RITUAL General Characteristics of Ancient Religion - PowerPoint Presentation

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RITUALSlide2

General Characteristics of Ancient Religion

• religion non-elective

• religion not revealed

• role of ancestral custom (

nomos

)

• religion public, rarely private

• religion non-eschatological

• focus on practice, not belief (orthopraxy)

• emphasis on communal well-being

• broad tolerance

for variationSlide3

orthodoxy vs. orthopraxySlide4

“Modern” Religious Authority

epiphany/revelation

founder(s)

text

interpretation (dogma)

institutionalization

clerical order

laitySlide5

orthopraxy

• absence of revelation

• absence of centralized religious institution

• absence of specialized, permanent priesthood

• local, pluralized

nature of

nomos

(legomena + dromena)• practical (NOT doctrinal) role of divination

• interpenetration of secular and sacredSlide6

Non-Revelatory Religions

deity

signs divination

communitySlide7

Traditional Religious Authority

{deity}

narrative

(

legomena

)

custom (

nomos) ritual activity (

dromena)

{institutionalization}{priesthood}communitySlide8

Priesthood

• priest (

hiereus

) elected, appointed, bought

• hereditary priesthood as “guild” (ritual as craft/technology)

• priesthood often temporary

• priestly access to sanctuary not exclusive

• priesthood specific (incl. gender) to specific god at specific shrine• priest responsible for management (economic, legal) of sanctuary• priesthood salaried with portions of sacrificed victims• priest responsible for conducting public sacrifice• priest as intermediary between deity and community

• priestly mediation not exclusiveSlide9
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Temple of

Amphiaraeus

at

OroposSlide13

AmphiaraosSlide14

Inscription

(IG VII.235)

…the priest of

Amphiaraos

is to go to the sanctuary when winter arrives until the sowing season with no greater interval than three days between visits, and is to be in residence not less than ten days each month…

If anyone commits a crime within the sanctuary…the priest has authority to fine him up to a maximum of five drachmas… Should he pay the fine, he is to deposit it in the treasury in the presence of the priest.

If anyone suffers private injury in the sanctuary…the priest is to give judgment up to a maximum of three drachmas; as for larger sums, the judgments provided in the laws for each plaintif

f are to be in effect here too…Slide15

When someone comes to be healed by the god, he is to donate a first-fruit offering of at least nine

obols

of silver, and deposit it in the treasury in the presence of the priest. When he is present, the priest is to say the prayers over the sacrifices and place the victim on the altar; when he is absent, the person making the sacrifice is to do this.

During the public sacrifice each person is to say the prayers for himself, but the priest is to say them over the public sacrifices, and he is to receive the skin of all the victims sacrificed within the sanctuary.

No portions of meat are to be carried out of the precinct.

Sacrificers

are to donate the shoulder-portion of each victim to the priest except during a festival; at that time he is to receive the shoulder-portion only from the public victims.Slide16

Priesthood of

Amphiaraeus

Legal

• limited powers of adjudication of crimes and torts within sanctuary

• fines deposited in temple treasury

Ritual

• prayer over sacrificial victim, placement on altar

• primary role in public sacrifice• receipt of pelt of both private and public victims

• receipt of shoulder portion of public victim in festival worship, private victim in private worshipSlide17

Ritual Occasions

STABLE / RECURRENT

Birth

Legitimization (

Amphidromia

)

Membership

Puberty

Sexual Initiation

MarriageAdulthood

Planting/HarvestingPregnancy

Childbirth

DeathAnnual Renewal

ritual : complex of actions performed in the name of an individual or community with regularity and relative invarianceSlide18

Communal Hearth

Royal Hearth

Throne Room, Palace of Nestor at Pylos

Robert

H.

ConsoliSlide19

Mythology of Fire

SPECIES

PREPARATION

LONGEVITY

animal

raw meat

short-lived

human

cooked meat

longer-lived

deity

incinerated meat (smoke)

immortal

• warmth

• food preparation (raw

 cooked)

• stranger



guest

• sacrificeSlide20

Amphidromia

Hearth

fire as transformative:

• Myths

of “immortalization”

(Achilles,

Demophoön

)• RawCooked : NatureCulture

: Strange

Familiar :

OtherSelf•

Amphidromia ritualSlide21

Amphidromia

pais

aph

’

Hestias

(child from Hestia)Slide22

Ritual Occasions

AD

HOC / OCCASIONAL

Travel

Integration

Competition

Hunt

War

Curse

SicknessInterrogation