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[German version] (θίασος; thíasos). Affiliation of people for the purpose of worshipping a god, as a rule a religious association (Associations). From the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Periods there are numerous epigraphic sources, distributed throughout the ancient world, in which thíasoi are mentioned beside collegium , koinón , orgeônes , éranos and other terms for both religious and non-religious associations, from which they cannot always be clearly distinguished [1; 2.8-56]. A law ascribed to Solon [1], in which hieroì orgeônes and thiasôtai are mentioned (Dig. 47,22,…

[German version] (θεοὶ πάντες/ theoì pántes, 'all the gods'). The gods in their entirety. They are called upon in vow formulas, oaths and prayers, and named in curses, short invocations or requests. Benedictions are offered to TP and altars are dedicated to them. The pantheon [2] is the sacred place for the worship of their cult. The Greek composite personal names Pánthe(i)os, Pánthe(i)a, Panthýs are derived from TP. Benedictions for 'the all-divine', to pántheion, are connected with their cult ([1; 3. 697-703] with examples). Besides TP , the gods in their entirety are described as pánte…

[German version] Semo S. Dius Fidius (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 4,58,4; CIL VI 30994), also called Dius Fidius, S. or Semo S. A god of mysterious origin and nature, assumed to be of Sabine extraction (Ov. Fast. 6,213-18; Varro, Ling. 5,66). The name S. (also transmitted as Sanctus) is derived from Latin sancire, 'to make steadfast, fix' (but it is also explained as the Sabine word for 'heaven': Lydus, Mens. 4,90; [4. 116]). Semo is of unknown derivation, but is associated with semen ('seed') and understood to indicate a god of sowing ([3] contra [2. 204]). The god, along with Salus Semonia …

[English version] The parable (Greek parabolḗ, Latin parabola: 'comparison', from parabállein: 'to juxtapose') is a genuinely Enlightenment genre, typical of the literature of both the late 18th cent. and the first half of the 20th cent.: for the former it was a “Hebel der Erkenntnis” ["lever of knowledge"] (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing) and for the latter its criticism (Brecht, Kafka). Parables are characterized as a textual corpus in five ways: 1. by their self-contained nature: from the 17th cent. on, ther…