Ancient Greek Religion

This paper explores the principles underlying decisions to inscribe Athenian laws and decrees on stone, finding (against a recent paper by Michael Osborne) that many laws and decrees were not inscribed, including those of ephemeral significance. The basis of the paper is a comparative analysis of the inscribed record of 352/1-322/1 BC and the literary record of decrees proposed by Demosthenes, which extends across the same time period. It finds that three main criteria were relevant to decisions to inscribe: durability of intention; the intention to deliver a message; and religious content. The effect of the establishment of the state archive of papyrus copies of laws and decrees at the end of the fifth century is explored, and the existence of the archive identified tentatively as a factor, alongside others, explaining the very small number of extant inscribed laws from the fourth-century democracy (ca. 12) in comparison with the number of decrees (ca. 550-600).

With Empedocles, the qualities of a creative religious, mytho-poetic imagination fluent in Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and Parmenides allies itself with a rational mind keenly interested in understanding the natural world.:
The first condition for an understanding of Empedocles is to banish the notion of a gulf between religious beliefs and scientific views. His work is a whole, in which religion, poetry, and philosophy are indissolubly united. His imagination is constructive, gathering elements from every available quarter-Hesiodic and Ionian cosmogony, Parmenidean rationalism, Orphic mysticism, poetic legend, the experience of a physician, a poet’s sensuous response to the sights and sounds of mature, and the fears and hopes of a spirit exiled from heaven for ‘a brief span of life that is not life’- but building all these elements together into a unitary vision of the life of the world and the destiny of the human soul, bound, like the macrocosm, upon the wheel of birth and death (Cornford 122).
To give an idea of how Empedocles articulates the elements of muthos and logos in his system,  eleven fragments have been chosen in an attempt to illustrate the basic aspects of his system with an attention to mythical aspects:

Textiles comprise a vast and wide category of material culture and constitute a crucial part of the ancient economy. Yet, studies of classical antiquity still often leave out this important category of material culture, partly due to the textiles themselves being only rarely preserved in the archaeological record. This neglect is also prevalent in scholarship on ancient Greek religion and ritual, although it is one of the most vibrant and rapidly developing branches of classical scholarship. The aim of the present enquiry is, therefore, to introduce textiles into the study of ancient Greek religion and thereby illuminate the roles textiles played in the performance of Greek ritual and their wider consequences.

Among the questions posed are how and where we can detect the use of textiles in the sanctuaries, and how they were used in rituals including their impact on the performance of these rituals and the people involved. Chapters centre on three themes: first, the dedication of textiles and clothing accessories in Greek sanctuaries is investigated through a thorough examination of the temple inventories. Second, the use of textiles to dress ancient cult images is explored. The examination of Hellenistic and Roman copies of ancient cult images from Asia Minor as well as depictions of cult images in vase-painting in collocation with written sources illustrates the existence of this particular ritual custom in ancient Greece. Third, the existence of dress codes in the Greek sanctuaries is addressed through an investigation of the existence of particular attire for ritual personnel as well as visitors to the sanctuaries with the help of iconography and written sources.

By merging the study of Greek religion and the study of textiles, the current study illustrates how textiles are, indeed, central materialisations of Greek cult, by reason of their capacity to accentuate and epitomize aspects of identity, spirituality, position in the religious system, by their forms as links between the maker, user, wearer, but also as key material agents in the performance of rituals and communication with the divine.

