Home About Network of subjects Linked subjects heatmap Book indices included Search by subject Search by reference Browse subjects Browse texts

Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database



9423
Plato, Republic, 364b


καὶ πένητες ὦσιν, ὁμολογοῦντες αὐτοὺς ἀμείνους εἶναι τῶν ἑτέρων. τούτων δὲ πάντων οἱ περὶ θεῶν τε λόγοι καὶ ἀρετῆς θαυμασιώτατοι λέγονται, ὡς ἄρα καὶ θεοὶ πολλοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς δυστυχίας τε καὶ βίον κακὸν ἔνειμαν, τοῖς δʼ ἐναντίοις ἐναντίαν μοῖραν. ἀγύρται δὲ καὶ μάντεις ἐπὶ πλουσίων θύρας ἰόντες πείθουσιν ὡς ἔστι παρὰ σφίσι δύναμις ἐκ θεῶν ποριζομένη θυσίαις τε καὶ ἐπῳδαῖς, εἴτε τιand disregard those who are in any way weak or poor, even while admitting that they are better men than the others. But the strangest of all these speeches are the things they say about the gods and virtue, how so it is that the gods themselves assign to many good men misfortunes and an evil life but to their opposites a contrary lot; and begging priests and soothsayers go to rich men's doors and make them believe that they by means of sacrifices and incantations have accumulated a treasure of power from the gods that can expiate and cure with pleasurable festival


καὶ πένητες ὦσιν, ὁμολογοῦντες αὐτοὺς ἀμείνους εἶναι τῶν ἑτέρων. τούτων δὲ πάντων οἱ περὶ θεῶν τε λόγοι καὶ ἀρετῆς θαυμασιώτατοι λέγονται, ὡς ἄρα καὶ θεοὶ πολλοῖς μὲν ἀγαθοῖς δυστυχίας τε καὶ βίον κακὸν ἔνειμαν, τοῖς δʼ ἐναντίοις ἐναντίαν μοῖραν. ἀγύρται δὲ καὶ μάντεις ἐπὶ πλουσίων θύρας ἰόντες πείθουσιν ὡς ἔστι παρὰ σφίσι δύναμις ἐκ θεῶν ποριζομένη θυσίαις τε καὶ ἐπῳδαῖς, εἴτε τιand disregard those who are in any way weak or poor, even while admitting that they are better men than the others. But the strangest of all these speeches are the things they say about the gods and virtue, how so it is that the gods themselves assign to many good men misfortunes and an evil life but to their opposites a contrary lot; and begging priests and soothsayers go to rich men’s doors and make them believe that they by means of sacrifices and incantations have accumulated a treasure of power from the gods that can expiate and cure with pleasurable festival


Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

48 results
1. Homer, Odyssey, 8.268-8.270, 17.383-17.384 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)

2. Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4.11-4.56 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

3. Aristophanes, Birds, 982, 962 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

962. ὡς ἔστι Βάκιδος χρησμὸς ἄντικρυς λέγων
4. Aristophanes, Knights, 123 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

123. ὦ Βάκι. τί ἔστι; δὸς τὸ ποτήριον ταχύ.
5. Aristophanes, Peace, 1095, 1071 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

1071. μηδὲ Βάκις θνητούς, μηδ' αὖ νύμφαι Βάκιν αὐτὸν—
6. Aristophanes, Frogs, 1032-1035, 1031 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

1031. ὡς ὠφέλιμοι τῶν ποιητῶν οἱ γενναῖοι γεγένηνται.
7. Euripides, Fragments, 953-954, 952 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

8. Euripides, Hippolytus, 953-954, 952 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

9. Herodotus, Histories, 2.53, 5.90.2, 6.57.4, 7.6.3, 8.77.2, 8.96.2, 9.43.2, 9.95 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

