The Routledge companion to ecstatic experience in the ancient world / edited by Diana L. Stein, Sarah Kielt Costello, and Karen Polinger Foster.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Diana L. Stein, Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, specializes in seals and sealing practices in the ancient Near East.

"For millennia, people have universally engaged in ecstatic experience as an essential element in ritual practice, spiritual belief and cultural identification. This volume offers the first systematic investigation of its myriad roles and manifestations in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. The twenty-nine contributors represent a broad range of scholarly disciplines, seeking answers to fundamental questions regarding the patterns and commonalities of this vital aspect of the past. How was the experience construed and by what means was it achieved ? Who was involved? Where and when were its rites carried out? How was it reflected in pictorial arts and written records? What was its relation to other components of the sociocultural compact ?