RT Article
T1 The Ancient Greek Pharmakos Rituals: A Study in Mistrust
JF Numen
VO 69
IS 5/6
SP 489
OP 516
A1 Eidinow, Esther 1970-
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1815665572
AB This article examines the role of mistrust – especially in constructions of purity, impurity, and purification – in ancient Greek religion. It begins by examining so-called scapegoat or pharmakos rituals, in which an individual was expelled from the city, apparently as a purificatory offering to the gods. Recent analyses have argued that these rituals were outlets for community aggression, and/or were resonant with myths of self-sacrifice. This article will suggest a different analysis of the evidence. I offer an alternative way of interpreting these rituals that sets them in a wider context of Greek ritual and belief: it suggests that the ritual of the pharmakos arose in a context of social and spiritual insecurity. This created, I argue, a prevailing dynamic of social and spiritual mistrust, within which the pharmakos ritual emerged – and which it exacerbated.
K1 Impurity
K1 Purity
K1 spiritual insecurity
K1 Trust
K1 mistrust
K1 scapegoat rituals
DO 10.1163/15685276-12341662