Dynamics of the Greek ‘Breakthrough’

The dialogue between philosophy and religion

Bibliographic Data

ID23698486
AuthorsS C Humphreys (0009-0003-5986-9907, corresponding author)
Year2004
Pages51-76
Publication date2004-09-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe strangeness of gods (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199269235.003.0003
OpenAlexW2488880238
ISBN9780199269235
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited293

This chapter traces the construction in the 6th-5th centuries BCE of the opposition between rationality and irrationality, associated with the development of prose as a medium for the rational logos, which generated changes in conceptions of poetry and of religion. The chapter stresses that the emergence of polemical rationalism did not eliminate religious thought (let alone poetry) from the mainstream of Greek culture. Rather, it produced tendencies to rationalize cult in the public sphere through the introduction of deified personifications such as Peace or Concord, and in unofficial circles by the systematization of astrology and the interpretation of omens. It also stimulated more abstract, ‘philosophical’ conceptions of the divine, and an interest in the psychology of ‘possession’ (love, poetic inspiration, madness, drunkenness). Euripides is valued as a religious thinker, and Lycurgus as a reformer of Athenian ritual.

Art · Astrology · Cult · Epistemology · Irrational number · Irrationality · Literature · Opposition (politics) · Poetry · Politics · Possession (linguistics) · Rationality · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Law · Philosophy

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