scholarly journals Prophesying the Demise of Egyptian Religion in Late Antiquity: The Perfect Discourse and Antoninus in Canopus

Numen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 180-203
Author(s):  
Christian H. Bull
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
Cosmic Order ◽  
The World ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Hermes Trismegistus ◽  
Blank Slate ◽  
The Temple

Abstract When the demise of traditional Egyptian religion took place is much debated. Some scholars have portrayed vibrant cults continuing well beyond the 4th century, embattled by Christianity, whereas others see a marked decline in the late 2nd and early 3rd century, leaving a blank slate for Christianity in the fourth century. The present contribution interprets the apocalyptic prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus in the Perfect Discourse to reflect a priestly insider’s perspective of the decline in temple-cult in the early 3rd century, and its projected catastrophic consequences for Egypt and indeed the cosmic order. Yet, despite the general neglect of temple-cult and literacy in the Egyptian priestly scripts, certain temples remained in use. The second part of the article is devoted to the survival and apparent rejuvenation of the temple of Osiris/Serapis in Canopus, in the second half of the 4th century. This case shows that at this late date there were still self-consciously traditionalist devotees of Egyptian gods, though our sources do not permit us to see to what degree their temple-cult corresponded to the old “standard model.” The temple’s alliance with the non-Egyptian Neoplatonist Antoninus suggests that the image of Egypt as the temple of the world is now championed in the language of Hellenism, and Antoninus updates the now nearly two-centuries-old prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus to predict the fall of the Serapis temples in Alexandria and Canopus after his death. Both the Perfect Discourse and Antoninus are testimonies of a literate elite that saw the great temples as the essence of Egyptian religion, and their demise as the end of Egypt and the world.

Ancient Egyptian Religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Korshi Dosoo
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
Major Break ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Over Time

While ancient Egyptians had no conception of religion as a distinct sphere of life, modern scholars have identified a wide range of Egyptian beliefs and practices relating to the divine. Egyptian religion can be traced back to predynastic times, and it developed continuously until the decline of temple religion in the Roman Period. Three mythic cycles are key to its understanding: the creation of the world, and the related solar cycle, which describe the origin and maintenance of the world, and the Osiris cycle, which provides a justification for the human institutions of kingship and funerary rites. Egyptian religion may be seen as being centered on its temples, which functioned both as sites for the worship of the resident gods and the elaboration of their theologies and as important economic and political centers. In addition to gods, three other categories of divine beings played important roles in Egyptian religious practice: kings, sacred and divine animals, and the dead. The king was intimately involved in the temple religion, as the mediator between the divine and human spheres, the patron of the temples, and the beneficiary of his own rituals, while divine and sacred animals seem to have been likewise understood as living embodiments of divine power. Death was understood through a range of metaphors, to which the ritual response was to link the deceased to one or more of the cosmic cycles through practices aimed at translating them into the divine sphere and thus ensuring their continued existence. As with all aspects of the religion, these rituals changed over time but show remarkable consistency throughout recorded history. Alongside these rituals centered on temple, royal, and funerary cults, a number of personal religious practices have been reconstructed as well as one major break in continuity, the “Amarna Revolution,” in which the ruling king seems to have briefly instituted a form of monotheism.

scholarly journals Editorial Foreword

2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Book Of Nature ◽  
Field Of Vision ◽  
The World ◽  
Rhetorical Tropes ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
Editorial Foreword

VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS The first essay responds to our call for articles on deep histories of the present, wide-angle lenses “combining past and present as a unitary field of vision” (CSSH 2005: 233).Judith Adler shows the lineage connecting themes of current wilderness debates with fourth-century Christian ascetic movements. Such movements idealized empty spaces as the most fitting habitat for ascetics, by virtue of whose existence the world and human life was preserved, a revaluation of wilderness propagated more widely by the Christianization of Rome. The tradition of ascetic primitivism has its origins in practical forms of early philosophical anthropology and speculative psychology, and is perpetuated in tropes of wilderness as a book of nature, an educator superior to schools, a space whose purity is necessary for the survival of the world, and a wild space that humans are called upon to protect or transform. As millennial traditions of narrative continually offer themselves to our thoughts about the radical transformation of our planet, the author suggests, historians of late antiquity might find themselves “well situated to throw new light on deeply motivating rhetorical tropes of emerging bitter debates.”

Ritual and Worship in Ancient Egypt

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Emily Teeter
Keyword(s):  
Direct Contact ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Egyptian Religion ◽  
Cosmic Order ◽  
Informal Settings ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Material Requirements

There was no set doctrine in Egyptian religion and no overall canonical tradition. The goals of worship in ancient Egypt were the preservation of the cosmic order and the perpetuation of life through rituals that combated the forces of non-existence. The gods were represented on earth by statues that “dwelled” in the deity’s temple. The deities were thought to have the same material requirements as humans, and an elaborate offering ritual provided for the feeding and comfort of the god. Offerings consisted primarily of food, beverages, perfumes, clothing, and jewelry. The king and his posthumous cult and deceased individuals were also the focus of offerings that were intended to perpetuate their memory among the living. Offering rituals were enacted in state-maintained temples, private tombs, and also in more informal settings, such as shrines and houses. Festivals of the gods dotted the calendar. During many of these, the statue of the deity left the confines of the temple and processed through the community, affording the opportunity for people to present oracular questions to the god. Although the king was the chief officiant to the gods, in certain periods, private individuals also had direct contact with them. In the mortuary cult, the king too played a major role, initially as the source of funerary offerings to the deceased, and later as a partner with the gods in providing for the afterlife. The priesthood was very hierarchical, with men and women being classified (by titles) into specific types of priests and priestesses.

