Is it possible to believe in a syncretistic god?
A discussion on conceptual and contextual aspects of Hellenistic syncretism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-04-06Abstract
This article will look into the phenomenon of syncretism from two different points of view. Firstly, syncretism will be discussed from a conceptual perspective in relation to elaborations on belief, an equally perplexing concept in the studies of ancient Greek religion. Secondly, a very selective example of the syncretism between the goddess Demeter and Isis as an object of veneration in Ptolemaic Egypt will be looked at more closely in order to bring the conceptual perspective into closer contact with the contextual one. It will be argued that syncretism can be regarded both as an essence of polytheistic religious systems in particular, and as a process of syncretization. Once a metaphorical understanding of syncretism is added to these views, believing in a syncretistic deity (Demeter-Isis in our case) appears doubtful since a new entity in a polytheistic belief-system would have entailed a fundamental change in the belief system itself as well as an introduction of totally new features to the conception of deities in general.
Downloads
References
J. Assman, ‘Monotheism and Polytheism’ in Ancient Religions, ed. S.I. Johnston, Cambridge (Mass.) & London 2007, 17–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674039186-006
R. Bastide, ‘Problems of Religious Syncretism’, in Syncretism in Religion. A Reader, eds. A.M. Leopold & J. S. Jensen, London 2004, 113–139. (Originally in R. Bastide, The African Religions of Brazil. Towards a Sociology of the Interpretation of Civilizations, translated by H. Sebba, London 1960, 260–284.)
E. Bernand, Inscriptions métriques de l’Égypte gréco-romaine. Rescherches sur la poesie épigrammatique des Grecs en Égypte, Paris 1969. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/ista.1969.1012
U. Berner, ‘Heuristisches Modell in Synkretismus-Forschung’, in Synkretismusforschung. Theorie und Praxis, ed. G. Weissner, Weisbaden 1978, 11–26.
U. Berner, ‘Der Begriff ‘Synkretismus’’ –Ein Instrument historischer Erkennthis?’, Saeculum 30, 1979, 68–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7788/saeculum.1979.30.1.68
P. Beyer, ‘Au croisement de l’identité et de la différence: Les syncrétismes culturo-religieux dans le contexte de la modernisation’, Social Compass 52:4, 2005, 417–429. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768605058147
D. Bickerton, ‘How to Acquire Language without Positive Evidence. What Acquisitionists Can Learn from Creoles’, in Language Creation and Language Change. Creolization, Diachrony, and Development, ed. M. DeGraff, Cambridge (Mass.) 1999, 49–74.
C. Bonnet, ‘Les “religions orientales” au laboratoire de l’hellénisme 2: Franz Cumont’, Archiv fűr Religionsgeschicte 8, 2006, 181–205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110233834.181
P. Boyer, Cognitive Aspects of Religious Symbolism, Cambridge 1993. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511896866
P. Borgeaud & Y. Volokhine, ‘La formation de la légende de Sarapis. Une approche transculturelle’, Archiv fűr Religionsgeschichte 2, 2000, 37–76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110234183.37
L. Bricault, ‘Syncrétisme littéraire et assimilation savantes. L’exemple d’Isisautrône et d’Héra’, Revue de la Société Ernest-Renan 39, 1990, 33–42.
K. Clinton, The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 64:3), Philadelphia 1974. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1006226
A. Cohen, Art in the Era of Alexander the Great. Paradigms of Manhood and Their Cultural Traditions, Cambridge 2010.
F. le Corsu, Isis. Mythe et mystères, Paris 1977.
J. Derrida, ‘Faith and Knowledge. The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone’, in Religion eds. J. Derrida & G. Vattimo, Stanford 1998, 1–78.
A. Droogers, ‘Syncretism: The Problem of Definition, the Definition of the Problem’, in Dialogue and Syncretism. An Interdisciplinary Approach, eds. J. Gort, H. Vroom, R. Fernhout & A. Wessels, Michigan & Amsterdam 1989, 7–25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004669918_003
A. Droogers, ‘Syncretism, Power, Play’, in Syncretism in Religion. A Reader, eds. A. M. Leopold & J.S. Jensen, London 2004, 217–236 (originally published in Syncretism and the Commerce of Symbols, ed. G. Aijmer, Göteborg 1995, 38–59).