2.53. But whence each of the gods came to be, or whether all had always been, and how they appeared in form, they did not know until yesterday or the day before, so to speak; ,for I suppose Hesiod and Homer flourished not more than four hundred years earlier than I; and these are the ones who taught the Greeks the descent of the gods, and gave the gods their names, and determined their spheres and functions, and described their outward forms. ,But the poets who are said to have been earlier than these men were, in my opinion, later. The earlier part of all this is what the priestesses of Dodona tell; the later, that which concerns Hesiod and Homer, is what I myself say. 5.90.2. Furthermore, they were spurred on by the oracles which foretold that many deeds of enmity would be perpetrated against them by the Athenians. Previously they had had no knowledge of these oracles but now Cleomenes brought them to Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians learned their contents. It was from the Athenian acropolis that Cleomenes took the oracles, which had been in the possession of the Pisistratidae earlier. When they were exiled, they left them in the temple from where they were retrieved by Cleomenes. 6.57.4. They keep all oracles that are given, though the Pythians also know them. The kings alone judge cases concerning the rightful possessor of an unwedded heiress, if her father has not betrothed her, and cases concerning public roads. 7.6.3. They had come up to Sardis with Onomacritus, an Athenian diviner who had set in order the oracles of Musaeus. They had reconciled their previous hostility with him; Onomacritus had been banished from Athens by Pisistratus' son Hipparchus, when he was caught by Lasus of Hermione in the act of interpolating into the writings of Musaeus an oracle showing that the islands off Lemnos would disappear into the sea. 8.77.2. quote type="oracle" l met="dact"Bronze will come together with bronze, and Ares /l lWill redden the sea with blood. To Hellas the day of freedom /l lFar-seeing Zeus and august Victory will bring. /l /quote Considering this, I dare to say nothing against Bacis concerning oracles when he speaks so plainly, nor will I consent to it by others. 8.96.2. A west wind had caught many of the wrecks and carried them to the shore in Attica called Colias. Thus not only was all the rest of the oracle fulfilled which Bacis and Musaeus had spoken about this battle, but also what had been said many years before this in an oracle by Lysistratus, an Athenian soothsayer, concerning the wrecks carried to shore there. Its meaning had eluded all the Hellenes: quote type="oracle" l met="dact"The Colian women will cook with oars. /l lBut this was to happen after the king had marched away. /l /quote 9.43.2. quote type="oracle" l met="dact"By Thermodon's stream and the grass-grown banks of Asopus, /l lWill be a gathering of Greeks for fight and the ring of the barbarian's war-cry; /l lMany a Median archer, by death untimely overtaken will fall /l lThere in the battle when the day of his doom is upon him. /l /quote I know that these verses and others very similar to them from Musaeus referred to the Persians. As for the river Thermodon, it flows between Tanagra and Glisas. 9.95. Deiphonus, the son of this Evenius, had been brought by the Corinthians, and was the army's prophet. But I have heard it said before now, that Deiphonus was not the son of Evenius, but made a wrongful use of that name and worked for wages up and down Hellas.
10. Isocrates, Orations, 19.6 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

11. Plato, Alcibiades Ii, 150b, 149e (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

149e. And Priam, and the folk of Priam of the good ashen spear. Hom. Il. 8.550-2 So it was nothing to their purpose to sacrifice and pay tribute of gifts in vain, when they were hated by the gods. For it is not, I imagine, the way of the gods to be seduced with gifts, like a base insurer. And indeed it is but silly talk of ours, if we claim to surpass the Spartans on this score. For it would be a strange thing if the gods had regard to our gifts and sacrifices instead of our souls, and the piety and
12. Plato, Charmides, 173c, 155e (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

155e. I had fallen a prey to some such creature. However, when he had asked me if I knew the cure for headache, I somehow contrived to answer that I knew.
13. Plato, Critias, 119e (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

119e. hunted after the bulls with staves and nooses but with no weapon of iron; and whatsoever bull they captured they led up to the pillar and cut its throat over the top of the pillar, raining down blood on the inscription. And inscribed upon the pillar, besides the laws, was an oath which invoked mighty curses upon them that disobeyed. Crit. When, then, they had done sacrifice according to their laws and were consecrating
14. Plato, Euthyphro, 3c (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

3c. Socrates. My dear Euthyphro, their ridicule is perhaps of no consequence. For the Athenians, I fancy, are not much concerned, if they think a man is clever, provided he does not impart his clever notions to others; but when they think he makes others to be like himself
15. Plato, Gorgias, 507d, 507e, 493a (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

493a. and we really, it may be, are dead; in fact I once heard sages say that we are now dead, and the body is our tomb, and the part of the soul in which we have desires is liable to be over-persuaded and to vacillate to and fro, and so some smart fellow, a Sicilian, I daresay, or Italian, made a fable in which—by a play of words—he named this part, as being so impressionable and persuadable, a jar, and the thoughtless he called uninitiate:
16. Plato, Laws, 10.885b, 4.716c, 790d, 900c, 905d, 909a, 909b, 909c, 909d, 932e, 933a, 933b, 933c, 933d, 933e (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

17. Plato, Meno, 80b6 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

18. Plato, Phaedrus, 248d, 248e, 257a, 248c (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

248c. on which the soul is raised up is nourished by this. And this is a law of Destiny, that the soul which follows after God and obtains a view of any of the truths is free from harm until the next period, and if it can always attain this, is always unharmed; but when, through inability to follow, it fails to see, and through some mischance is filled with forgetfulness and evil and grows heavy, and when it has grown heavy, loses its wings and falls to the earth, then it is the law that this soul
19. Plato, Statesman, 290c (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

290c. to look for them in any servile position. Y. Soc. Certainly. Str. But let us draw a little closer still to those whom we have not yet examined. There are men who have to do with divination and possess a portion of a certain menial science; for they are supposed to be interpreters of the gods to men. Y. Soc. Yes. Str. And then, too, the priests, according to law and custom, know how to give the gods, by means of sacrifices, the gifts that please them from u
20. Plato, Republic, 2.383c, 3.387b, 330d, 363cd, 364a, 364b-365a, 364c, 364d, 364e, 379b (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

21. Plato, Symposium, 188d, 188c (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

188c. namely, all means of communion between gods and men, are only concerned with either the preservation or the cure of Love. For impiety is usually in each case the result of refusing to gratify the orderly Love or to honor and prefer him in all our affairs, and of yielding to the other in questions of duty towards one’s parents whether alive or dead, and also towards the gods. To divination is appointed the task of supervising and treating the health of these Loves; wherefore that art
22. Plato, Theaetetus, 176c, 176b (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

