HISTORY 490-03: Politics and Religion in Ancient Greece

Instructor: Prof. Fred S. Naiden, History Dept., Hamilton Hall 417 (tel. 962-3971;

naiden@email.unc.edu)

Class hours: M 3-5:50, Greenlaw 107

Office hour: Monday 11-12 am, Teusday 4-5 pm.

AIM: to adapt the Christian and modern terms “religion” and “ritual” to Archaic and Classical

Greece and to show how religion and ritual become factors in Greek political life. Some

knowledge of Greek myth or history is required, and more will be obtained, but the course is not a

survey of these subjects or of any and all Greek religious practices. The focus of the course is

social and political, not theological or cultural.

WORKLOAD: a mid-term assessing knowledge of passages discussed in class (1/5); a two- three

page report on primary or secondary literature plus class participation (1/5), a 10-15 page term

paper due at the end of the term (3/10) and a final (3/10).

FORMAT: lectures on problems and on methods of interpretation, and discussion of important

passages. The first two months concentrate on rituals and practices, the last month on

interpretation and on the term paper. A draft of the term paper will be presented orally in one of

the last two meetings.

The first part of each session will deal with assigned passages illustrating the ritual or practice

that is item „a‟ and it will include a short student report on related passages or secondary

literature. The second part, after a short break, will deal with passages illustrating the ritual or

practice that is item „b‟. The third part, following another short break, will deal with the question

for the week.

PRIMARY TEXTS/COLLECTIONS available in bookstore. Use of other translations is

permissible for all authors but Homer:

Homer, Iliad, tr. R. Lattimore. Viking

Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, tr. A. Athanassakis. Johns Hopkins

Herodotus, The Histories, ed. J. Marincola, tr. A. de Selincourt. Penguin

Xenophon, March Up Country, tr. W. H. D. Rouse. Michigan

C. Fornara, Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War. Cambridge

SECONDARY TEXTS available in the bookstore:

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Greek Religion, W. Burkert, tr. J. Raffan. Harvard

Religion in the Ancient Greek City, L. Zaidman & P. Schmitt Pantel, tr. P. Cartledge.

Cambridge [= Z-P]

ADDITIONAL PRIMARY and SECONDARY TEXTS in xeroxed or electronic form,

especially

Sophocles, Philoctetes, as below

P. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions. Oxford [=R-O]

J. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. Oxford

Oxford Classical Dictionary (19963) [=OCD

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.

LESSON PLAN:

8/27: Introduction

a. A Greek Hendecalogue

b. Religion and political conduct. Fornara 1, 5b; 2a, 3c, 4a vs. 10; 7a, 16; 25, 29; 6a, 9a,

17, 18; 33, 36; 28, 35

Issue: religion and politics

9/3 No class.

9/10: Gods first, rituals second

a. Gods and how to communicate with them: a century of scholarship. Burkert and Z-P

introductions.

b. Religion and royalty: Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days

Issue: shepherds and wolves. Anchor Bible Dictionary, s.v. „Shepherd‟

9/17: Talking to—and bribing-- Gods

a. Prayer in Homer. Iliad 1-9; Fornara 37-8, 40, 43, 50, 53, 91, 135; Burkert 2.3, Z-P

1.1.1, prayer; R. Parker,OCD3 s.v. „Sacrifice, Greek‟

b. Sacrifice in Homer; Fornara 60; R-O 73, 81. Burkert 2.1.1-4, Z-P 1.1, sacrifice

Issue: sacrifice and two political forms, monarchy and democracy

9/24: Gods in disguise and gods as witnesses

a. Supplication in Homer. Iliad completed by this time. Naiden, Ancient Supplication,

ch.1, sect. 1

b. Oaths in Homer; Fornara 7a, 57. Burkert 5.3.2

Issue: religion and moral law. Burkert 5.3.1, Ancient Supplication, ch. 6

10/1: Gods and messengers

a. Altar supplication and oaths in Xenophon, March Up Country 1-3.

a. Prophecy in Homer and Hesiod. Burkert 2.8.1-2.

Preparation for the Mid-term

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10/8: Gods and messengers, ctd.

a. Mid-term exam

b. Divination in Xenophon, March Up Country 4-7; Burkert 2.8.2.

Issue: professionals vs. kings. R. Parker, „One Man‟s Piety: the Religious Dimension

of the Anabasis‟, in The Long March: Xenophon and the Ten Thousand (New Haven,

2004) 131-54

10/15: Messengers, ctd.: oracles.

a. Oracles. Fornara 6, 9a, 17, 108. Burkert 2.8.3, Z-P 1.3.3.

b. Delphi as an oracular center: Hdt. 1, Fornara 28.

Issue: oracles and Greek political forms. J. Bremmer, „Prophets, Seers, and

Politics in Greece, Israel, and Early Modern Europe‟, as at JSTOR

10/22: God‟s house

a. Sanctuaries. Herodotus 3-5; Fornara 36, 90, 93-4, 118, 120-1, 141, 144, 147, 150,

154; R-O 27, 59. Burkert 1.3.3 vs. Z-P 1.1.3.

b. Federal shrines. Fornara 16 and C. Tuplin, OCD3 s.v. „Sacred Wars‟.

Issue: the limits of „polis religion‟. J. Kindt.

10/29: Mysteries. Burkert 6.1.1-4 and Z-P 1.3.5.

a. Eleusis: Pan-Hellenic and democratic mysteries. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter as at

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/demeter.htm, with G. D‟Alviella, The Mysteries of

Eleusis, chs. 1,3 and Fornara 140; and the Christian source given at http://www.

theoi.com/Text/ClementExhortation1.html#2.

b. Private mystery cults: R-O 91.

Issue: initiation as a model for other cults. F. Graf, „Initiation: A Concept With a

Troubled History‟ in C. Faraone, ed., Initiation in ancient Greek rituals and

narratives: new critical perspectives (London 2003), 1.1

11/5: Personal religion: Burkert 4.5.3, Z-P 1.3.4.

a. Asclepius. E and L. Edelstein, Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the

Testimonies (Baltimore 1945) 209-49.

b. Curses: Gager, chs. 2, 4; and http://www.hermetic.com/; go to Papyri graecae

magicae at bottom of page; click and on next page, read D.T. 237 (charioteering

curse); and Papyri graecae magicae III.1-59 (charioteering).

Issue: learned professions vs. religion. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/archaeology/journal/newdraft/2003_Journal/rynea

rson/paperpage.html.

11/12: Philosophical religion: Sophocles.

a. Theodicy: Sophocles‟ Philoctetes at http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/philoct.pl.txt

b. Interpretatio graeca. Papyri graecae magicae VII.429-58 at http://www.hermetic.com

as above. Issue: genre, genius and the manipulation of religious practices. T. Harrison, 'Religion and the Rationality of the Greek City' in S. Goldhill and R. Osborne, eds.,

Rethinking Revolutions Through Ancient Greece (Cambridge 2006) 124-40

11/19 No class. Term paper meetings

11/26 Term paper presentations

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12/3 Term paper presentations

12/10 4 pm FINAL EXAM/term papers due