F. Dunand, Le culte d’Isis dans le basin orientale de la Mediterranee 2: Le culte d’Isis en Grèce (Études preliminaries aux religions orientales dans l’empire Romain 26), Leiden 1973. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004294929
F. Dunand, ‘Syncrétisme ou coexistence : Images du religieux dans l’Égypte tardive’, in Les syncrétismes religieux dans le monde Méditerranéeen antique. Actes du Colloque International en l’honneur de Franz Cumont à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire de sa mort. Rome, Academia Belgica, 25–27 septembre 1997 (Institut historique Belge de Rome, Études de philologie, d’archéologie et d’histoire anciennes 36), eds. C. Bonnet & A. Motte, Brussel & Rome 1999, 97–116.
T. Fitzgerald, ‘Theology, Religious Studies and the Secular Academy. Rhetoric and the Control of Meaning’, Temenos. Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 43:2, 2007, 151–172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.7910
L. Fogelin, ‘The Archaeology of Religious Ritual’, The Annual Review of Anthropology 36, 2007, 55–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094425
D. Franke, Modernist Heresies. British Literary History, 1883–1924, Columbus 2008.
R. E. Frykenberg, History and Belief. The Foundations of Historical Understanding, Michigan & Cambridge 1996.
A. Funkenstein, ‘The Polytheism of William James’, Journal of the History of Ideas 55:1, 1994, 99–111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2709955
B. Gladogow, ‘Polytheismus’, in Handbuch religionwissenschaftlicher Grundbegriffe, vol. 4, ed. H. Cancik, B. Gladigow & K.-H. Kohl, Stuttgart, Berlin & Cologne 1998, 321–330.
T. F. Godlove, ‘Saving Belief. On the New Materialism in Religious Studies’, in Radical Interpretation in Religion, ed. N. K. Frankenberry, Cambridge 2002, 10–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511613906.003
F. Graf, ‘Syncretism [Further considerations]’, in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition, vol. 13, ed. L. Jones, Detroit 2005, 8934–8937.
Y. Granjean, Une nouvelle arétalogie d’Isis à Maronée (Études preliminaries aux religions orientales dans l’empire Romain 49), Leiden 1975. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004295186
T. Harrison, Divinity and History. The Religions of Herodotus, Oxford 2000.
J.J. Herrmann 1999, ‘Demeter-Isis or the Egyptian Demeter? A Graeco Roman Sculpture from an Egyptian Worshop in Boston’, JdI 114, 1999, 65–123.
M. Herskovits, The Myth of the Negro Past, Boston 1958 (1941).
T. Insoll, Archaeology, Ritual, Religion, London & New York 2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203491102
T. Insoll, ‘Are Archaeologists Afraid of Gods? Some Thoughts on Archaeology and Religion’, in Belief in the Past. The Proceedings of the 2002 Manchester Conference on Archaeology and Religion, ed. T. Insoll (BAR International Series 1212), Oxford 2004, 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30861/9781841715759
T. Insoll, ‘Introduction: The Archaeology of World Religion’, in Archaeology and World Religion, ed. T. Insoll, London & New York 2007, 1–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203965986
J.H. Kamstra, Encounter or Syncretism. The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism, Leiden 1967.
K. Keysner, Gottesvorstellung und Lebensauffassung im griechischen Hymnus (Würzburger Studien zur Altertumwissenschaft 2), Stuttgart 1932.
J. Kindt, ‘Polis Religion – A Critical Appreciation’, Kernos 22, 2009, 9–34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/kernos.1765
H. Kockelmann, Praising the Goddess. A Comparative and Annotated Re-edition of Six Demotic Hymns and Praises Addressed to Isis (Archiv fűr Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 15), Berlin & New York 2008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110212259
E. Kyriakidis, ‘Archaeologies of Ritual’ in The Archaeology of Ritual, ed. E. Kyriakidis (Cotsen Advanced Seminars 3), Los Angeles 2007, 289–308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvdjrr7s.17
G. Lakoff & M. Johnson, Metaphors We Live by, Chicago & London 1980.
T.E. Lawson & N. McCauley, Rethinking Religion. Connecting Cognition and Culture, Cambridge 1996 (1990).
A.M. Leopold & J.S. Jensen, ‘The Historical Background of the Term Syncretism: The Problem of Definition’, in Syncretism in Religion. A Reader, eds. A.M. Leopold & J.S. Jensen, London 2004, 14–28.
D.S. Lopez, ‘Belief ’, in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. M.C. Taylor, Chicago & London, 21–35.