THE CULT OF DIONYSOS IN ASIA MINOR
IN THE ROMAN IMPERIAL AGE

Making his presence, which can be traced long before the Archaic Age, deeply felt mainly in Hellas, Asia Minor and then in Rome throughout the ancient world, Dionysos, depending on the place and time, appears before us sometimes as a god of grape-wine, sometimes as a god of theatre and acting arts and sometimes as a religious power shaped according to the local needs, however, he has generally been a god of nature representing the fertility and abundance. According to the inscriptions, Dionysos was mentioned with many epithetons in Asia Minor of the Roman Imperial Age, and that he was a god of nature bringing abundance-fertility and his many other features can be observed by these epithetons. Depending on the long stated customs, the cult of Dionysos in Asia Minor survived throughout the Roman Imperial Age (especially in the II-III. Century A.D. with festivals, cult associations and structuring, artists (musicians, players, dancers) that served his cult. According to the written records, festivals such as Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris organized in the name of Dionysos were celebrated. Dance, music and play competitions were made in these festivals maintained by the rich citizens or directors and not commonly known cult rituals were performed. Besides the associations of synodos artists called by different names in different times in the large cities of the west, cult associations broad in scope such as thiasos, speira or cult member groups with large audience in various names were active both in worshipping and these festivals. In order to achieve this, undoubtedly, both artist associations and cult associations had to have a well organized governing structure. Names were given to the cult members according to the task taken. These members also had to pay a membership fee in order to be a member or to continue to be one. Actually, these fees were as important as the epimeletes in the mainta-nance of these associations. In addition, they were supported both mate-rially and spiritually by the Roman emperors or provincial governors. Although the paganic religious activities in the lands of Asia Minor under the control of Rome were left to the free will of the cities, they would not be strong without the respect shown for the cults of the emperors, emperor and the Roman goddess (Dea Roma). The worshipping of Dionysos could only develop with the close relations with the emperors and the Roman Empire. Correspondingly, supporting a paganic cult significant for the people, the Roman Empire gained the sympathy of the people and also kept them loyal to Rome. The deification of the Roman emperors began with General Marcus Antonius, who was wellcomed as “New Dionysos” on his arrival to Ephesos, and continued in the Roman Imperial Age. During this period the associations in Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias and Sardeis characterised Emperor Hadrianus, Commodus and Caracalla by this epitheton. Thus, they deified them by considering them equal with Dionysos. Dionysos also had common worship with imperial or Dea Roma cult besides the common paganic worship of Zeus and Dēmētēr. Like all other paganic religions, the cult of Dionysos broke down with the strengthening Christianity with which it had opposite doctrines and finally with the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of the state. However, many features of the Dionysos cult continued to exist in Asia Minor both in Christian features and local cultures and traditions. Today it still continues this effect.

