Search

(᾽Αχιλλεύς, ᾽Αχιλεύς, lat. Achilles) A. Mythos Entscheidend für das Verständnis des A. ist das, was er nicht wurde bzw. beinahe geworden wäre: der Überwinder des Zeus und damit der mächtigste Gott des griech. Pantheons. Als die Orakelgöttin Themis prophezeit, daß aus einer Verbindung der Thetis mit Zeus ein Sohn hervorgehen werde, der den Göttervater stürzen wird, verzichtet Zeus auf Thetis und verheiratet sie mit dem sterblichen Peleus. Aus dieser Verbindung geht A. hervor, dessen Tod im Kampf Themis…

(Ξέρξης/ Xérxēs; Old Persian Hšayāŗšā or Xšayāršā; Hebrew Achašweroš or Ahasveros; Latin Xerxes) A. Historical dimension The image that prevails today of the Persian Great King X. I (519–465 BC), the son of Darius I and Atossa who reigned from 486 BC until his death, is dominated by his campaigns against Greece. After putting down rebellions in 484 or 482 (dating uncertain [11.249]) in Egypt (Hdt. 7,5; 7,7) and Babylon (Hdt. 1,183), X. in 480/79 embarked on campaigns against the Greeks, following on from the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) fought and lost by …

(Ἀχιλλεύς, Ἀχιλεύς [ Achil(l)eús]; Latin Achilles) A. Myth Vital to an understanding of A. is the question of what he did not become or almost became: the vanquisher of Zeus and hence the most powerful god in the Greek pantheon. When the oracle goddess Themis prophesies that a son will emerge from the union of Thetis and Zeus, and that this son will overthrow the father of the gods, Zeus renounces Thetis and marries her off to the mortal Peleus. A. is the issue of this union; Themis also prophesies his …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Phenomenology Western, Christian connotations of the concept of the soul, imposed on the religio-historical evidence by outside studies, must be generally excluded if the soul is understood as the principle of manifestations of life that are perceptible (or culturally considered to be perceptible), although they are rarely categorized under a common umbrella term. It is therefore reasonable to speak of a multiplicity of souls – for example four among the Ob-Ugrians (Hasenfratz, Einführung, 38–41), five among the Proto-Germanic peoples ( ib…

[German Version] According to the group of Trojan sagas, Iphigenia is the daughter of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon and of Clytemnestra. When the winds for the departure for Troy failed in Aulis, Agamemnon, at the behest of the seer Calchas, was to sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis ( Procli Cypriorum Enarratio ll. 68f. [ EpGF 32]; Aesch. Ag. 198–249; Eurip., Iphigenia in Aulis – Homer does not mention the sacrifice, cf. Il. 9.144f.). The sources mention several motives for Artemis's ill-will (e.g. Sophoc. El. 566–569). Iphigenia was enticed to Aulis on the pretense of espousal to…

[German Version] the daughter of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba. Homer and Ibycus extol her beauty. Wishing to marry her, Othryoneus fought on the side of Troy but was slain (Hom. Il. 13.363–393). Like her twin brother Helenus, she was endowed with oracular powers, which she received from Apollo, whose prophet and priestess she became – a relationship with erotic connotations (albeit often mentioned in the negative). Anticleides (140; FGH 2, B1, frag. 17), however, records that brother and sister were endow…