M. Malaise, Les conditions de penetration et de diffusion des cultes égyptiens an Italie, Leiden 1997.
M. Malaise, ‘Iside hellenistica’, in Iside, il mito, il mistero, la magia, ed. E. Arslan, Milan 1997, 86–95 & 701–702.
M. Malaise, Pour une terminologie et une analyse des cultes isiaques (Mémoire de la Classe des Lettres, collection in-80, 3e série 25), Bruxelles 2005.
L. Martin, ‘Why Cecropian Minerva? Hellenistic Religious Syncretism as System’, Numen 30, 1983, 131–145. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852783X00023
L.H. Martin, ‘Syncretism, Historicism, and Cognition. A Response to Michael Pye’, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 8:2, 1996, 215–224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/157006896X00215
A. McCalla, ‘Evolutionism and Early Nineteenth-Century Histories of Religions’, Religion 28:1, 1998, 29–40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.1997.0086
R. Merkelbach, Isis Regina – Zeus Sarapis. Die griescisch-ägyptische Religion nach den Quelle Dargestellt, Stuttgart & Leipzig 1995.
D. Müller, Ägypten und die griechischen Isis-Aretalogien (Abhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Phil.-Hist. 53,1), Berlin 1961.
G.E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton 1961. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400877294
J. Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization and Culture. Global Mélance (2nd edition), Lanham & al. 2009.
M.P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion 2 : Die hellenistische und römische Zeit, München 1950.
R. Osborne, ‘Hoards, Votives, Offerings: The Archaeology of the Dedicated Object’, World Archaeology 36:1, 2004 (The Object of Dedication), 1–10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0043824042000192696
P. Pachis‘ “Manufacturing Religion” in the Hellenistic Age. The Case of Isis-Demeter Cult’, in Hellenisation, Empire and Globalisation. Lessons from Antiquity. Acts of the Panel Held during the 3rd Congress of the European Association for the Study of Religion, Bergen, Norway, 8–10 May 2003, eds. L.H. Martin & P. Pachis, Thessaloniki 2004, 163–207.
R. Padel, In and Out of the Mind. Greek Images of the Tragic Self, Princeton 1992. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884322
P. Pakkanen, Interpreting Early Hellenistic Religion. A Study Based on the Mystery Cult of Demeter and the Cult of Isis (Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens 3), Helsinki 1996. DOI: https://doi.org/10.62444/fia.1028
P. Pakkanen, ‘Polis within the polis. Crossing the border of official and private religion at the Sanctuary of Poseidon on Poros’, in Current Approaches to the Study of Religion in Greece (ActaAth-8°, 21), eds. J. Wallensten & M. Haysom, Stockholm 2011, 99–121.
R. Parker, Athenian Religion. A History, Oxford & New York 1996. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198149798.001.0001
S. Pinker, The Language Instinct. The New Science of Language and Mind, New York 1994. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/e412952005-009
J. Pouillon, ‘Remarks on the Verb “to Believe”’, in Between Beleif and Transgression. Structuralist Essays in Religion, History, and Myth, ed. M. Izard & P. Smith, translated by J. Leavitt, with an Introduction by J.A. Boon, Chicago & London 1979, 1–8.
C. Préaux, Le monde hellénistique. La Grèce et l’Orient de la mort d’Alexandre à la conquête romaine de la Grèce (323–146 av. J.C.) (Nouvelle Clio : Histoire et ses problèmes 6), Paris 1987 (1978).
S. Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks, Cambridge 1999. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814488
M. Pye, ‘Syncretism and Ambiquity’, Numen 18, 1971, 83–93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/156852771X00026
M. Pye, ‘Syncretism versus Synthesis’ (British Association for the Study of Religions, Occasional Papers 8), Leeds 1993.
C. Renfrew, ‘The Archaeology of Ritual, of Cult, and of Religion’ in The Archaeology of Ritual, ed. E. Kyriakidis (Cotsen Advanced Seminars, 3), Los Angeles 2007, 109–122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvdjrr7s.10
E. Reynolds, ‘Vanity of the Creature’ (1679) in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, D.D., Lord Bishop of Norwitch Collected, with His Funeral Sermon by B. Riveley & Memoir of the Life of the Author by A. Chalmers, London 1826.
I.A. Richards, Philosophy of Rhetoric, Oxford & al. 1936.
