Abstract This study aims at reconstructing the evolution of the character of the Anatolian storm-god in Phrygia from the Hittite period to the Roman imperial era, particularly taking into account the Greek votive dedications to Zeus Brontôn. According to the Hittite and Luwian texts, the power of the storm-god was not only limited to the sky, but encompassed fertility, the order of the seasons and, because of his role as the protector of kingship, the social order. Because they favourited a female deity generically called Matar, the coming of the Phrygians seems to be linked to the degradation of the cult, which remained practiced by the lower strata of the population and in the countryside. It was only after the arrival of the Greeks in Hellenistic times and the identification of the local ancient storm-gods with Zeus that their worship became tangible and visible again. The impressive number of dedications, mostly dated between the second and third centuries CE, constitutes an excellent documentary base for studying the character of these local deities. In these epigraphic texts, the theonym Zeus was used as a generic name (Gesamtsbezeichnung) for several divine beings, only partially comparable to the Greek Olympian Zeus.
{"title":"Le culte de Zeus Brontôn : l’espace et la morphologie du dieu de l’orage dans la Phrygie d’époque romaine","authors":"G. Chiai","doi":"10.1515/arege-2020-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2020-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aims at reconstructing the evolution of the character of the Anatolian storm-god in Phrygia from the Hittite period to the Roman imperial era, particularly taking into account the Greek votive dedications to Zeus Brontôn. According to the Hittite and Luwian texts, the power of the storm-god was not only limited to the sky, but encompassed fertility, the order of the seasons and, because of his role as the protector of kingship, the social order. Because they favourited a female deity generically called Matar, the coming of the Phrygians seems to be linked to the degradation of the cult, which remained practiced by the lower strata of the population and in the countryside. It was only after the arrival of the Greeks in Hellenistic times and the identification of the local ancient storm-gods with Zeus that their worship became tangible and visible again. The impressive number of dedications, mostly dated between the second and third centuries CE, constitutes an excellent documentary base for studying the character of these local deities. In these epigraphic texts, the theonym Zeus was used as a generic name (Gesamtsbezeichnung) for several divine beings, only partially comparable to the Greek Olympian Zeus.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"21-22 1","pages":"245 - 275"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2020-0013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46452182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract For the Greeks, the connection between Dionysus and wine is almost unanimous. The god diffuses wine-related know-how and its cultivation throughout the inhabited world. Certain myths place the birth and infancy of Dionysus in regions where wine plays a prominent role, either for its excellence, because wine-related wonders take place there, or because the existence of wine-springs is attested. The cause-and-effect relationship between the birth of Dionysus and the miraculous appearance of wine is used by some cities to support their claim to be his birthplace. In some cases, myths concerning the origins of Dionysus are combined with a ritual component that celebrates the epiphany of the god through festivals in which the focal point is wine. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of mythology and aetiology by adopting a novel approach to the case study of Dionysus’ birth, examining the extent to which the importance of wine in these areas determines whether they are linked to the origins of the god.
{"title":"At the Origins of Dionysus and Wine: Myths, Miracles, and Festivals","authors":"A. Cristóbal","doi":"10.1515/arege-2020-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2020-0020","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract For the Greeks, the connection between Dionysus and wine is almost unanimous. The god diffuses wine-related know-how and its cultivation throughout the inhabited world. Certain myths place the birth and infancy of Dionysus in regions where wine plays a prominent role, either for its excellence, because wine-related wonders take place there, or because the existence of wine-springs is attested. The cause-and-effect relationship between the birth of Dionysus and the miraculous appearance of wine is used by some cities to support their claim to be his birthplace. In some cases, myths concerning the origins of Dionysus are combined with a ritual component that celebrates the epiphany of the god through festivals in which the focal point is wine. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of mythology and aetiology by adopting a novel approach to the case study of Dionysus’ birth, examining the extent to which the importance of wine in these areas determines whether they are linked to the origins of the god.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"21-22 1","pages":"387 - 409"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49326553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The Typhonomachy (Theogony 821 – 880) has long been deemed an anomalous and inorganic intrusion into the Hesiodic text. The main reason for such a judgment is that the Typhoeus episode is an unnecessary and redundant doublet of the Titanomachy that precedes. In addition, Gaia’s role in giving birth to the monster seems to contradict her benign role both before (624 – 628) and after the Typhoeus episode (883 – 885). Looking afresh at the passage through the wider lens of the cosmogonic program of the Theogony allows us to grasp its function within the overall economy of the poem. Typhoeus, offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, takes us back to the very origins of cosmogony. The Typhonomachy brings us to a critical temporal crossroad where a recrudescence of the primeval irrupts into and threatens the evolved universe. If at issue in the Titanomachy was the kingship in Heaven, at stake in the Typhonomachy is the very existence of the cosmos itself.