Arkaik Çağ’dan çok daha eskilere götürebildiğimiz varlığını, coğrafi olarak başta Hellas, Küçükasya ve sonraları Roma olmak üzere tüm Antik Çağ coğrafyasında etkin bir şekilde hissettiren Dionysos, yer ve zaman farkına bağlı olarak, bazı yerlerde üzüm-şarap tanrısı, bazılarında tiyatro ve sahne sanatlarının tanrısı, bazılarında ise yerel ihtiyaçlar doğrultusunda şekillendirilmiş dinsel bir güç olarak karşımıza çıkmıştır. Ama genel olarak bereket ve bolluğu temsil eden bir doğa tanrısı kimliğine sahip olmuştur. Yazıtlardan anlaşıldığına göre Roma İmparatorluk Çağı Küçükasyası’ nda birçok epitheton ile anılan Dionysos’un, bolluk-bereket getiren bir doğa tanrısı olduğu ve diğer başka özellikleri gene bu epitheton’larından anlaşılmaktadır. Küçükasya’daki Dionysos kültü Roma İmparatorluk Çağı boyunca (bilhassa M.S. II-III. yüzyılarda), öncesinden gelen bir geleneğe bağlı olarak şenlikleri, kült dernekleri ve yapılanması, kültüne hizmet eden sanatçıları (müzisyenler, oyuncular, dansçılar) ile varlığını sürdürmüştür. Yazılı belgelerden bu dönemde büyük ve zengin kentlerde hâlâ Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris gibi Dionysos adına tertiplenen şenliklerin kutlandığını; masrafları, epimeletes olarak bildiğimiz kentin zengin vatandaşları ya da yöneticileri tarafından karşılanan bu şenliklerde külte ilişkin dans, müzik ve oyun yarışmaların yapıldığını ve herkesçe bilinmeyen kült ritüellerinin uygulandığını öğrenmekteyiz. Bilhassa batı kesimlerdeki büyük kentlerdeki, farklı dönemlerde farklı isimlerle anılan synodos sanatçı derneklerinin yanında thiasos, speira gibi daha geniş kapsamlı kült dernekleri ya da en yaygını mystai olan çeşitli adlar altında toplanan geniş kitleli kült üye grupları hem tapınımda, hem de bu şenliklerde aktif olmuşlardır. Şüphesiz ki bunu gerçekleştirebilmek adına gerek sanatçı dernekleri gerekse kült dernekleri, iyi organize olmuş bir idari yapılanmaya sahip olmak durumundaydı. Bu derneklerde üstlendikleri görevlere göre adlandırılan kült üyelerinin, üye olabilmeleri veya üyeliklerini sürdü-rebilmeleri için ödemek zorunda oldukları aidatlar da vardı. Esasen bu derneklerin finansmanının karşılanmasında bu aidatlar, en az epimeletes’ ler kadar önemliydi. Ayrıca Roma imparatorlarının ya da eyalet yöneticilerinin hem manevi hem de maddi desteğini alıyorlardı. Zira bu dönemde Roma egemenliği altında bulunan Küçükasya topraklarındaki pagan dinsel yaşam her ne kadar kentlerin özgür iradesine bırakılmışsa da, imparatorlara, imparator ve Roma Tanrıçası (Dea Roma) kültüne gösterilen saygı olmaksızın güçlü kalamazdı. Küçükasya Dionysos tapınımı da, tamamıyla imparatorlar ve Roma İmparatorluğu ile kurulan güçlü bağlar sayesinde gelişebilmiştir. Bununla paralel olarak da Roma İmparatorluğu, halk için önemli olan pagan bir kültü destekleyerek, hem halkın sempatisini kazanmakta, hem de böylece onların Roma’ya olan bağlılığını sürdürmek amacını gütmekteydi. General Marcus Antonius’un Ephesos’a gelişinde “Yeni Dionysos” olarak karşılanmasıyla başlayan Romalı devlet adamlarını tanrılaştırma geleneği, Roma İmparatorluk Çağı’nda da sürmüş; bu dönemde özellikle Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias ve Sardeis’teki dernekler, İmparator Hadrianus, Commodus ve Caracalla’yı bu sıfatla nitelendirmişler, böylece onları Dionysos ile bir tutarak tanrılaştırmışlardır. İmparatorluk veya Dea Roma kültü ile ortak tapınımı da görülen Dionysos’un Zeus ve Dēmētēr gibi pagan tanrı-tanrıçalarla da ortak tapınımı söz konusudur. Diğer pagan dinler gibi Dionysos kültünün yıkımı da, öğretilerinin birbirine tamamen ters düştüğü Hıristiyanlık dininin güçlenmesiyle ve nihayetinde M.S. 391’de imparatorluğun resmî dini olmasıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Ancak Dionysos kültünün birçok unsuru, Küçükasya topraklarında, gerek Hıristiyanlık unsurlarında gerekse halk kültür ve geleneklerinde yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Bugün de bu etkisini göstermeye devam etmektedir."

SEG 60-1998. Religion. Dionysos: his cult in Asia Minor, Imperial period:
On the basis of archaeological, numismatic, and (mainly) epigraphic attestations, B.Öztürk,Roma imparatorluk çağı Küçükasaysı’nda Dionysos kültü (Istanbul 2010), studies the cult ofΔιόνυσος in Roman Asia Minor. After general remarks about the god, he presents a geographically arranged catalogue of the relevant inscriptions with brief comments (ph. of some texts). On 196-209, Ö. provides a register with explanations of the most important terms found in the inscriptions, and on 210/211 a list of epithets.

This course offers an introduction to the history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age to the end of the Hellenistic Age (roughly the 16th to the 1st centuries BCE), drawing on both source materials and modern works. This is a student-driven seminar based on a balance of lectures, readings, and in-class discussions on the societal, religious, and political developments of the Greek world in antiquity. Students will become familiar with the Bronze, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods of Greek history.

The foundation of this course is the geopolitical history of the expanding Greek world; however, students also will engage the importance of ancient Greek culture, literature, religion, art, and gender roles. Through the investigation of texts, architecture, and archaeology, students will gain an appreciation of not just the ruling classes of the ancient Greek world, but also of the daily lives of normal Greeks and Hellenized native peoples.

