The Cosmos in Ancient Greek Religious Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efrosyni Boutsikas
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Ancient Greek

Persönliche Frömmigkeit und religiöses Erlebnis Wesenszüge der griechischen Religion am Beispiel von Heilkulten

Numen ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-472
Author(s):  
Alexander Rubel
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Personal Relation ◽  
City State

Abstract Ancient Greek healing cults can be studied in the context of “personal piety.” This article emphasizes personal aspects of the Greek religion. It shows that the concept of “polis religion” does not embrace major aspects of ancient Greek piety. I analyze the direct and personal relation of worshippers in healing cults, especially that of Apollo, with the deity. By doing so, I put forward a new reading of Greek religion in the context of the concept of “personal piety” developed in Egyptology. The well-known “embeddedness” of religion in the structures of the Ancient Greek city-state led to a one-sided view of ancient Greek religion, as well as to aspects of ritual and “cult” predominating in research. Simultaneously, aspects of “belief ” are often labelled as inadequate in describing Greek (and Roman) religion. Religion as ritual and cult is simply one side of the coin. Personal aspects of religion, and direct contact with the deity, based on “belief,” are thus the other side of the coin. It follows that they are also the fundament of ritual. It is necessary to combine “polis religion” with “personal piety” to display a complete picture of Greek religion. The Isyllos inscription from Epidaurus is presented here as a final and striking example for this view. It reports the foundation of a cult of the polis on behalf of a personal religious experience.

scholarly journals Divination and the ‘Real Presence’ of the Divine in Ancient Greece

2019 ◽  
pp. 203-225
Author(s):  
Michael A. Flower
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Lakota Sioux ◽  
Wounded Knee ◽  
Collective Belief

This chapter applies Robert Orsi’s concepts of ‘real presence’ and ‘abundant history’ to the study of ancient Greek religion, using divination as a case study. It proposes that we should take real presence seriously as something that most Greeks took for granted. Although investigating religious experience is extraordinarily difficult, one of the best places to look is in the ubiquitous practice of divination. For it is in the context of the divinatory ritual that the real presence of the divine was commonly to be experienced. Case studies include the epiphany of Asklepios to Isyllos of Epidauros, the lead oracular tablets from Dodona, and the role of divination in the Athenian expedition to Sicily in 415 BCE. The latter event is compared to the belief of the Lakota Sioux that their ghost shirts would protect them from bullets at the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890. In both cases, a collective belief in prophecy and in the real presence of supernatural forces instilled an assurance of victory, and this assurance was then followed by a rejection of the religious specialists who had promoted a positive interpretation of the message and the outcome.

scholarly journals The Contribution of ‘Total Environment’ Reconstructions in Interpreting Ancient Greek Experience of Ritual Spaces

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 540-552
Author(s):  
Efrosyni Boutsikas
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
Light Manipulation ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Ritual Spaces ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Accurate Reconstruction

AbstractThe temple of Epikourean Apollo in Bassae has long been suspected to have been constructed with astronomical considerations, aimed at influencing ancient religious experience. The study presented here involves the use of Virtual Reality software to reconstruct the temple in its original position and orientation, combined with an accurate reconstruction of the sun’s position during the Classical period. The aim is to test the hypothesis of deliberate solar considerations associated with the temple’s east entrance. The reconstruction also discusses the application of Virtual Reality Models (VRM) and their potential impact on understanding ancient spatial movement and memory, emotionality and cognition. In addition, it explores the possibility of ancient natural light manipulation in enhancing experience of religious architecture. This paper not only presents the first VRM of Apollo’s temple, but also a model with an accurate reconstruction of the sun’s position at specific moments in the year. The importance of such reconstructions in understanding religious experience is exemplified. A great deal is revealed about the proposed solar effect in relation to human observation, and the connotations of such an effect in specific religious contexts. This study could facilitate discussion on the contribution of digital technology in understanding ancient Greek ritual experience.

Personal religion: a productive category for the study of ancient Greek religion?

2015 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Kindt
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Additional Dimension

Abstract:This article investigates the scope and meaning of ancient Greek personal religion as an additional dimension - besides official (polis) religion - in which the ancient Greek religious experience articulates itself. I show how ‘personal religion’ is a rather broad and amorphous scholarly category for a number of religious beliefs and practices that, in reflecting individual engagement with the supernatural, do not fit into our conception of polis religion. At the same time, I argue that personal religion should not be seen simply as that which is not official Greek religion. Nor is personal religion simply ‘private’ religion, oikos religion or the religion of those who had no voice in the sphere of politics (metics, women). Rather, ‘personal religion’ combines aspects of public and private. It is a productive category of scholarly research insofar as it helps us to appreciate the whole spectrum of ways individuals in the ancient Greek city received and (if necessary) altered culturally given religious beliefs and practices. Indeed, the examples discussed in this paper reveal a very Greek conversation about the question of what should count as a religious sign and who was to determine its meaning.

scholarly journals The Role of Darkness in Ancient Greek Religion and Religious Practice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efrosyni Boutsikas
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Light Darkness ◽  
Emotional Condition

Aiming at a better understanding of ways through which the ancient Greek religious experience was shaped, this chapter investigates the role and use of darkness in religious belief and practice. The orientation and certain architectural features of Greek temples, Dionysiac and Mystery cults, divination, rites of passage, magic, and other nocturnal rituals are examined here in an investigation of the interplay between light, darkness, and shadow and the aims fulfilled by such associations. It transpires that darkness was a decisive element in the religious experience, one that intensified the emotional condition of the participants, whilst shaping the ritual experience and memory of the event.

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