© 2008 The Author Journal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Religion Compass 2 (2008): 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00079.x The Specialized Religions of Ancient Mediterranean Seafarers Aaron J. Brody* Pacific School of Religion Abstract Ancient seafarers faced dangers and fears posed by the sea and sailing. Specialized religious beliefs and practices developed accordingly. Sailors honored deities whose attributes could benefit or devastate a voyage. Divine patrons were worshipped in harbor and at promontory shrines. Ships were considered imbued with a protective spirit and contained sacred spaces. Mariners performed religious ceremonies on land and at sea to protect their voyages. Specialized features are found in funerary practices and mortuary rituals of seafarers. Maritime religions were subsets of ancient religions, generated by unique uncertainties and perils at sea. Seafarers have ventured out on the waters of the Mediterranean to fish, trade, settle, and explore since prehistoric times. These mariners faced uncertainties and fears posed by the literal and psychological boundary of the sea. The dangers of navigating on the Mediterranean and the seeming whimsy of its winds and tides generated religious needs of seafarers that were not shared by members of society who never left dry land. In order to study the specialized religion of Mediterranean sailors, I have developed a framework based on research on seafaring and religion of classical, Greek and Roman, cultures and on anthropological studies of the religion of traditional seafaring communities (Brody 1998; see also McNiven 2003; Kennerley 2007). Although my focused study has been on Canaanite and Phoenician maritime religion, I have found that the similarity of concerns posed by the sea and the dangers of sailing allows this framework, or model, to be applied to the study of the religious beliefs and cultic practices of any traditional seafaring group. This classification scheme has five parts: (i) deities with special maritime, celestial, or meteorological attributes important to the well-being of sailors; (ii) seaside temples and shrines with special associations for mariners; (iii) the concept of the ship itself possessing a divine spirit and sacred spaces; (iv) religious ceremonies performed by seafarers to help ensure the safety of the voyage; and (v) funerary practices and mortuary rituals with connections to the sea.