The Manageable Self in the Early Hellenistic Era

Authors

  • Vaia Touna Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v39i2.009

Keywords:

Private/Public, Personal Religiosity

Abstract

This paper argues that the rise of what is commonly termed "personal religion" during the Classic-Hellenistic period is not the result of an inner need or even quality of the self, as often argued by those who see in ancient Greece foreshadowing of Christianity, but rather was the result of social, economic, and political conditions that made it possible for Hellenistic Greeks to redefine the perception of the individual and its relationship to others.

References

Arnaoutoglou, Ioannis 1998 “Between Koinon and Idion: Legal and Social Dimensions of Religious Associations In Ancient Athens.” In Paul Cartledge, Paul Millet, Sitta.von Reden (eds.), Kosmos: Essays in Order, Conflict and Community in Classical Athens, 68-83. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Burkert, Walter 1987 Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Euripides 1964 Hippolytus. Trans. by W. S. Barrett. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

----- 1995 Children of Heracles, Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba. Ed. and Trans. by David Kovacs. Loeb Classical Library, vol. 484. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Festugière, André-Jean 1960 Personal Religion among the Greeks. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Green, Peter 1990 From Alexander to Actium. The Hellenistic Age. London: Thames and Hudson.

Jeanmaire, Henri 1975 Couroi et Couretes. New York : Arno Press.

McCutcheon, Russell 2003 The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning, Rhetoric. London: Routledge.

Mikalson, Jon D. 1998 “Greek Religion: Continuity and Change in the Hellenistic Period”. In G.R. Bugh (eds), The Hellenistic World, 208-222. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Parker, Robert 1996 Athenian Religion: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Pakkanen, Petra 1996 Interepreting Early Hellenistic Religion: A study based on the Mystery Cult of Demeter and the Cult of Isis. Helsinki: Suomen Ateenan – Instituutin Saatio.

Sourvinou -Inwood, Cristiane 2003 Tragedy and Athenian Religion. New York: Lexington Books.

Thucydides Historiae I-IV. Ed. H. S. Jones. Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis. Tomus Prior. Oxford: E Typographeo Clarendoniano.

Touna, Vaia 2008 ????? ????: ? ??????????? ??? ???????? ???? ???????? ??? ???????? (Meden Agan: The Tragedy of Man in Euripides’ Hippolytus), MA Thesis, Faculty of Theology, Department of Religious Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Zaidman, Louise B. and Pauline S. Pantel 1995 Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans. by P. Cartledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Published

2010-05-11

Issue

Section

Greco-Roman Religions in Focus

How to Cite

Touna, V. (2010). The Manageable Self in the Early Hellenistic Era. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 39(2), 34-36. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v39i2.009

Most read articles by the same author(s)