¿RELIGIÓN GRIEGA O RELIGIONES DE LA GRECIA ANTIGUA?

Abstract

In the frame of the discussion about the convenience of using the expression “Greek religion”, the author postulates the existence of a more or less stable core (undoubtedly at least till the Hellenistic period), that allows to define the historical evolution of religious practices and beliefs as an ‘open system’. The phenomena that have an effect on this evolution, and on the subsequent reorganisations of the system, are classified in three groups. (A) The contrast between the trend to regulate the cults ant its reflection in the normative texts, on the one side, and the persistence of a deep stratum of elementary beliefs (in a general, anthropological sense), that, historically, are very well rooted among the members of the gene and phratries, on the other side. (B) The tendency to the creation of theoretical corpora on religious matters, made mainly by the poets, but in a tight relation to the philosophers. (C) The permanent interrelation between different religious models, as much among the Greek communities as between the Greek world and other cultures. These three groups are illustrated through some examples.