K. Rudolph, ‘Syncretism – From Theological Invective to a Concept in the Study of Religion’, translated by D. Warburton in Syncretism in Religion. A Reader, eds. A. M. Leopold & J.S. Jensen, London, 68–85 (originally ‘Synkretismus – vom theologischen Scheltwort zum religionswissenschaftlichen Begriff ’, in K. Rudolph, Geschichte und Probleme der Religionswissenschaft, Leiden 1992, 193–213). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004378766_009
F. de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale, ed. C. Bally & A. Sechehaye, Paris 1971 (1916).
J. Scheid, Quand faire, c’est croire. Les rites sacrificiels des Romains, Paris 2005.
F. Schmitt, Knowledge and Belief, London & New York 1992.
G. Sfameni Gasparro, ‘The Globalisation and Localisation of Religion: From Hellenism to Late Antiquity. Assessing a Category in the History of Religions’, in Hellenisation, Empire and Globalisation. Lessons from Antiquity. Acts of the Panel Held during the 3rd Congress of the European Association for the Study of Religion, Bergen, Norway, 8–10 May 2003, eds. L.H. Martin & P. Pachis, Thessaloniki 2004, 41–83.
G. Sfameni Gasparro, ‘The Hellenistic Face of Isis: Cosmic and Saviour Goddess’, in Nile into Tiber. Egypt in the Roman World. Proceedings of the IIIrd International Conference of Isis Studies, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, May 11–14 2005, ed. L. Bricault & M.J. Versluys & P.G.P. Meyboom, Leiden & Boston 2007, 40–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004154209.i-562.23
K. Simms, Paul Ricoeur, London 2003. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203165508
W.C. Smith, The Meaning and End of Religion. A New Approach to the Religious Traditions of Mankind, New York 1963.
W.C. Smith, Faith and Belief, Princeton 1979.
W.C. Smith, Believing. An Historical Perspective, Oxford 1998 (originally published as Belief and History, Charlottesville 1977).
J.E. Stambaugh, Sarapis under the Early Ptolemies (Études preliminaries aux religions orientales dans l’empire Romain 25), Leiden 1972. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004294905
C. Steward, ‘Relocating Syncretism in Social Science Discourse’, in Syncretism and the Commerce of Symbols, ed. G. Aijmer, Göteborg 1995, 13–37.
C. Stewart & J. North, ‘Belief (Ancient Religious)’, in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition, Oxford, forthcoming.
N. Thomas, ‘Cold Fusion’, American Anthropologist, New Series 98:1 (1996), 9–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1996.98.1.02a00020
M. Totti, Ausgewählte Texte der Isis- und Sarapis-Religion (Subsidia Epigraphica 12), Hildesheim & New York 1985.
V. Turner, ‘Forms of Symbolic Action. Introduction’, in Forms of Symbolic Action. Proceedings of the 1969 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, eds. R. Spencer & F. Robert, Seattle & London 1969, 3–25.
V.F. Vanderlip, The Four Greek Hymns to Isidorus and the Cult of Isis (American Studies in Papyrology 12), Toronto 1972.
G. van der Leeuw, Phänomenologie der Religion, 2nd edition, Tübingen.
H. Versnel, ‘Three Greek Experiences in Oneness’, in One Gog or Many? Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World, ed. B.N. Porter, (Transactions of the Casco Bay Assyrological Institute 1) Casco Bay, 79–163.
H.M. Vroom, ‘Syncretism and Dialogue: A Philosophical Analysis’, in Dialogue and Syncretism. An Interdisciplinary Approach, eds. J. Gort, H.M. Vroom, R. Fernhout & A. Wessels, Michigan & Amsterdam 1989, 26–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004669918_004
R.E. Witt, Isis in the Graeco-Roman World, London 1971.
H. Yunis, A New Creed: Fundamental Beliefs in the Athenian Polis and Euripidean Drama (Hypomnemata 91), Göttingen 1988. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666251900
L. Zagzebski & T. D. Miller, ‘Faith, Reason, And the Ethics of Belief: Introduction’, in Readings in Philosophy of Religion. Ancient to Contemporary, eds. L. Zagzebski & T. D. Miller, Malden, Oxford & Chichester 2009, 477–479.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2011 Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome, and the authors.Volumes 16–18 (2023–2025): All text is published with immediate open access under the Creative Commons license CC BY 4.0. All images are used with permission from the rights holders, credited in the captions, and explicitly excluded from the CC BY license.
Copyright: Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome, and the authors.
Volumes 1–15 (2008–2022): These issues were made openly available as PDFs six months after the printed edition was published. No Creative Commons license applies to these volumes.
Copyright: Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome, and the authors.