{"title":"Typhoeus or Cosmic Regression (Theogony 821 – 880)","authors":"J. Clay","doi":"10.1515/arege-2020-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2020-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Typhonomachy (Theogony 821 – 880) has long been deemed an anomalous and inorganic intrusion into the Hesiodic text. The main reason for such a judgment is that the Typhoeus episode is an unnecessary and redundant doublet of the Titanomachy that precedes. In addition, Gaia’s role in giving birth to the monster seems to contradict her benign role both before (624 – 628) and after the Typhoeus episode (883 – 885). Looking afresh at the passage through the wider lens of the cosmogonic program of the Theogony allows us to grasp its function within the overall economy of the poem. Typhoeus, offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, takes us back to the very origins of cosmogony. The Typhonomachy brings us to a critical temporal crossroad where a recrudescence of the primeval irrupts into and threatens the evolved universe. If at issue in the Titanomachy was the kingship in Heaven, at stake in the Typhonomachy is the very existence of the cosmos itself.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"21-22 1","pages":"313 - 326"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2020-0016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45562740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gods honored in ancient religions cannot be classified into static lists or canonical genealogies, as took place for centuries from the Church Fathers until at least our modern dictionaries, nor can they be studied only through the compilation of etymologies. Actually, they should not be regarded as monolithic entities but, rather, as “systems of notions” (Gernet and Boulanger 1932) or “divine powers” (puissances divines as stated by Vernant 1965). Their names and characters, in particular, are potentially as diverse as cult places and ritual occasions, and a plurality of relational networks can be observed among cults, texts, and images. The process of naming the gods is more complex than univocal correspondences between a name or an epithet to one and the same particular god. On the contrary, it is increasingly acknowledged that naming strategies are at the heart of the dynamic construction of the divine and, therefore, of its relational network. More specifically, the use of epithets (so-called epicleses in cultic context) as well as any other way of multiplying specific aspects of the gods, testifies to the plurality of the divine and gives us a clue to understanding the complex unity and plurality of each superhuman power to whom Greeks and West Semitic peoples prayed. Since October 2017, at the University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, a group of five post-doctoral researchers and one research engineer,1 led by Corinne Bonnet, have been working on ancient Greek and West Semitic religions, focusing on this innovative perspective: the shift from gods, considered as clear-cut entities, with a name, an attribute, a genealogy, and located in a fixed framework (the “pantheon”), to the analysis of flexible, pragmatic, and informed naming strategies adopted by worshippers in specific times and places. The framework within which this venture is taking place is the five-year ERC Advanced Grant, entitled “Mapping Ancient Polytheisms – Cult Epithets as an Interface between Religious Systems and Human Agency” (MAP).2 Therefore, the MAP project takes divine naming strategies seriously. By this expression we mean that a god may be called by a variety of possibilities, encompassing, certainly, “proper names” (theonyms) but also composed of numerous and dif-
{"title":"“Noms de dieux!” Gods at the borders","authors":"Fabio Porzia, S. Lebreton","doi":"10.1515/arege-2020-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2020-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Gods honored in ancient religions cannot be classified into static lists or canonical genealogies, as took place for centuries from the Church Fathers until at least our modern dictionaries, nor can they be studied only through the compilation of etymologies. Actually, they should not be regarded as monolithic entities but, rather, as “systems of notions” (Gernet and Boulanger 1932) or “divine powers” (puissances divines as stated by Vernant 1965). Their names and characters, in particular, are potentially as diverse as cult places and ritual occasions, and a plurality of relational networks can be observed among cults, texts, and images. The process of naming the gods is more complex than univocal correspondences between a name or an epithet to one