La religión es un hecho y una necesidad que ha acompañado al ser humano a lo largo de su historia. Durante la Prehistoria, las fuerzas de la Naturaleza se convirtieron en objeto de adoración ante el temor a lo desconocido. Los egipcios, para los que los desplazamientos a través del desierto por los wadis y por el Nilo eran fundamentales para su economía, destinaron la protección de los viajeros y rutas a Min y Amon.  La mitología griega asigna la labor de mensajeros y protectores a Iris y Hermes. Este último se incorpora al panteón romano, por influencia etrusca, con el nombre de Mercurio, asimilando cultos y unificando creencias. Por otro lado, el mundo romano, dentro de sus dioses menores, asignó un puesto muy importante a Término y los Lares en lo que respecta a la protección de vías, hogares y encrucijadas.

Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM) is a biannual, not-for-profit, peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes the latest social scientific, historiographic, and ecclesiastic research on religious institutions and their practices. SHERM is dedicated to the critical and scholarly inquiry of historical and contemporary religious phenomena, both from within particular religious traditions and across cultural boundaries, so as to inform the broader socio-historical analysis of religion and its related fields of study.

In partnership with the FaithX Project, SHERM is a full, no-fee, open access academic journal, which means it publishes and publicly makes available your research without charging subscription dues or publishing fees. Whereas other open access journals still require authors to pay for making their publications available, SHERM believes in making high-quality scholarship accessible to the public while promoting the wide dissemination and visibility of your published article. Our goal is to increase the opportunity for erudite academicians to publish their work, gain a larger readership outside the confines of conventional journals, and receive citations from future researchers.

The Kingdom of Judah was broken up under Babylonian rule by the exiling of many Judahites.  The rule of Assyria was waning and then the Babylonians took over.  The instability of Judah was demonstrated under the oppression of the people, exiles and including Jehoiakim’s revolt against Babylon precisely 3 years after becoming a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar and his later death.  The continued allegiance of the people that had lived in Jerusalem and their later exiles, continued worshipping the Lord, and also returned from exile later in the reign of Babylon.  It is noted that some scholars believe the death of Jehoakim spurred Jerusalem to live on another 11 years.  It is unknown if he committed suicide or was murdered.  His death may just have saved the kingdom of Jerusalem.  Cyrus in 539 BC took over the kingdom.

The Greek historiographical and poetical sources about the Hyperboreans show that both their concept and their image were constructed from a mythical perspective, in spite of being developed mainly by geographers and of course trademen. Yet there are elements that must have been borrowed to the Indo-European heritage, although this does not imply tout court that they are properly Indo-European creations. This paper aims at analyzing the eschatological side of the Hyperborean dossier, especially after the Herodotean and Hecataean sources. Besides the hermeneutical operation of decoding the mythical frame in which our sources are embedded, the archaeological materials can provide a tenable counterpart touchstone to check the validity of the suggested reconstruction of such a religious idea.

Identity is a necessary way of auto-definition in the process of building any human group. Some societies (not many) with strong political forces need to develop their identity process and to build the most powerful ethnic feelings. The building of ethnicity is not a simply task, as can be seen in the case of Mount Lykaion, in Arcadia. This is a clear example of the ideological force which characterizes the identity definitions and the ethnic building process.

The transformation/induction of Aesop from speechless slave to inventor of words and stories is realized through the intervention of Isis and the Muses. It takes places in an idyllic location (“locus amoenus”), wherein the whole of nature (plants, trees, birds) participates and prepares the miracle that is about to occur (ch. 6). Until recently, scholarship has associated this episode with intertextual references and other scenes of initiation (for instance, Hesiod and Pindar). In the present study I shall focus on the ritual poetics of this episode which belongs to the early chapters of the Vita. By emphasizing on the symbolic function of the plants and the trees I shall link together the references to the worship of Isis, and I shall show how her worship operates as a narrative web whereupon the Vita is built. More specifically, I shall explore why the author of the Vita repeats the phrases «χλοερά βοτάνη», «χλοερά φυτά», and refers to the olive tree and the pine tree. Further, I shall prove that the first part of the Vita Aesopi (ch. 1-100) could be read as an aretalogy of Isis.

