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[German version] (Ἀνθεστήρια; Anthestḗria). Spring festival, celebrated wherever Ionians settle (Thuc. 2,15,4: ‘the oldest Dionysia’; prior to the Ionian migration). It is to be equated in part with the ritual of the Katagogia ‘Collecting (of the god from the sea)’ [1]. On the first day of the three-day festival (11th-13th Anthesterion), the Pithoigea (πιθ-οιγία ‘cask opening’), the wine flasks/ pithoi of the autumn are released for consumption and sale. The rural Dionysus sanctuary of Icaria celebrates the arrival of the god (Aiora [2]) and unites the …

(Πότνια θηρῶν/ Pótnia thērôn, 'Mistress of animals'). [German version] A. Preliminary remark In the study of Greek religion, the PT is the subject of several fundamental theses on the relationships between gods, humans and animals. The PT represented a vital experience in sacrifice and hunting, but also in the dangers of the human sphere of life: the sacralization of killing animals in order to save one's own life. In India, on the other hand, the master of animals represented the prohibition against killin…

[German version] (αἰώρα; aiṓra, ‘swing’). At the spring festival of the Anthesteria, seat cushions or chairs were suspended from trees by ropes, for children to use as swings. This is portrayed on choe pots [pl. 1, 31,2; pl. 4, 18]. The custom is attested for Attic Icaria, the mythical place of arrival of Dionysus as wine god. Because the rough shepherds do not recognize the god's gift, they attempt to kill him, but instead strike the old man, the god's host, Icarius. The daughter Erigone wanders v…

[German version] (Μαλεάτας; Maleátas). The epiclesis M. for Apollo is derived from the place-name Malea [1], the cape in the south-east of the Peloponnese (of the Mani) feared for its storms (Hom. Od. 3,287 et passim). Poseidon had a cult there (Eur. Cyc. 293; Paus. 3,23,2). Typically, however, it is Apollo rather than Poseidon who bears this epiclesis in the eastern Peloponnese and radiating outward from there, for example in Piraeus (IG II2 4962); here M., as well as Apollo, receives his own preliminary sacrifices before Asclepius. Another link with healing cults …

[German version] (βουφόνια; bouphónia). In the Athenian Dipoleia, the ox that first eats of the sacrificial grain is sacrificed because it has desecrated the gift for the god (Porphyr. Abst. 2,28-30; this probably goes back to Theophrastus [5]; Paus 1,24,4). The slaughterer -- a hereditary office of the Thaulon family [3. 161] -- kills the animal for this reason and then flees. In the myth the Delphic oracle orders that the fleeing slaughterer, the farmer Sopater, be brought back and that he repeat…

[German version] (Βενδῖς; Bendîs). The Thracian goddess B., still known to the Greeks in the 6th cent. (Hipponax fr. 127 W.) (see Hdn. 2, 761 L.; Liv. 38,41,1; only as antiquarian knowledge? [1. 114]), B. is understood in the interpretatio graeca as an  Artemis (Hdt. 4, 33; 5, 7; Palaephat. 31; Hsch.), as  Hecate (Plut. De def. or. 13, 416e, owing to incorrect etymology; Hsch. s.v. Ἀδμήτου κόρη) or Persephone (Orph. Fr. 200 OF; cf. texts in PCG 4, p. 165; cf. 159). The iconography, too, aims at equating her with Artemis as a hunting …

[English version] (Ἀγοραῖος). Die Götter-Epiklese benennt die lokale und funktionale Beziehung des Gottes zur Agora als polit. und ökonomischer Institution [1]. So wird bes. Zeus als Garant der Satzungen kult. verehrt und im Eid beschworen [2; 3. 197-199], manchmal mit anderen, auch weiblichen Gottheiten (Artemis, Ge). Sonst ist Hermes der Marktgott par excellence (bes. zu Erythrai [3. 270]; IE 201 = Syll.3 1014, 90-100). Auffarth, Christoph (Tübingen) Bibliography 1 R. E. Wycherly, in: Agora 3, 1957, 123a 2 H. Schwabl, s. v. Zeus, RE X A, 256-258; RE Suppl. XV, 1978, 1051-1053 3 F.…

The Power of Definition 1. a) The boundary between what religion is and is not, has important effects: it excludes it from undeserved privileges, and lays out its concerns as either illegitimate or unlawful. These issues arise in the debates over ‘fundamentalism,’ Islamic religious education, or over ‘sects and cults,’ as, for example, in the disagreement over whether Scientology is a religion or a (criminal) ‘economic undertaking.’ An example may clarify the point. In December 1992, Hindus destroye…

* Introductory remark: The following survey is an attempt to present scientific trends and different schools and styles of research that have either been characteristic of the academic study of religion over the past century or that have recently entered upon the scene but have nevertheless already had an effect on religious research. This is, therefore, a study of the typical and the paradigmatic (which is not to imply that another approach would have been qualitatively inferior, this is simp…

Title and Claim 1. The pope (from Gk., papas, ‘father’) is the spiritual and secular sovereign of the Catholic Church, with his seat in Rome: he is plenipotentiary of doctrine, ordination, and leadership, including the power of sanction. His full title reads: “Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles [Peter], Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province [of the Church], Sovereign of Vatican City State.”1 The title contains claims meant to provide sacred a…