23. Sophocles, Oedipus The King, 389, 388 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)

24. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, 7.50.4, 8.1.1 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

7.50.4. All was at last ready, and they were on the point of sailing away, when an eclipse of the moon, which was then at the full, took place. Most of the Athenians, deeply impressed by this occurrence, now urged the generals to wait; and Nicias, who was somewhat over-addicted to divination and practices of that kind, refused from that moment even to take the question of departure into consideration, until they had waited the thrice nine days prescribed by the soothsayers. The besiegers were thus condemned to stay in the country; 8.1.1. Such were the events in Sicily . When the news was brought to Athens, for a long while they disbelieved even the most respectable of the soldiers who had themselves escaped from the scene of action and clearly reported the matter, a destruction so complete not being thought credible. When the conviction was forced upon them, they were angry with the orators who had joined in promoting the expedition, just as if they had not themselves voted it, and were enraged also with the reciters of oracles and soothsayers, and all other omenmongers of the time who had encouraged them to hope that they should conquer Sicily .
25. Xenophon, Memoirs, 4.4.25 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

4.4.25. Then, Hippias, do you think that the gods ordain what is just or what is otherwise? Not what is otherwise — of course not; for if a god ordains not that which is just, surely no other legislator can do so. Consequently, Hippias, the gods too accept the identification of just and lawful. By such words and actions he encouraged Justice in those who resorted to his company.
26. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1178b (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)

