AHST 222 / 322 Lecture 25-6: Hellenistic Religions

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AHST 222 / 322 Lectures 25-6. Hellenistic Religions Modern Authors:

Sources in translation:

F.C. Grant, Hellenistic Religions: the Age of Syncretism (New York, 1953).
M. Meyer, The Ancient Mysteries: a Sourcebook (San Francisco, 1987).
S.M. Burstein, Translated Documents of Greece and Rome vol. 3: The Hellenistic Age from the Battle of Ipsos to the Death of Kleopatra VII (Cambridge, 1985).
D.G. Rice and J.E. Stambaugh, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion, Missoula, 1979.

Modern Discussions:

G. Shipley, The Greek World after Alexander.
D Potter,“Hellenistic Religion”, in Erskine, ed., A Companion to the Hellenistic World, ch. 24.
J.D. Mikalson, “Greek Religion: Continuity and Change in the Hellenistic Period”, in G. Bugh, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World, ch. 10.

Peter Green, Alexander to Actium chs. 23, 33.
L.H. Martin, Hellenistic Religions: an Introduction (Oxford, 1987).
W. Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge Mass., 1987).
G. Shipley, The Greek World after Alexander, chapter 5.
J. Vermaseren, “Hellenistic Religions”, in Historia Religionum, vol. 1, ed. C.J. Bleeker and G. Widengren (Leiden, 1969).
J.E. Stambaugh, Sarapis under the early Ptolemies (Leiden, 1972).
S.V. Tracey, “IG II² 1195 and Agathe Tyche in Attica”, Hesperia, vol. 63, 1994, pp. 241ff.
J. Sfameni-Gasparro, Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis (Leiden, 1985).
C.B. Welles, “The Discovery of Sarapis and the Foundation of Alexandria”, Historia, 1962, 271-298.

Bruce Metzger, “Methodology in the Study of the Mystery Religions and Early Christianity”, in his Historical and Literary Studies (Leiden, 1968).
A.J.M. Wedderburn, “Paul and the Hellenistic Mystery-Cults: on posing the right questions”.

Gods & Goddesses:

Isis	Aphrodite	Asclepius
The “Great Mother”, or “Magna Mater”	Cybele	Dionysus: the Dionysiac Mysteries
Mithras / Mithraism	Serapis / Sarapis	Tyche / Fortuna
Osiris	Pluto	Zeus Keraunios
Artemis Daittae

Authors and Sources:

The Sibylline Books	Protagoras	Euhemerus
Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus	Apuleius, Metamorphoses.	Macrobius, Saturnalia.
Tacitus Histories 4.81-3 (Austin Doc. 261),	Plutarch, Moralia 361E ff.	Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, 48.
Demetrius of Phaleron, in Diogenes Laertius 5.77-78.	Austin Doc. 239 = Austin² Doc. 301.	Burstein Doc. 102, Doc. 75.
Aelius Aristides, Oration 45.	Burstein, Doc. 112.	Pliny, N.H. 2.22.
Demetrius of Phaleron, On Tyche, cited by Polybius 29.21.1-9	Libanius Oration 11.94-9.

People and Places:

Mithridates	Rhacotis	Nikocreon
Menander	Heraclides	Timotheus
Manetho	Sinope	Puteoli
Locrian Opous	Antioch	Daphne

Terminology:

Mysterion, Myein
Telete
Symbolon
Epopteia, Epoptes.
Katoches, Katochae
“Incubation”

Extract from Polybius, 29.21:
One is often reminded of the words of Demetrius of Phalerum. In his treatise on Tyche, wishing to give the world a distinct view of her mutability, he fixed upon the period of Alexander, when that monarch destroyed the Persian dynasty, and thus expresses himself:

"If you will take, I don't say unlimited time or many generations, but only these last fifty years immediately preceding our generation, you will be able to understand the cruelty of Tyche. For can you suppose, if some god had warned the Persians or their king, or the Macedonians or their king, that in fifty years the very name of the Persians, who once were masters of the world, would have been lost, and that the Macedonians, whose name was before scarcely known, would become masters of it all, that they would have believed it? Nevertheless it is true that Fortune, whose influence on our life is incalculable, who displays her power by surprises, is even now I think, showing all mankind, by her elevation of the Macedonians into the high prosperity once enjoyed by the Persians, that she has merely lent them these advantages until she may otherwise determine concerning them."

And this has now come to pass in the person of Perseus; and indeed Demetrius has spoken prophetically of the future as though he were inspired. And as the course of my history brought me to the period which witnessed the ruin of the Macedonian kingdom, I judged it to be right not to pass it over without proper remark, especially as I was an eye-witness of the transaction. It was a case I thought both for enlarging on the theme myself, and for recalling the words of Demetrius, who appeared to me to have shown something more than mere human sagacity in his remarks; for he made a true forecast of the future almost a hundred and fifty years before the event. . . .

Extract from Pliny, N.H. 2.22, on Tyche:
Throughout the whole world, at every place and hour, by every voice, Fortune alone is invoked and her name spoken: she is the one defendant, the one culprit, the one thought in mens’ minds, the one subject of praise, the one cause. She is worshipped with insults, counted as fickle and often as blind, wandering, inconsistent, elusive, changeful and friend of the unworthy – we are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance is our god.

Ordinance of King Philip V to do with the property of Sarapis in Thessalonike, 187 B.C. Adapted from S.M. Burstein, The Hellenistic Age from the Battle of Ipsos to the Death of Kleopatra VII, Cambridge University Press, 1985, Doc. 72:

From Andronikos. The dia-
gramma, which I have sent
to you (and which) the king sent to me,
concerning Sarapis'
property, have it inscribed
on a stone stele and set
in the sanctuary in order that they may know, they
who are responsible for these matters, his dec-
ision. Year 35. Daisios 15.

Ordinance issued by King
Philippos (V). And from Sarapis'
property let no one alienate
anything in any manner nor
pledge any of the other dedi-
cations nor introduce a decree concerning the-
se. But if someone do-
es any of the things which have been forbidden, [he shall be] subject
to the punishment for theft;
and, after exaction of the (amount) alienated from
his property, it shall be restored to the sanctuary.
And similarly,
the treasuries of the god shall not be opened
[without] the (presence of the) epistates and the jud-
ges nor the money from them
be expended carelessly but
[with] their knowledge. And if not,
let the person who did any of these things be subject
[to the same] penalties.