CURRENTLY UNDERGOING SOME SERIOUS REVISIONS - WILL RETURN (IN MUCH BETTER SHAPE) SOON!

Against an Orthodoxy of Platonic Theology: Why the Demiurge is not Nous
Jason G. Rheins

In this paper I argue against the thesis that in Plato’s dialogues the Divine Craftsman or Demiurge (dēmiourgos - δημιουργός) represents or is equivalent to Intellect (nous - νοῦς). This claim (abbreviated as ΔΝ throughout) has been central to interpretations of Plato’s theology since antiquity, and it has been nearly universally conceded among Platonists. It has continued to be taken for granted in modern scholarship. Despite their many disagreements about Plato’s theology and cosmology, all the major interpretive camps have accepted the ΔΝ. By explicitly rejecting the ΔΝ, I argue that we can resolve several persistent and long-standing dilemmas that have undermined attempts to reconstruct a coherent Platonic view about the gods or to give an adequate reading of Plato’s late dialogues, especially the Timaeus.
In §I, I briefly introduce the central debates concerning Plato’s views about the nature of the gods and explain how the concepts of immanent and transcendent hypostases can be used to clearly frame these issues. In §II I lay out three key theses endorsed by Plato that any adequate position must be able to embrace. They are: 1. Immanence of Intellect; 2. Distinctness of Demiurge from Soul; 3. Venerability of the World-soul. These Platonic theses are all textually well supported, so rejecting any one of them from a reconstruction of Plato’s theology is not a viable option. I outline and categorize the major views that modern scholars have taken in terms of their commitments with respect to these theses. I show that each camp fails to account for one of the three theses and that they seem jointly incompatible. However, it is only in conjunction with the ΔΝ that the theses become incompatible; without the ΔΝ all three can be endorsed in tandem coherently. Thus I show that it is their further commitment to the ΔΝ that undermines all the major positions.
One of the three theses in particular, what I call the “Immanence of Intellect” principle, has been especially controversial. In §III I present the evidence for the principle and address the most prominent text that has been used as a reason to reject it, Philebus 30a8-b7. This text has been widely misread; I correct the misreading and show that when properly construed the passage provides no evidence for rejecting or attenuating the Immanence of Intellect principle.
In §IV I present several other reasons why the ΔΝ has been embraced, and I reexamine the textual evidence that has been adduced in its support. For instance, interpreters have mistakenly made this assumption on the grounds that the Demiurge is called the best of causes in the Timaeus, while intellect seems to be the cause of all good and generated things in the Philebus. The latter part of that argument is doubly mistaken; intellect is neither presented as the maker of soul (which Plato came to regard as a generated thing in his late dialogues), nor as the cause of all things that come to be. It is only identified as belonging to and being an exemplar of the class of things that are causes/makers of generated things. In all but one instance, these texts fail to provide evidence for the ΔΝ thesis, and in some cases it will be shown that they do not refer to the Demiurge at all. One passage, however, Timaeus 47e5-48a5, does seem to refer to the Demiurge with the term ‘nous’. I will argue that while it refers to the Demiurge by means of the word “nous” and makes an association between the two, it is not a completely clear case of Plato actually identifying the Demiurge with nous. For the sake of argument, I will grant the passage as evidence for ΔΝ, but I will show that in spite of it, the full range of texts that must be considered do not support the ΔΝ thesis.
In §§V several arguments are presented that show that the Demiurge can be equated neither with intellect nor soul. Thus the body of evidence weighing against the ΔΝ, both within the Timaeus and in other works, dwarfs the one solid piece of evidence that stands in its favor.

Comparative approaches to religion had already begun in the ancient world, around the Mediterranean, where various cultures confronted one another and where the dialogue between diverse cultural legacies could give birth to a global context of exchange and interaction, reaction and counterreaction. Greeks and Romans, Jews and Christians, and soon Muslims, reacted to one another and evolved both in interaction and in parallel, at the same time building on the rich cultural backdrop created by the civilizations of the Ancient Near East—Egypt, Mesopo-tamia, Syro-Palestine, Phoenicia, Anatolia, Iran, even India.