Mythenauslegung, römische Königszeit und der Tod des Kaiser Valens: Christliche Interpretationen von Orosius bis Isidor von Sevilla

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
Dirk Rohmann
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
The World ◽  
Isidore Of Seville ◽  
History Of

Chronicles became the dominant historical genre in the transition period between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. While individual authors tended to build one on another, they also exerted considerable licence in rearranging the tralaticious material they found in previous compilations. Comparing Latin with Greek authors– Orosius, Isidore of Seville, Gregory of Tours, and John Malalas – the present contribution argues that all of these historical works, while summarising the history of antiquity, reflect discourses of their own day and age. These differences can be appreciated in comparing their specific views on the origin of sin in the world, on king Numa, and on the death of the Arian emperor Valens.

"Monotheistic" tendency in the late antiquity paganism

1996 ◽  
pp. 56-61
Author(s):  
I. Mozgovyy
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The World

The unceasing approximation of the remarkable 2000th anniversary of the coming to the world of Christ highlights the need for further analysis of those processes that took place in the spiritual life of the ancient peoples and laid the foundations of modern civilization with its universal human norms and values.

The Fate of Small Towns, Hilltop Settlements, and Elite Residences in Merovingian-Period Gaul

2020 ◽  
pp. 610-640
Author(s):  
Luc Bourgeois
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Power Networks ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The Many

The study of places of power in the Merovingian realm has long been focused on cities, monasteries, and royal palaces. Recent archaeological research has led to the emergence of other categories. Four of them are addressed in this chapter. These include the capitals of fallen cities, which continue to mark the landscape in one way or another. Similarly, the fate of small Roman towns during the early Middle Ages shows that most of them continued to host a variety of secular and ecclesiastical powers. In addition, from the fourth century onward, large hilltop fortified settlements multiplied anew. They complemented earlier networks of authority, whether elite residences, artisan communities, or real towns. Finally, from the seventh century onward, the great aristocratic villas of late antiquity were transformed into settlements organized around one or more courtyards and supplemented by funerary and religious structures. The evolution of political spaces and lifestyles explains both the ruptures in power networks that occurred during the Merovingian epoch and the many continuities that can be seen in the four kinds of places studied in this chapter that were marked by these developments.

Influence on Early Christian Worship

2020 ◽  
pp. 377-391
Author(s):  
Paul F. Bradshaw
Keyword(s):  
Early Christianity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
Christian Worship ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Ritual Practices

This chapter traces the various ways in which the cultic language and imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures influenced and shaped the liturgical thought and ritual practices of early Christianity, from the first to the fourth century ce. At first, this was primarily through the metaphorical or spiritual application of such concepts as priesthood and sacrifice, but eventually there are indications of the beginnings of the adoption of a more literal correspondence between some elements of the Temple cult and aspects of Christian worship. Both corporate and individual practices of prayer are covered, including the use of the canonical psalms, as well as the appropriation of traditional ritual gestures and the emergence of Christian holy days out of biblical festivals.

Temple Destruction, Mourning and Curse in Elephantine, with a View to Lamentations

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107
Author(s):  
Gard Granerød
Keyword(s):  
The World ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

AbstractThe article discusses the lament over the Temple of YHW in Elephantine from three angles: from the perspective of the internal rhetoric or composition of the letter, from the perspective of the world of the Judaeans who wrote the petition, and from the perspective of the world of the intended recipient of the letter. In addition, the article explores how the mention of collective mourning and curse in the petition letter from Elephantine may provide a text of comparison – and context – for the laments over the destruction of the city of Zion and her temple found in the Book of Lamentations.

Creation in the Poimandres and in Other Creation Stories

2020 ◽  
Vol 21-22 (1) ◽  
pp. 411-421
Author(s):  
Fritz Graf
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Creation Stories

AbstractMy paper develops from the observation that the cosmogonies in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Hermetic Poimandres are related to each other. After an analysis of Ovid’s text as an example of a diakrisis cosmogony in which the world is created by the sorting out of its originally confused elements, I give a short overview of the history of this type of cosmogony before Ovid. I then analyze the respective cosmogony in the Poimandres as another example of the same typology. A look at the use of diakrisis cosmogonies in late antiquity, including in the first ‘Moral Poem’ of Gregory of Nazianzus, closes the paper and demonstrates the attraction of this cosmogonical model in the Imperial epoch.

Paschal Politics: Deploying the Temple's Destruction against Fourth-Century Judaizers

2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Shepardson
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
The Temple

AbstractThe fourth-century Syriac writings of Aphrahat and Ephrem, and Greek homilies by the Syrian John Chrysostom, warn Christian congregants against joining Jewish festival celebrations such as Passover. In light of the respected age of Judaism's scriptures and traditions, not all of these authors' church attendees were easily convinced by supersessionist claims about Judaism's invalidity. These authors surpass earlier Christian claims that the Temple's destruction revealed God's rejection of the Jews, by arguing that Jewish scripture requires ritual sacrifices that were confined to the Jerusalem Temple. us without the Temple sacrifices, fourth-century Jewish festivals, these authors claimed, defied God's biblical commands, a declaration with sharp implications for Judaizing Christians. Demonstrating the nuances of this argument, which crossed eastern linguistic and political boundaries, contributes to complex discussions regarding these texts' audiences, highlights distinctive elements that their contexts shared, and reveals an unrecognized role that the Temple's destruction played in fourth-century anti-Judaizing discourse.

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