Balance, Conflict and Choice in the Archaic and Classical Greek Polytheism Cover Image

Egyensúly, konfliktus és választás az archaikus és klasszikus kori görög politeizmusban
Balance, Conflict and Choice in the Archaic and Classical Greek Polytheism

Author(s): Gyula Lindner
Subject(s): Social Philosophy, Social history, Ancient World, Philosophy of Religion, Sociology of Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: polytheism; religious pluralism; religious diversity; pantheon; henotheism; Hippolytus; market-model; religious alternatives; personal religion;

Summary/Abstract: When taking Greek religion into consideration we constantly encounter the expressions polytheism and pantheon. Therefore we presume that the Greeks as the citizens of the polis had to attend many festivals during the year, had to sacrifice to, pray to and hold intercourse with many gods. The so-called polis-religion model has dominated the research field in the past decades, accepting the view that the religious attitude of the individual is determined solely by the community they belong to. However, in the recent years the ancient Greek religious history has faced a paradigm shift. In the newly introduced (or developed) framework the experts concentrate on studying the personal choices of the individuals, with which they choose among the plurality of the gods. The new orientation of the ancient religious history attempts to answer the following questions: (how) were the Greeks able to hold meaningful relationships with all the gods of the pantheon? How could the equilibrium of the Greek polytheism be maintained? How were the individuals able to manage the conflicts arising between the overlapping responsibilities these gods possessed. Furthermore to discover the influence and motivation behind the development of the personal pantheons.

  • Issue Year: 61/2017
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 153-168
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Hungarian