[German version] (Μυίαγρος/ Muíagros, Μυιώδης/ Muiṓdēs). Sacrifices attract flies. In order to drive them away, those offering a sacrifice would provide a preliminary sacrifice (with an additive?), the blood of which would satisfy the gnats (according to Ael. NA 5,17 for Leucas; 11,8). In the half-empty town of Alipheira the help of the ‘gnat-chaser’ Myiager was called upon (Paus. 8,26,7). In Olympia, on the malaria plain, similar protection was provided  by sacrifices to Zeus Apómyios, the ‘fly repeller’ (Paus. 5,14,1; Plin. HN 10,75; 29,106), or Myiakórēs/ Myiṓdēs (‘fly catche…

[German version] (ἀρεταλόγοι; aretalógoi). Functionaries at sanctuaries who recount the great deeds (ἀρεταί; aretaí) of the local god to pilgrims, particularly in healing and Isis-cults [1; 2]. Used in Lat. to mean ‘boaster’. The historic form is connected to the Gospel [3]. Auffarth, Christoph (Tübingen) Bibliography 1 Nilsson, GGR 2, 228 f. 2 H. S. Versnel, Ter unus, 1990, 191 f. 3 J. Z. Smith, Map is not Territory, 1978, 190-207. E. Norden, Agnostos Theos, 1913, 143-277.

[German version] (Εὔφορβος; Eúphorbos). Hero in the Iliad on the Trojan side, son of Panthoos and Phrontis [1]. Together with Hector he killed Patroclus (Il. 16,806-815); Menelaus killed him in a counter-strike (Il. 17,9-60) [2]. His shield was kept at the Heraeum of Argus (Paus. 2,17,3).  Pythagoras considered himself to be an incarnation of E. (Heraclid. Pont. fr. 89 Wehrli/Schule; Callim. Fr. 191,59-63 Pfeiffer; Diog. Laert. 8,1,4; Ov. Met. 15,160-163 etc.) [3; 4]. Auffarth, Christoph (Tübingen) Bibliography 1 P. v. d. Mühll, Kritisches Hypomnema zur Ilias, 1952, 255 2 L. Kahi…

[German version] (Ἀγαμέμνων, Agamémnōn). King of the Argives in Mycenae. In the early Greek epics A. led the army of the Argives ( Danai, Achaeans) against Troy, to avenge the kidnapping of the wife of his brother Menelaus. He brings the greatest fleet from the north-eastern Peloponnese (in the ships' catalogue Il. 2,569-575 south-western Argolis belongs to Diomedes, the remainder and as far as to Corinth, to A. In contrast to this, lord of ‘all Argus’ (Il. 2,107; 9,141 [1.180 f.]). In the Iliad he causes his charismatic rule [2] to waver through the theft of Achilles' capti…

[German Version] I. Invocation – II. Epiclesis I. Invocation In order to get into touch with a given deity, one must know the procedure whereby one gets that deity's attention, how to get to the locus of its presence, and how to invoke an epiphany or visit the image representing it. There are also forms that are not necessarily tied to the deity's local presence, such as prayer, imprecation, …

(βαιτύλια; βαίτυλοι). [English version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich Große, aufrechte Steine, die in Heiligtümern in den Kult einbezogen werden, finden sich im gesamten Mittelmeerraum [1]. Vor allem die Phoiniker trugen zu ihrer Verbreitung bei. Berühmt waren die B. in Tyros und in Emesa [2]. In Israel stehen Polemik und die Einbeziehung in Kult (Maṣṣebah) und Gottesprädikation nebeneinander (Gott als Fels: Ps 28,1 [3]). Ekstatische Theophanie (?) stellt die min. Ikonographie dar [4]. In Griechenland …

[English Version] I. Mythologisch Die Erzählungen von O. spiegeln Entstehung und Ablehnung einer rel. Bewegung der griech. Archaik: Ein Prinz aus Thrakien in Nordgriechenland begeistert als Künstler; die psychagogische und entzückende Macht der Musik (Ekstase) wird erzählt in der Unterweltsfahrt: Die Gattin des O., Eurydike, stirbt. Um sie wiederzugewinnen, steigt O. in den Hades. Es gelingt ihm, durch die Musik Steine zu erweichen und die unerbittlichen Totengötter umzustimmen, daß sie seine verst…

[English Version] I. Klassisches Altertum Das häufig gebrauchte griech. Verb παρει˜n̆αι/parei´nai, »zugegen sein, hilfreich zur Seite stehen«, wird in bezug auf die Götter in einer speziellen Bedeutung gebraucht. Als Substantiv erhält P. (griech. παρουσι´α/parousi´a) in hell. Zeit die Bedeutung eines terminus technicus und bezieht sich auf ein Ritual, das die Ankunft inszeniert, mit der Gott/König nun nahe, mitten unter seinem Volk wohnt (etwa: Tegea feiert Hadrians Besuch als Gottes Ankunft, IG 5, 2.50). Die Betonung der Anwe…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich 1.  Orphisch-dionysische Mysterien Im Unterschied zum frühgriech. Weltgefühl eines kurzen und tatenreichen Lebens ohne postmortale Existenz bildeten sich seit dem 6.Jh. v.Chr. rel. Alternativen, die ein Weiterleben im Jenseits versprechen. Eine davon ist anonym unter dem Namen des Orpheus überliefert; Orpheusmythen handeln von der Rettung aus der sinn- und freudlosen Unterwelt. Eine geschlossene Rel. der Orphiker (O.) hat es nie gegeben, aber über den Grad d…

[German Version] I. Mythology – II. Art I. Mythology The stories of Orpheus reflect the emergence and rejection of a religious movement in Archaic Greece: a prince from Thrace in northern Greece enchants everyone with his artistry; the psychagogic and ecstatic power of music (Ecstasy) is recalled in a journey to the netherworld. Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, dies; to win her back, he descends into Hades. Through his music, he charms even the rocks and persuades the implacable gods of the dead to release…