27. Theophrastus, Characters, 16.12 (4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)

28. Cicero, On Divination, 1.118, 1.131, 2.34-2.39 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

1.118. Sed distinguendum videtur, quonam modo. Nam non placet Stoicis singulis iecorum fissis aut avium cantibus interesse deum; neque enim decorum est nec dis dignum nec fieri ullo pacto potest; sed ita a principio inchoatum esse mundum, ut certis rebus certa signa praecurrerent, alia in extis, alia in avibus, alia in fulgoribus, alia in ostentis, alia in stellis, alia in somniantium visis, alia in furentium vocibus. Ea quibus bene percepta sunt, ii non saepe falluntur; male coniecta maleque interpretata falsa sunt non rerum vitio, sed interpretum inscientia. Hoc autem posito atque concesso, esse quandam vim divinam hominum vitam continentem, non difficile est, quae fieri certe videmus, ea qua ratione fiant, suspicari. Nam et ad hostiam deligendam potest dux esse vis quaedam sentiens, quae est toto confusa mundo, et tum ipsum, cum immolare velis, extorum fieri mutatio potest, ut aut absit aliquid aut supersit; parvis enim momentis multa natura aut adfingit aut mutat aut detrahit. 1.131. Democritus autem censet sapienter instituisse veteres, ut hostiarum immolatarum inspicerentur exta; quorum ex habitu atque ex colore tum salubritatis, tum pestilentiae signa percipi, non numquam etiam, quae sit vel sterilitas agrorum vel fertilitas futura. Quae si a natura profecta observatio atque usus agnovit, multa adferre potuit dies, quae animadvertendo notarentur, ut ille Pacuvianus, qui in Chryse physicus inducitur, minime naturam rerum cognosse videatur: nam isti quí linguam avium intéllegunt Plusque éx alieno iécore sapiunt quam éx suo, Magis aúdiendum quam aúscultandum cénseo. Cur? quaeso, cum ipse paucis interpositis versibus dicas satis luculente: Quídquid est hoc, ómnia animat, fórmat, alit, augét, creat, Sépelit recipitque ín sese omnia ómniumque idémst pater, Índidemque eadem aéque oriuntur de íntegro atque eodem óccidunt. Quid est igitur, cur, cum domus sit omnium una, eaque communis, cumque animi hominum semper fuerint futurique sint, cur ii, quid ex quoque eveniat, et quid quamque rem significet, perspicere non possint? Haec habui, inquit, de divinatione quae dicerem. 2.34. Quid de fretis aut de marinis aestibus plura dicam? quorum accessus et recessus lunae motu gubertur. Sescenta licet eiusdem modi proferri, ut distantium rerum cognatio naturalis appareat)—demus hoc; nihil enim huic disputationi adversatur; num etiam, si fissum cuiusdam modi fuerit in iecore, lucrum ostenditur? qua ex coniunctione naturae et quasi concentu atque consensu, quam sumpa/qeian Graeci appellant, convenire potest aut fissum iecoris cum lucello meo aut meus quaesticulus cum caelo, terra rerumque natura? Concedam hoc ipsum, si vis, etsi magnam iacturam causae fecero, si ullam esse convenientiam naturae cum extis concessero; 2.35. sed tamen eo concesso qui evenit, ut is, qui impetrire velit, convenientem hostiam rebus suis immolet? Hoc erat, quod ego non rebar posse dissolvi. At quam festive dissolvitur! pudet me non tui quidem, cuius etiam memoriam admiror, sed Chrysippi, Antipatri, Posidonii, qui idem istuc quidem dicunt, quod est dictum a te, ad hostiam deligendam ducem esse vim quandam sentientem atque divinam, quae toto confusa mundo sit. Illud vero multo etiam melius, quod et a te usurpatum est et dicitur ab illis: cum immolare quispiam velit, tum fieri extorum mutationem, ut aut absit aliquid aut supersit; 2.36. deorum enim numini parere omnia. Haec iam, mihi crede, ne aniculae quidem existimant. An censes, eundem vitulum si alius delegerit, sine capite iecur inventurum; si alius, cum capite? Haec decessio capitis aut accessio subitone fieri potest, ut se exta ad immolatoris fortunam accommodent? non perspicitis aleam quandam esse in hostiis deligendis, praesertim cum res ipsa doceat? Cum enim tristissuma exta sine capite fuerunt, quibus nihil videtur esse dirius, proxuma hostia litatur saepe pulcherrime. Ubi igitur illae minae superiorum extorum? aut quae tam subito facta est deorum tanta placatio? Sed adfers in tauri opimi extis immolante Caesare cor non fuisse; id quia non potuerit accidere, ut sine corde victuma illa viveret, iudicandum esse tum interisse cor, cum immolaretur. 2.37. Qui fit, ut alterum intellegas, sine corde non potuisse bovem vivere, alterum non videas, cor subito non potuisse nescio quo avolare? Ego enim possum vel nescire, quae vis sit cordis ad vivendum, vel suspicari contractum aliquo morbo bovis exile et exiguum et vietum cor et dissimile cordis fuisse; tu vero quid habes, quare putes, si paulo ante cor fuerit in tauro opimo, subito id in ipsa immolatione interisse? an quod aspexit vestitu purpureo excordem Caesarem, ipse corde privatus est? Urbem philosophiae, mihi crede, proditis, dum castella defenditis; nam, dum haruspicinam veram esse vultis, physiologiam totam pervertitis. Caput est in iecore, cor in extis; iam abscedet, simul ac molam et vinum insperseris; deus id eripiet, vis aliqua conficiet aut exedet. Non ergo omnium ortus atque obitus natura conficiet, et erit aliquid, quod aut ex nihilo oriatur aut in nihilum subito occidat. Quis hoc physicus dixit umquam? haruspices dicunt; his igitur quam physicis credendum potius existumas? 2.38. Quid? cum pluribus deis immolatur, qui tandem evenit, ut litetur aliis, aliis non litetur? quae autem inconstantia deorum est, ut primis minentur extis, bene promittant secundis? aut tanta inter eos dissensio, saepe etiam inter proxumos, ut Apollinis exta bona sint, Dianae non bona? Quid est tam perspicuum quam, cum fortuito hostiae adducantur, talia cuique exta esse, qualis cuique obtigerit hostia? At enim id ipsum habet aliquid divini, quae cuique hostia obtingat, tamquam in sortibus, quae cui ducatur. Mox de sortibus; quamquam tu quidem non hostiarum causam confirmas sortium similitudine, sed infirmas sortis conlatione hostiarum. 2.39. An, cum in Aequimaelium misimus, qui adferat agnum, quem immolemus, is mihi agnus adfertur, qui habet exta rebus accommodata, et ad eum agnum non casu, sed duce deo servus deducitur? Nam si casum in eo quoque dicis esse quasi sortem quandam cum deorum voluntate coniunctam, doleo tantam Stoicos nostros Epicureis inridendi sui facultatem dedisse; non enim ignoras, quam ista derideant. 1.118. But it seems necessary to settle the principle on which these signs depend. For, according to the Stoic doctrine, the gods are not directly responsible for every fissure in the liver or for every song of a bird; since, manifestly, that would not be seemly or proper in a god and furthermore is impossible. But, in the beginning, the universe was so created that certain results would be preceded by certain signs, which are given sometimes by entrails and by birds, sometimes by lightnings, by portents, and by stars, sometimes by dreams, and sometimes by utterances of persons in a frenzy. And these signs do not often deceive the persons who observe them properly. If prophecies, based on erroneous deductions and interpretations, turn out to be false, the fault is not chargeable to the signs but to the lack of skill in the interpreters.Assuming the proposition to be conceded that there is a divine power which pervades the lives of men, it is not hard to understand the principle directing those premonitory signs which we see come to pass. For it may be that the choice of a sacrificial victim is guided by an intelligent force, which is diffused throughout the universe; or, it may be that at the moment when the