From Greece to Palmyra, Tyre or Babylon, the names of the gods, like 'Thundering Zeus', 'Three-faced Moon', 'Baal of the Force' or the enigmatic YHWH, reveal their history, family ties, fields of competence and capacity for action. Shared or specific, these names bring to light networks of gods: the Saviour gods, the Ancestral gods, the gods of a city or a family. Names tell stories about the relationship between men and gods, gods and places, places and cultures and so on. They show how gods travel and spread, how they appear and disappear, how they participate in the political, social, intellectual history of each community. Through the study of divine names, the twelve chapters of this book unfold a gallery of portraits that reveal the changing aspects of the divine throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

‘The book has the feeling of an academic workshop … The sense of trust between contributors suffused through the volume is engaging, and it will certainly make the book more palatable to the general reader. … It is a fitting advertisement for the MAP database, and as such the contributors - and translator Ralph Häussler, who has done an excellent job of retaining the authors’ voices - should be proud of their achievement.’

Dominic Dalglish Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

‘A fascinating collection of essays that demonstrate that the multiplicity and complexity of divine appellations are not arbitrary but respond to logic and reason and display an astonishing plurality of religious systems even though talking about gods remains a daring endeavour for the people of the ancient world.’

Anselm C. Hagedorn Source: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament