Union Académique Internationale

Project nº28, adopted in 1973

The body of myths and legends handed down to us by the Ancients which we call classical mythology is a vital element of our heritage. The purpose of the Foundation for the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) is the exhaustive study of its imagery. The first goal of this foundation – of an international character though operating under Swiss law – is the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. This work will be then be completed by the Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA), focusing on the domains of worship and ritual.

Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum

An opening onto the domains of worship and ritual

The mission of the ThesCRA (Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum) is to bring together accounts of the classical world in the domains of worship and ritual, and to then make them available to researchers as well as to a wider readership. Until now, there was no reference work systematically dealing with the cults and rites of classical Antiquity. In the same way, the ThesCRA intends to treat figurative representations relating to their religions, rites, sacred objects, and the texts dealing with them. Images, monuments, and texts are treated in equal fashion. The ThesCRA does not refuse open questions but focuses on the current state of research. Specialists from different domains have collaborated on the ThesCRA. The ThesCRA is not presented as an alphabetical lexicon, but is rather subdivided by theme into discrete chapters. In the framework of these chapters it develops the documentation dealing with worship and ritual. Its basic structure is separated into three registers : a ‘dynamic’ register: ritual activities such as processions, sacrifices, banquets, purification, prayer, prophecy, etc. a ‘static’ register: places of worship, with their buildings, religious images, votive offerings etc., the personnel with the instruments and the ornaments of worship. a synthetic register.