and the same particular god. On the contrary, it is increasingly acknowledged that naming strategies are at the heart of the dynamic construction of the divine and, therefore, of its relational network. More specifically, the use of epithets (so-called epicleses in cultic context) as well as any other way of multiplying specific aspects of the gods, testifies to the plurality of the divine and gives us a clue to understanding the complex unity and plurality of each superhuman power to whom Greeks and West Semitic peoples prayed. Since October 2017, at the University of Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, a group of five post-doctoral researchers and one research engineer,1 led by Corinne Bonnet, have been working on ancient Greek and West Semitic religions, focusing on this innovative perspective: the shift from gods, considered as clear-cut entities, with a name, an attribute, a genealogy, and located in a fixed framework (the “pantheon”), to the analysis of flexible, pragmatic, and informed naming strategies adopted by worshippers in specific times and places. The framework within which this venture is taking place is the five-year ERC Advanced Grant, entitled “Mapping Ancient Polytheisms – Cult Epithets as an Interface between Religious Systems and Human Agency” (MAP).2 Therefore, the MAP project takes divine naming strategies seriously. By this expression we mean that a god may be called by a variety of possibilities, encompassing, certainly, “proper names” (theonyms) but also composed of numerous and dif-","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"21-22 1","pages":"221 - 224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2020-0011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42940008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Any study of religiosity in the Graeco-Roman world must include an account of the Jewish experience, so often seen as precursor or shadowy reflection, of the Christian. Here the primary sources are archaeological and epigraphic, with literary texts reflecting the intentions of sometimes hostile observers. Exploring these sources affords more glimpses than might be expected of the impact of religious identity on social and domestic life, but also demonstrates the fluidity between the categories of domestic or family and institutional, provoking questions that are equally applicable to the ‘pagan’ and Christian contexts.
{"title":"Household and Family in Diaspora Judaism","authors":"J. Lieu","doi":"10.1515/arege-2016-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2016-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Any study of religiosity in the Graeco-Roman world must include an account of the Jewish experience, so often seen as precursor or shadowy reflection, of the Christian. Here the primary sources are archaeological and epigraphic, with literary texts reflecting the intentions of sometimes hostile observers. Exploring these sources affords more glimpses than might be expected of the impact of religious identity on social and domestic life, but also demonstrates the fluidity between the categories of domestic or family and institutional, provoking questions that are equally applicable to the ‘pagan’ and Christian contexts.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"18-19 1","pages":"75 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2016-0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46007627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Academic interest in magic has grown considerably during the last twenty years. Leaving aside the old stereotyped dichotomy between magic and religion, I consider magic a pragmatic subsystem of religion whose function is to alleviate or deal with daily life’s misfortunes. I suggest in this paper some possible approaches that might be interesting to deepen in the social study of Roman magic. This paper is divided in three sections. The first one deals with morality and magic: even if legal sanctions on magic can be influential in the individual’s decision to resort to magical practices, H. Versnel’s category of Prayers for Justice proved that some curses can be perceived as legitimate from the subjective point of view of the user; I suggest that subjective legitimation can in fact be applied to all Roman curses. The second section tackles the topic of emotions and magic: based on western conceptualisations of emotions, scholarly approaches on ancient magic have generally failed to see the evidence that make the choice of resorting to magic a rational option more than an emotional act. Finally, the third part of this paper analyses magic as rational choice in the individual’s strategies for decision taking.
