Tatiana Bur, Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge UP, 2025)

This open-access book investigates the ways that technological, and especially mechanical, strategies were integrated into ancient Greek religion. By analysing a range of evidence, from the tragic use of the deus ex machina to Hellenistic epigrams to ancient mechanical literature, it expands the existing vocabulary of visual modes of ancient epiphany. Moreover, it contributes to the cultural history of the unique category of ancient 'enchantment' technologies by challenging the academic orthodoxy regarding the incompatibility of religion and technology. The evidence for this previously unidentified phenomenon is presented in full, thereby enabling the reader to perceive the shifting matrices of agency between technical objects, mechanical knowledge, gods, and mortals from the fifth century BCE to the second century CE.

New Books of Late Antiquity is presented by Ancient Jew Review

Tatiana Bur is Lecturer in Classics at Australian National University

Michael Motia teaches in Classics and Religious Studies at UMass Boston