CLASS-UA 293 Belief & Practice in Greek Religion

The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are often thought of as highly pragmatic: they focus on ‘practice’, on ritual activity, ceremony and performance; religious practice and social life were so much intertwined that the question of ‘belief’ did not matter. As a result, the affective, cognitive, and philosophical dimensions of ancient belief-systems have often been neglected by historians of religion. The course, focusing on ancient Greek religion, will tackle the dichotomy of belief and practice by studying a combination of ancient texts and modern theory. Having laid out the debate, we shall first look at ancient sources for ritual activity and at ritual theory in a social and functionalist tradition; we shall then examine ancient evidence expressing intellectual and self- reflexive attitudes to religious practice and the divine, following the academic debate from its beginnings to recent approaches to religion drawn from the cognitive sciences. The discussion of belief and practice will be based on topics such as how to study the ancient gods, sacrifice, festivals of democratic Athens, initiation rites, women’s religiosity and children’s religious experience, and then tackle the Greeks’ understanding of the divine in anthropomorphism, mythology, epiphany and oracular consultation. Ancient evidence studied ranges from tragedy and hymnic poetry to inscriptions, dedications at ancient shrines and religious iconography. All ancient texts will be read in translation. Modern readings will be drawn from social and cultural anthropology, religious sociology, philosophy and performance studies.

College of Arts and Sciences, Classics
CLASS-UA 293 | 4 units | Class#: 10180