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The Twenty-Sixth Annual Carl C. Schlam Memorial Lecture

photo of Esther Eidinow
April 8, 2021
2:30PM - 4:30PM
Virtual

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Add to Calendar 2021-04-08 14:30:00 2021-04-08 16:30:00 The Twenty-Sixth Annual Carl C. Schlam Memorial Lecture The Department of Classics invites you to the Twenty-Sixth Annual Carl C. Schlam Memorial Lecture Title: Mistrust and Impurity in Ancient Greek Religion Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol, UK) April 8, 2021 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Please register in advance for this event here. Mistrust and Impurity in Ancient Greek Religion  Esther Eidinow, University of Bristol ‘Trust is a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon the positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another.’ (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998: 395). In the context of ancient Greek religion, trust was far from easy. The fundamental unknowability of the gods made impossible an ‘acceptance of vulnerability.’ There were no securely positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of the divine towards mortals. Instead, mistrust was the crucial dynamic for enabling civic life and coping with contingency in a context of mortal and metaphysical uncertainty and threat—not only mistrust of the gods towards oneself, but also mistrust of other members of one’s community with relation to the gods. Drawing on recent anthropological approaches, I propose that mistrust in Greek religion was a dangerous and productive presence which gave rise to particular social forms, including specific constructions of the natural world. I focus on the relationship between mistrust and constructions of purity, impurity and purification, with a case study examining so-called ‘scapegoat rituals’, in which an individual was treated as a purificatory offering. Moving away from the traditional scholarly approach to these rituals as alluding to counterparts of mythical sacrificial ‘deaths’ or demonic expulsions, I argue that they were a community’s embodied response to mortal mistrust both of the gods and of one’s fellow mortals.   Virtual Department of Classics classics@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Department of Classics invites you to the
Twenty-Sixth Annual Carl C. Schlam Memorial Lecture
Title: Mistrust and Impurity in Ancient Greek Religion
Esther Eidinow
(University of Bristol, UK)

April 8, 2021 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Please register in advance for this event here.

Mistrust and Impurity in Ancient Greek Religion 

Esther Eidinow, University of Bristol

‘Trust is a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon the positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another.’ (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt, & Camerer, 1998: 395).

In the context of ancient Greek religion, trust was far from easy. The fundamental unknowability of the gods made impossible an ‘acceptance of vulnerability.’ There were no securely positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of the divine towards mortals. Instead, mistrust was the crucial dynamic for enabling civic life and coping with contingency in a context of mortal and metaphysical uncertainty and threat—not only mistrust of the gods towards oneself, but also mistrust of other members of one’s community with relation to the gods.

Drawing on recent anthropological approaches, I propose that mistrust in Greek religion was a dangerous and productive presence which gave rise to particular social forms, including specific constructions of the natural world. I focus on the relationship between mistrust and constructions of purity, impurity and purification, with a case study examining so-called ‘scapegoat rituals’, in which an individual was treated as a purificatory offering. Moving away from the traditional scholarly approach to these rituals as alluding to counterparts of mythical sacrificial ‘deaths’ or demonic expulsions, I argue that they were a community’s embodied response to mortal mistrust both of the gods and of one’s fellow mortals.