in assuming her new position as wife and mother. The rituals lasted for several days, beginning in the bride's house, where they signaled her departure fro…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Week
(1,094 words)
Chronological periodicity, typically 4-10 days, linked with particular public activities (religious, political, commercial), often in the form of market days (
nundinae ) [1]. [German version] I. Types Two different forms of 'week' were known in antiquity. (1) The type corresponding to the modern week, of fixed length and ignoring the monthly calendar, only took hold gradually, at first in the form of the seven-day week (
h
ebdomas), based on the Sabbath and probably regular from the time of the Jewish exile (587-539 BC), and the eight-day week (
o
gdoas) of the Romans (
nundinum), also d…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Weights
(2,896 words)
[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Mesopotamia and its neighbouring regions, weights were made of stone (primarily haematite [Haematite], or else limestone and others) or metal (bronze, copper), often in the form of a barleycorn or a loaf, or figuratively as a duck (3rd to 1st millennia), and in Assyria from the 1st millennium also as a lion. Weights could be inscribed with a numerical value with or without indicating the unit, as well as with an inscription of a ruler, an institution, or an offic…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Weights and Measures
(5,218 words)
Witthöft, Harald [German version] A. The Field of Research (CT) Measure, weight and scales are phenomena of long duration in the history of material and intellectual cultures. Their study raises questions about the development of collective and individual experience, and about fundamental knowledge and structuring perception in mankind's dealings with nature [16]. They transmit to us the emergence of numerical classifications of societies and economies, as they grow in different spaces and at various speeds. Measurement is the comparison between an unknown quantity and…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Weld
(137 words)
[German version] The only genus of the
Resedaceae which grows in the Mediterranean area (in some 30 species, including
Reseda lutea
L.). From the root a yellow pigment was extracted, for which there is evidence from lake dwellings in Switzerland (as early as
c. 3000-700 BC). The herb called
lutum in Latin was cultivated in Italy and used to dye clothing, especially the russet-coloured bridal veil, the
flammeum (
flammearii, 'makers of bridal veils', in Plaut. Aul. 510; Wedding customs and rituals III.), but also as a painter's pigment (Vitr. De arch. 7,14,2) (Dy…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Wells
(1,221 words)
[German version] A. Definition Wells are structures for protecting naturally occurring springs from contamination and facilitating the extraction of water for a population of moderate size. Springs also supplied drinking water through pipes to wells in more remote settlements (Water supply). Wells also served to make ground water accessible, whereas cisterns collected rain water. Glaser, Franz (Klagenfurt) [German version] B. Wells without architectural design Shaft wells with polygonal or circular cross-sections were constructed in all periods and played a …
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Brill’s New Pauly
Wepwawet
(207 words)
[German version] (
Wp-w.wt/Upuaut, 'Opener of the Ways') is represented as a standing jackal or a jackal-headed man. He is a god of the dead (cf. Anubis), but his standard also leads the king's 'Horus escort', when he walks in public. This is reflected in Hdt. 2,122, where a priest is led by two jackals to the Sanctuary of Demeter [3. 58 f.]. Presumably W. is also the Macedon mentioned in Diod. Sic. 1,18 as a companion of Osiris [1. 83]. Clem. Al. Strom. 5,7,43 suggests an astronomical interpretat…
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Brill’s New Pauly
West Slope Ware
(281 words)
[German version] Modern term for a genre of Greek fine pottery, particularly from the eastern Mediterranean of the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The original German name 'Westabhangkeramik' was coined in 1901 by C. Watzinger [6] for pots discovered shortly before in Athens on the western slope of the Acropolis. It is a genre of black-glaze ware, which in addition is decorated with white, pink or yellowish slip ornamentations, often in combination with scorings, vertical fluting and wheel…
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Brill’s New Pauly
Wet-nurses
(438 words)
[German version] While women in archaic Greece usually nursed their own children, the use of wet-nurses became more common in the classical period. The τιθήνη/
tithḗnē or τίτθη/
títh
ē (the nanny who did not nurse was referred to as τροφός/
trophós) was usually a slave (such as GVI 1729), although some free-born or freed women in Athens provided this service as well, usually ξέναι/
xénai. In the visual arts, wet-nurses played a primarily attributive role up into the 4th cent., but later one can observe an increased interest in them - that is, in their function, less as persons. In Rome, wet-nu…
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Brill’s New Pauly