Aretalogy (religion)

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Aretalogy ( Greek  ἀρεταλογία praise for the deeds of a god / a goddess ) denotes a list of the power deeds and properties of a deity.

In a narrower sense, aretalogy describes a genre of ancient poetic-religious texts from the Hellenistic - Egyptian environment. The traditional aretalogies are mainly in the first person, list-like lists of the characteristics and deeds of the deity. Well-known examples of this form are the Epiphany speech of Isis in Apuleius and the Isis aretalogy of Kyme from the 1st century:

I am Isis, the ruler of the whole country
...
I am Kronos' eldest daughter.
I am the wife and sister of King Osiris.
It is I who invented fruit for man.
I am the mother of King Horos.
It is I who rise in the constellation of the dog.
...
I made the law stronger than silver and gold.
I have determined that the truth be recognized as good.
I made up the contracts.
I prescribed the languages ​​to the Greeks and the barbarians.

In an even narrower sense, aretalogy describes a report about a concrete miracle caused by a deity, for example a healing caused by Asclepius . An early example of such a votive inscription is a thanksgiving to Athena found on the Athenian Acropolis .

literature

  • Jan Bergman: I am Isis. Studies on the Memphite background of the Greek Isisar etalogies. Dissertation, Uppsala 1968
  • Yves Grandjean: Une nouvelle arétalogie d'Isis à Maronée. Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain 49. Brill, Leiden 1975, ISBN 90-04-04337-3
  • Dieter Müller: Egypt and the Greek Isis Aretalogies. Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Philological-Historical Class 53.1. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1961
  • Albert Kiefer: Aretalogical studies. Noske, Borna-Leipzig 1929
  • Otto Weinreich: fable, aretalogy, novella. Contributions to Phaedrus, Petron, Martial and Apuleius. Meeting reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Born 1930/31, treatise 7. Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1931
  • Otto Crusius : Aretalogoi . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 670-672.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Apuleius Metamorphoses 11.5
  2. ^ Translation after W. Peek. Quoted in: Hans Kloft: Mystery Cults of Antiquity: Gods, People, Rituals. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 340644606X . P. 46
  3. ↑ IG II² 4326, around 350 BC Chr.