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[German version] Numerous deities were referred to as ‘Mother’. In Greece, the oldest is a Mycenaean ‘Divine Mother’ ( Matere teija, in the dative: PY fr. 1202); the most important are Demeter, Rhea and Gaia, as well as the Lycian Leto and, above all, that goddess who actually was called ‘Mother’ ( Mḗtēr) or ‘Mother of the Gods’ ( Mḗtēr theṓn) and was considered exotic and at the same time very ancient (Cybele). Also well-known are the Sicilian Mothers, who were interpreted as the nurses of Zeus (Diod. Sic. 4,79-80; 5,64-65). In Rome, the cult of the Mater Magna, introduced in 204 BC, existed alongside the cults of other Roman or Italic mother goddesses: Mater Matuta, Tellus, Larunda, Bona Dea. The cult of the Matres/Matronae was widespread in the Germanic and Gallo-Roman regions. In contrast, in Mesopotamia [1; 2], the numerous goddesses -- who were sometimes mothers, but more often great, sovereign and creative deities, birth goddesses or the mistresses of fate -- experienced a decline beginning in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC in favour of other figures, such as the Sumerian Innana (the Akkadian Ištar). These were not mothers, but goddesses who appeared primarily as warriors or lovers. The even older Anatolian representations from Hacılar and Çatal-Höyük remain silent for us.…

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[German Version] (Jun 23, 1872 – May 26, 1927, Paris). Hubert was a French historian and sociologist from the school of É. Durkheim. In the work L'Année sociologique, he and his friend and colleague M. Mauss addressed the topic of the sociology of religion. He taught “early European religions” at the Ecole pratique des hautes études and was deputy administrator of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales of Saint-Germain- en-Laye, where he first worked under the guidance of S. Reinach. He also taught national archaeology at the Louvre museum. Hubert's work consists primarily of artic…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The word sacrifice denotes both the living creature or offering sacrificed and the ritual action (e.g. destruction) through which that creature or object is dedicated to a supernatural being. If a distinction needs to be made, English and the Romance languages can use sacrifice (Eng. and Fr.; sacrificio Ital. and Span.) for the ritual action while using victim (Fr. victime, Span. víctima, Ital. vittima) for the creature sacrificed. Etymologically sacrifice suggests an action in which the sacrificed object is “made holy/sacred” (Lat. sacrum fac…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Christianity – V. Judaism – VI. Islam – VII. Buddhism – VIII. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies A human society's dietary laws and prohibitions give us an excellent insight into its symbolic and ritual practices. The choice of nourishment (preferences and prohibitions) is closely tied to the overall image that a culture develops of itself, with which it encounters other cultures and which presupposes a specific relationship to nature and transcendence.…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. Early Christianity – V. Church Histo…

[German Version] in the comparative study of religion. Nourishment is both a symbol-laden reality and a biological necessity. Every human society chooses from among the available foods by making a traditional distinction between those that are fit for consumption and those that are not. Culinary habits and table manners have cultural implications that go far beyond anything that a purely …

[English Version] I. ReligionswissenschaftlichAnhand der Speisegebote (S.) und -verbote einer menschlichen Gemeinschaft läßt sich der Zusammenhang zw. symbolischen und rituellen Handlungen ablesen. Die Wahl der Nahrung (Vorlieben und Verbote) ist eng verbunden mit dem Gesamtbild, das eine Kultur von sich entwirft und mit dem sie anderen Kulturen gegenübertritt und das seinerseits ein spezifisches Verhältnis zur Natur und Transzen…

[English Version] I. ReligionswissenschaftlichDas Wort »O.« bez. im Deutschen sowohl das geopferte Lebewesen bzw. die Opfergabe als auch diejenige rituelle Handlung (z.B. Zerstörung), durch die das Lebewesen oder Objekt den übernatürlichen Wesen zugeeignet wird. Im Engl. sowie in den romanischen Sprachen werden diese beiden Phänomene dagegen begrifflich differenziert. Engl./franz. »sacrifice« (ita…