The Ancient Greek Pharmakos Rituals: A Study in Mistrust
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...
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| 格式: | 電子 Article |
| 語言: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | 載入...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| 出版: |
2022
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| In: |
Numen
Year: 2022, 卷: 69, 發布: 5/6, Pages: 489-516 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Griechenland (古代)
/ 宗教儀式
/ 受害者 (宗教)
/ 替罪羊
/ Misstrauen
/ 不安全
/ 淨化儀式
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BE Greco-Roman religions TB Antiquity |
| Further subjects: | B
mistrust
B 托拉斯 B Impurity B Purity B spiritual insecurity B scapegoat rituals |
| 在線閱讀: |
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| 總結: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5276 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Numen
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341662 |