sacrifice is offered, a change in the vitals occurs and something is added or taken away; for many things are added to, changed, or diminished in an instant of time. 1.131. Again, Democritus expresses the opinion that the ancients acted wisely in providing for the inspection of the entrails of sacrifices; because, as he thinks, the colour and general condition of the entrails are prophetic sometimes of health and sometimes of sickness and sometimes also of whether the fields will be barren or productive. Now, if it is known by observation and experience that these means of divination have their source in nature, it must be that the observations made and records kept for a long period of time have added much to our knowledge of this subject. Hence, that natural philosopher introduced by Pacuvius into his play of Chryses, seems to show very scanty apprehension of the laws of nature when he speaks as follows:The men who know the speech of birds and moreDo learn from other livers than their own —Twere best to hear, I think, and not to heed.I do not know why this poet makes such a statement when only a few lines further on he says clearly enough:Whateer the power may be, it animates,Creates, gives form, increase, and nourishmentTo everything: of everything the sire,It takes all things unto itself and hidesWithin its breast; and as from it all thingsArise, likewise to it all things return.Since all things have one and the same and that a common home, and since the human soul has always been and will always be, why, then, should it not be able to understand what effect will follow any cause, and what sign will precede any event?This, said Quintus, is all that I had to say on divination. [58] 2.34. There is no need to go on and mention the seas and straits with their tides, whose ebb and flow are governed by the motion of the moon. Innumerable instances of the same kind may be given to prove that some natural connexion does exist between objects apparently unrelated. Concede that it does exist; it does not contravene the point I make, that no sort of a cleft in a liver is prophetic of ficial gain. What natural tie, or what symphony, so to speak, or association, or what sympathy, as the Greeks term it, can there be between a cleft in a liver and a petty addition to my purse? Or what relationship between my miserable money-getting, on the one hand, and heaven, earth, and the laws of nature on the other?[15] However, I will concede even this if you wish, though it will greatly weaken my case to admit that there is any connexion between nature and the condition of the entrails; 2.35. yet, suppose the concession is made, how is it brought about that the man in search of favourable signs will find a sacrifice suitable to his purpose? I thought the question insoluble. But what a fine solution is offered! I am not ashamed of you — I am actually astonished at your memory; but I am ashamed of Chrysippus, Antipater, and Posidonius who say exactly what you said: The choice of the sacrificial victim is directed by the sentient and divine power which pervades the entire universe.But even more absurd is that other pronouncement of theirs which you adopted: At the moment of sacrifice a change in the entrails takes place; something is added or something taken away; for all things are obedient to the Divine Will. 2.36. Upon my word, no old woman is credulous enough now to believe such stuff! Do you believe that the same bullock, if chosen by one man, will have a liver without a head, and if chosen by another will have a liver with a head? And is it possible that this sudden going or coming of the livers head occurs so that the entrails may adapt themselves to the situation of the person who offers the sacrifice? Do you Stoics fail to see in choosing the victim it is almost like a throw of the dice, especially as facts prove it? For when the entrails of the first victim have been without a head, which is the most fatal of all signs, it often happens that the sacrifice of the next victim is altogether favourable. Pray what became of the warnings of the first set of entrails? And how was the favour of the gods so completely and so suddenly gained?[16] But, you say, Once, when Caesar was offering a sacrifice, there was no heart in the entrails of the sacrificial bull; and, and, since it would have been impossible for the victim to live without a heart, the heart must have disappeared at the moment of immolation. 2.37. How does it happen that you understand the one fact, that the bull could not have lived without a heart and do not realize the other, that the heart could not suddenly have vanished I know not where? As for me, possibly I do not know what vital function the heart performs; if I do I suspect that the bulls heart, as the result of a disease, became much wasted and shrunken and lost its resemblance to a heart. But, assuming that only a little while before the heart was in the sacrificial bull, why do you think it suddenly disappeared at the very moment of immolation? Dont you think, rather, that the bull lost his heart when he saw that Caesar in his purple robe had lost his head?Upon my word you Stoics surrender the very city of philosophy while defending its outworks! For, by your insistence on the truth of soothsaying, you utterly overthrow physiology. There is a head to the liver and a heart in the entrails, presto! they will vanish the very second you have sprinkled them with meal and wine! Aye, some god will snatch them away! Some invisible power will destroy them or eat them up! Then the creation and destruction of all things are not due to nature, and there are some things which spring from nothing or suddenly become nothing. Was any such statement ever made by any natural philosopher? It is made, you say, by soothsayers. Then do you think that soothsayers are worthier of belief than natural philosophers? [17] 2.38. Again, when sacrifices are offered to more than one god at the same time, how does it happen that the auspices are favourable in one case and unfavourable in another? Is it not strange fickleness in the gods to threaten disaster in the first set of entrails and to promise a blessing in the next? Or is there such discord among the gods — often even among those who are nearest of kin — that the entrails of the sacrifice you offer to Apollo, for example, are favourable and of those you offer at the same time to Diana are unfavourable? When victims for the sacrifice are brought up at haphazard it is perfectly clear that the character of entrails that you will receive will depend on the victim chance may bring. Oh! but someone will say, The choice itself is a matter of divine guidance, just as in the case of lots the drawing is directed by the gods! I shall speak of lots presently; although you really do not strengthen the cause of sacrifices by comparing them to lots; but you do weaken the cause of lots by comparing them with sacrifices. 2.39. When I send a slave to Aequimelium to bring me a lamb for a sacrifice and he brings me the lamb which has entrails suited to the exigencies of my particular case, it was not chance, I suppose, but a god that led the slave to that particular lamb! If you say that in this case too chance is, as it were, a sort of lot in accordance with the divine will, then I am sorry that our Stoic friends have given the Epicureans so great an opportunity for laughter, for you know how much fun they make of statements like that.
29. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 1.92.3, 4.66.5 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