{"title":"Morality, Emotions and Reason: New Perspectives in the Study of Roman Magic","authors":"Antó Alvar Nuño","doi":"10.1515/arege-2016-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2016-0016","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Academic interest in magic has grown considerably during the last twenty years. Leaving aside the old stereotyped dichotomy between magic and religion, I consider magic a pragmatic subsystem of religion whose function is to alleviate or deal with daily life’s misfortunes. I suggest in this paper some possible approaches that might be interesting to deepen in the social study of Roman magic. This paper is divided in three sections. The first one deals with morality and magic: even if legal sanctions on magic can be influential in the individual’s decision to resort to magical practices, H. Versnel’s category of Prayers for Justice proved that some curses can be perceived as legitimate from the subjective point of view of the user; I suggest that subjective legitimation can in fact be applied to all Roman curses. The second section tackles the topic of emotions and magic: based on western conceptualisations of emotions, scholarly approaches on ancient magic have generally failed to see the evidence that make the choice of resorting to magic a rational option more than an emotional act. Finally, the third part of this paper analyses magic as rational choice in the individual’s strategies for decision taking.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"18-19 1","pages":"307 - 326"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2016-0016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46619309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was often held that ancient mystery cults were ‘religions of salvation’ (Erlösungsreligionen). Such interpretations have been criticised by Walter Burkert in Ancient Mystery Cults (1987), who argued against the other-worldly character of Greek mysteries. Burkert’s work remains one of the most important studies of mystery cults today; nevertheless it does not examine the actual use of the Greek word soteria (‘salvation’, ‘deliverance’, ‘safety’), which is central for determining whether Greek mystery cults were indeed ‘Erlösungsreligionen’. This article investigates the extent to which Greek mystery cults could offer soteria (‘salvation’) in the eschatological sense. By examining the language of soteria in the best-known mystery cults in ancient Greece, it will ask whether Greek eschatological hopes were ever expressed in the language of soteria or in other terms. It will be demonstrated that, even when used in relation to mysteries, soteria did not mean anything other than protection in the here-and-now, so that what was offered was predominantly a this-worldly ‘salvation’. If early Christianity indeed derived its most important concept (soteria) from Greek religion, it was a derivation with a significant adaptation and change in meaning.
{"title":"‘Salvation’ (Soteria) and Ancient Mystery Cults","authors":"Theodora Suk, Fong Jim","doi":"10.1515/arege-2016-0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2016-0014","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was often held that ancient mystery cults were ‘religions of salvation’ (Erlösungsreligionen). Such interpretations have been criticised by Walter Burkert in Ancient Mystery Cults (1987), who argued against the other-worldly character of Greek mysteries. Burkert’s work remains one of the most important studies of mystery cults today; nevertheless it does not examine the actual use of the Greek word soteria (‘salvation’, ‘deliverance’, ‘safety’), which is central for determining whether Greek mystery cults were indeed ‘Erlösungsreligionen’. This article investigates the extent to which Greek mystery cults could offer soteria (‘salvation’) in the eschatological sense. By examining the language of soteria in the best-known mystery cults in ancient Greece, it will ask whether Greek eschatological hopes were ever expressed in the language of soteria or in other terms. It will be demonstrated that, even when used in relation to mysteries, soteria did not mean anything other than protection in the here-and-now, so that what was offered was predominantly a this-worldly ‘salvation’. If early Christianity indeed derived its most important concept (soteria) from Greek religion, it was a derivation with a significant adaptation and change in meaning.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"18-19 1","pages":"255 - 282"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2016-0014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42043622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Early monastic literature refers to a practice already mentioned for congregational Christians in the Didache: the prayers for different times a day. By late antiquity it is designated as something that could be practiced in the monk’s cell. Individual prayer was probably not restricted to hermits but seems to have been practiced in the cenobia, too. The synaxeis-that is, the individual psalmodising of the hermits-clearly corresponded to services in church settings: both, for example, are called synaxis. A general practice of the Christian cult, that is, was transferred to the cell, so to speak. This transferal was probably due to the rather strong individualization tendencies of early monasticism. Thus it is no surprise that, especially for monks, domestic religiousness played a particularly prominent role.
{"title":"The Cult in the Cell","authors":"A. Müller","doi":"10.1515/arege-2016-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/arege-2016-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Early monastic literature refers to a practice already mentioned for congregational Christians in the Didache: the prayers for different times a day. By late antiquity it is designated as something that could be practiced in the monk’s cell. Individual prayer was probably not restricted to hermits but seems to have been practiced in the cenobia, too. The synaxeis-that is, the individual psalmodising of the hermits-clearly corresponded to services in church settings: both, for example, are called synaxis. A general practice of the Christian cult, that is, was transferred to the cell, so to speak. This transferal was probably due to the rather strong individualization tendencies of early monasticism. Thus it is no surprise that, especially for monks, domestic religiousness played a particularly prominent role.","PeriodicalId":29740,"journal":{"name":"Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte","volume":"18-19 1","pages":"187 - 200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/arege-2016-0011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44907951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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