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In Greek, three different nouns referred to mystery cults, the specific term μυστήρια and the wider terms ὄργια and τελετή. The plural ὄργια (the singular is attested later and in a different meaning) is etymologically connected with the Indo-European root found in English “work.” In its origins euphemistic, already in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the core-text on Eleusis from perhaps the second half of the 7th century BCE (Richardson, 1974), ὄργια is the specialized term for the type of ritual that we call mystery rites ( Homeri H. Cer. 273). Greek τελετή is similarly open: conne…

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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity I. Religious Studies 1. Terms and definition Divination derives from Lat. divinare, “to ascertain the divine will.” Manticism, Gk μαντική (sc. τέχνη)/ mantikḗ (sc. téchnē), is “(the art of) indicating the future”; the term derives from a root that expresses “spiritual effort”; in antiquity, at least after Plato ( Phaidr. 244c), owing to the dominance of ecstatic divination, the word was associated with “mania” (μανία/ manía) (Mania). Divination is …

[German Version] Gallio, Junius Annaeus, eldest son of the rhetor Lucius Annaeus Seneca and the brother of the philosopher, poet and statesman Lucius Annaeus Seneca. He was adopted by the rhetor Lucius Iunius Gallio and followed the typical senatorial track, becoming governor (proconsul) of Achaia under Claudius (51/52 ce) and consul suffectus in 56 ce…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christian Secrecy I. Religious Studies Discipline of the Secret ( disciplina arcani) is a modern expression coined in the context of post-Reformation controversial theology (first used by J. Daillé, De usu patrum ad ea definienda capita, Geneva, 1686). It refers to the ancient Christian demand, made especially in the 4th and early 5th centuries, that central parts of the ritual (baptism and Eucharist) and the doctrine be kept secret. A comparable secrecy requirement existed in the pagan mysteries, while gnostic statements, following 1 Cor 2:13, refer not so much to secrecy in ritual matters as to the revelation of certain …

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Responses I. History of Religions 1. Orphic-Dionysian mysteries. The earliest Greeks anticipated a short and active life without any form of existence after death. The 6th century bce saw the appearance of religious alternatives that promised an afterlife in the beyond. One of these spread anonymously under the name of Orpheus; myths of Orpheus speak of deliverance from a senseless and cheerless netherworld. There was never a coherent religion practi…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Fundamental Theology. – V. Missiology I. Religious Studies 1. The Concept and Its History Myth may be defined by either content or function. Defined by content, myth is a belief about something significant, such as the world or society. Defined by function, myth accomplishes something significant, such as explaining the world or supporting society. Most theories of myth are concerned with the …