1.92.3.  For this reason they insist that Orpheus, having visited Egypt in ancient times and witnessed this custom, merely invented his account of Hades, in part reproducing this practice and in part inventing on his own account; but this point we shall discuss more fully a little later. 4.66.5.  Consequently the Cadmeans left the city, as the seer had counselled them to do, and gathered for refuge by month in a place in Boeotia called Tilphossaeum. Thereupon the Epigoni took the city and sacked it, and capturing Daphnê, the daughter of Teiresias, they dedicated her, in accordance with a certain vow, to the service of the temple at Delphi as an offering to the god of the first-fruits of the booty.
30. Livy, History, 39.8.3 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

31. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11.8 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

32. Strabo, Geography, 16.2.43 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

16.2.43. Such are the phenomena. But Posidonius says, that the people being addicted to magic, and practising incantations, (by these means) consolidate the asphaltus, pouring upon it urine and other fetid fluids, and then cut it into pieces. (Incantations cannot be the cause), but perhaps urine may have some peculiar power (in effecting the consolidation) in the same manner that chrysocolla is formed in the bladders of persons who labour under the disease of the stone, and in the urine of children.It is natural for these phenomena to take place in the middle of the lake, because the source of the fire is in the centre, and the greater part of the asphaltus comes from thence. The bubbling up, however, of the asphaltus is irregular, because the motion of fire, like that of many other vapours, has no order perceptible to observers. There are also phenomena of this kind at Apollonia in Epirus.
33. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 2.148 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)

2.148. Moreover, since this Apollonius does not do like Apion, and lay a continued accusation against us, but does it only by starts, and up and down his discourse, while he sometimes reproaches us as atheists, and man-haters, and sometimes hits us in the teeth with our want of courage, and yet sometimes, on the contrary, accuses us of too great boldness, and madness in our conduct; nay, he says that we are the weakest of all the barbarians, and that this is the reason why we are the only people who have made no improvements in human life;
34. Juvenal, Satires, 6.542-6.546 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

35. Plutarch, Sayings of The Spartans, 224d (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

36. Plutarch, Oracles At Delphi No Longer Given In Verse, 399a, 398c (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

37. Plutarch, Nicias, 23.1-23.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

38. Plutarch, Pericles, 38.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

38.2. Certain it is that Theophrastus, in his Ethics, querying whether one’s character follows the bent of one’s fortunes and is forced by bodily sufferings to abandon its high excellence, records this fact, that Pericles, as he lay sick, showed one of his friends who was come to see him an amulet that the women had hung round his neck, as much as to say that he was very badly off to put up with such folly as that.
39. Tacitus, Histories, 5.5.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

40. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation To The Greeks, 2.22 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

41. Lucian, Alexander The False Prophet, 13 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

13. In the fullness of time, his plan took shape. He went one night to the temple foundations, still in process of digging, and with standing water in them which had collected from the rainfall or otherwise; here he deposited a goose egg, into which, after blowing it, he had inserted some new born reptile. He made a resting place deep down in the mud for this and departed. Early next morning he rushed into the market place, naked except for a gold spangled loin cloth; with nothing but this and his scimitar, and shaking his long loose hair, like the fanatics who collect money in the name of Cybele[1], he climbed on to a lofty altar and delivered a harangue, felicitating the city upon the advent of the God now to bless them with his presence. In a few minutes nearly the whole population was on the spot, women, old men, and children included; all was awe, prayer, and adoration. He uttered some unintelligible sounds, which might have been Hebrew or Phoenician[2], but completed his victory over his audience, who could make nothing of what he said, beyond the constant repetition of the names Apollo and Asclepius. [1] Cybele | Great mother goddess of Anatolia. [2] Hebrew or Phoenician | Both are languages from the Central Semitic language subgroup and would have sounded similar to an untrained ear.
42. Lucian, The Lover of Lies, 16 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

43. Lucian, Gout, 172-173, 171 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

44. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.12.2 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)

10.12.2. Herophile was younger than she was, but nevertheless she too was clearly born before the Trojan war, as she foretold in her oracles that Helen would be brought up in Sparta to be the ruin of Asia and of Europe, and that for her sake the Greeks would capture Troy . The Delians remember also a hymn this woman composed to Apollo. In her poem she calls herself not only Herophile but also Artemis, and the wedded wife of Apollo, saying too sometimes that she is his sister, and sometimes that she is his daughter.
45. Philostratus The Athenian, Life of Apollonius, 4.14 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

4.14. He also visited in passing the Adyton of Orpheus when he had put in at Lesbos. And they tell that it was here that Orpheus once on a time loved to prophesy, before Apollo had turned his attention to him. For when the latter found that men no longer flocked to Gryneium for the sake of oracles nor to Clarus nor (to Delphi) where is the tripod of Apollo, and that Orpheus was the only oracle, his head having come from Thrace, he presented himself before the giver of oracles and said: Cease to meddle with my affairs, for I have already put up long enough with your vaticinations.
46. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 1.9 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

47. Origen, Against Celsus, 1.26 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)

1.26. But let us see the manner in which this Celsus, who professes to know everything, brings a false accusation against the Jews, when he alleges that they worship angels, and are addicted to sorcery, in which Moses was their instructor. Now, in what part of the writings of Moses he found the lawgiver laying down the worship of angels, let him tell, who professes to know all about Christianity and Judaism; and let him show also how sorcery can exist among those who have accepted the Mosaic law, and read the injunction, Neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. Moreover, he promises to show afterwards how it was through ignorance that the Jews were deceived and led into error. Now, if he had discovered that the ignorance of the Jews regarding Christ was the effect of their not having heard the prophecies about Him, he would show with truth how the Jews fell into error. But without any wish whatever that this should appear, he views as Jewish errors what are no errors at all. And Celsus having promised to make us acquainted, in a subsequent part of his work, with the doctrines of Judaism, proceeds in the first place to speak of our Saviour as having been the leader of our generation, in so far as we are Christians, and says that a few years ago he began to teach this doctrine, being regarded by Christians as the Son of God. Now, with respect to this point - His prior existence a few years ago - we have to remark as follows. Could it have come to pass without divine assistance, that Jesus, desiring during these years to spread abroad His words and teaching, should have been so successful, that everywhere throughout the world, not a few persons, Greeks as well as Barbarians, learned as well as ignorant, adopted His doctrine, so that they struggled, even to death in its defense, rather than deny it, which no one is ever related to have done for any other system? I indeed, from no wish to flatter Christianity, but from a desire thoroughly to examine the facts, would say that even those who are engaged in the healing of numbers of sick persons, do not attain their object - the cure of the body - without divine help; and if one were to succeed in delivering souls from a flood of wickedness, and excesses, and acts of injustice, and from a contempt of God, and were to show, as evidence of such a result, one hundred persons improved in their natures (let us suppose the number to be so large), no one would reasonably say that it was without divine assistance that he had implanted in those hundred individuals a doctrine capable of removing so many evils. And if any one, on a candid consideration of these things, shall admit that no improvement ever takes place among men without divine help, how much more confidently shall he make the same assertion regarding Jesus, when he compares the former lives of many converts to His doctrine with their after conduct, and reflects in what acts of licentiousness and injustice and covetousness they formerly indulged, until, as Celsus, and they who think with him, allege, they were deceived, and accepted a doctrine which, as these individuals assert, is destructive of the life of men; but who, from the time that they adopted it, have become in some way meeker, and more religious, and more consistent, so that certain among them, from a desire of exceeding chastity, and a wish to worship God with greater purity, abstain even from the permitted indulgences of (lawful) love.
48. Papyri, Papyri Graecae Magicae, 1.263-1.347, 4.296-4.433 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
(law)court system Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
accused/defendant Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
accuser/prosecutor Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
achilles Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 122
aeneas Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
aeschylus Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
afterlife, reward in Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
afterlife, ritual absolution and Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
afterlife Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
agamemnon Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 122
agurtês /-ai Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
agyrtes Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 120
amnesty (of Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
amphilytos Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (2007) 250
amulets Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 124
amyntor Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
ancestors, wicked (incl. titans) Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144, 145
angels, fallen Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 176
aoroi Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
apollo of delphi on, determining elements of cult Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
areopagos, books of oracles Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (2007) 250
aristotle, god of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
aristotle, on divination Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
aristotle, on manteis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
astrology Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
atlantis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
authority Marincola et al., Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Calum Maciver, Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras: History Without Historians (2021) 132
bacchanalia affair Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145
bernabé, alberto Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
binding curses Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
bion Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
birds, divination Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
brashear, william m. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
bricoleur, bricolage Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 184
celsus Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
charlatans Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
children, curses against Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
children, prayers for Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
children, religious education of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
chrêsmologos Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
circe Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
clement of alexandria Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
corybantes Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144
creator god Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
cultic ritual practice, magic Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136, 485
cultural memory, oracles and divination Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
curse tablets Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 62
curses Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
dactyls Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 171
daemonology Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
dead sea Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
dearness to god, and sound thinking Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
dearness to god Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
deceit and divination Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 176
defixiones Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
delphi Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
demeter Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 171
demeter (goddess) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
demiurgic Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
demokritos Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
derveni papyrus Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174; Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
dido Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
dillery, john Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
dionysos (bacchus, god) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
dionysus, as releaser Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145
divination, and authority Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
divination, and colonization Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
divination, and patronage Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
divination, and sound thinking Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
divination, not admitted in court by entrails Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 120
divination, not admitted in court individuals Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 120
divination Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
edmonds iii, radcliffe g. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
egypt, egyptian Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174
egyptian culture and religion Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136
egyptian magic, ritual and religion Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
egyptian priests Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
eleusinian mysteries Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
en-dor, woman of (necromancer) Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
enemy, enmity, cf. rival Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 174, 216
ephebes Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
erictho (thessalian witch) Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
eros Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
eudaimonia, of the gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
execution Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
figurines Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 62
gods of the underworld Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
graf, fritz Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
greco-egyptian culture and religion Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
greek literature Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
greek magic, ritual and religion Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
guthrie, william k. c. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
hades/pluto Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
happiness, in the afterlife Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
healing, purification ritual and law Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
health, as object of prayer Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
hecate Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 171
heka Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
hengstl, joachim Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
herodotus, on gods of homer and hesiod Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
heroes, as deities, as children of the gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
herrero, miguel Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
hesiod, gods of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
hieroi logoi Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 184
hipparchos Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (2007) 250
hippolytus Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
hk# (concept) Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
homer, gods of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
homer Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228; Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
homicide, and curses Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
homicide, of kin Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
homicide, trials for Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
homoiosis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
hordern, j. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
incantation Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228, 399
isocrates Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
israel (ancient) Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
jerusalem Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
jiménez, ana e. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
johnston, sarah iles Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136, 485
katabasis, orphic Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174
kerameikos Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 174
killing Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
kolchis Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
lane fox, robin Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
language, mousaios Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (2007) 250
law courts Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228, 399
legal and ethical restrictions (of magic) Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
madness Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144
magic, anti-jewish accusation Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
magic, criticisms and punishments of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 129, 197
magic, jewish Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
magic, malign Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
magic, persuading the gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 197
magician, cf. magos, shaman, sorcerer, witch Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 174
magos Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
manasseh (king of judah) Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
mania Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
manteis, aristotle on Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
manteis, criticisms of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
manteis, euthyphro as Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
manteis, inspired Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
manteis, status of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
manteis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
marcel simon Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
marriage, as object of prayer Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
martinez, david Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
medea Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8; Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 176
melampus, melampids Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 121
menander religious stance Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 124
moses, as magician Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
mother elective cults of Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 120
musaeus Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144, 145, 184; Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 121
mysteries Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
mystery religions Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
müller, max Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 217
necromancy Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
new comedy, religious stance of Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 124
nubian magic and ritual (and nubian elements) Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
oaths, and laws Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
odysseus Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
oedipus Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
olympiodoros Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
onomakritos Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (2007) 250
oracles, cosmic sympatheia Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
oracles, divination Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
oracles, magic Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
oracles, reading of entrails Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
oracles, use of birds Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
oracles Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
orpheotelestai Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145, 184
orpheus, as argonaut Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174
orpheus, as founder of mysteries and religious reformer Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144, 145, 171
orpheus, as magician Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 171
orpheus, as mantis Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 217
orpheus, see also katabasis, orphic orpheus of camarina Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174
orpheus, visits the underworld Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 174
orpheus and orphics Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
orphic tradition, bacchic gold tablets Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
orphic tradition, derveni papyrus Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136
other, perception of the Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
papyri/papyrology, derveni papyrus Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136
papyri/papyrology, magical Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
papyri/papyrology Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136
parents, and curses Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
parents, honour to Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
parents, religious education by Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
parke, h. w. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
parker, robert c. t. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
peitho Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
pericles Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 124
persephone (goddess) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
peterson, e. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
phoenix Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
pindar Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
plato, on ritual absolution Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
plato, republic Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135, 136, 485
plato Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228, 399; Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199; Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 232
plato on magic Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 121, 124
platt, verity Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
poetry, justice and the afterlife in Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
poets and poetry, as source for religion Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
poets and poetry Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
pollution, hereditary sin Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
polyaenus Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
posidonius Bloch, Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (2022) 43
prayers, and religious education Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
prayers, criticisms of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 54
prayers, objects of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
prayers, persuading gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 197
prayers, to zeus Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
prayers Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 54
priest Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228, 399; Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
priests (hiereis)/priestesses (hiereiai)/priesthood' Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 136
priests and priestesses, and prayer and sacrifice Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
priests and priestesses, begging Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129, 213
priests and priestesses, criticisms of Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
priests and priestesses, in magnesia Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
proetus and his daughters Johnston, Ancient Greek Divination (2008) 121
prophecy Marincola et al., Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Calum Maciver, Greek Notions of the Past in the Archaic and Classical Eras: History Without Historians (2021) 132
protective magic Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
psuchopompos Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
ptolemy Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
purity, purification Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 144, 145
pythagoras Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
pythia Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
quarrel Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 174
religious correctness, and justice Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
religious correctness Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
rhea (goddess) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
ritual experts/magicians Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
rome Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399
sacrifice Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
sacrifices, and curses Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
sacrifices, and justice Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 129, 197
sacrifices, and nomoi Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
sacrifices, and religious education Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
sacrifices, persuading the gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46, 129, 197
saul Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
service to gods'" Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
service to gods', and apollo of delphi" Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 213
sibyls Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
sophocles Johnston and Struck, Mantikê: Studies in Ancient Divination (2005) 199
sorcerer, cf. magician, magos, shaman, witch Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 174
sound thinking, and dearness to gods Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
sound thinking, and divination Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
sound thinking, and homoiosis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 197
sparta Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
stoics/stoicism Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
struck, peter t. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
symposia, of the blessed dead Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 559
the eleven Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216
theophrastus, characters, religion in Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 121
theseus Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145, 174; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 54
thrasyllos Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
tiresias Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens (2005) 120
titans (gods) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
vegetarianism Graf and Johnston, Ritual texts for the afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (2007) 145
vengeance Riess, Performing interpersonal violence: court, curse, and comedy in fourth-century BCE Athens (2012) 216, 232
virgil Luck, Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts (2006) 211
war, success in, and manteis Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 129
west, martin l. Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135
witches Bortolani et al., William Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack, Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions (2019) 8
women, female diviners/seers (manteis) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 485
women Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 228
zeus, bion on Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
zeus Edmonds, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (2019) 399; Mikalson, Greek Popular Religion in Greek Philosophy (2010) 46
zeus (god) Eidinow and Kindt, The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (2015) 135