Human Transgression — Divine Retribution: A Study of Religious Transgressions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulation and Lydian-Phrygian Propitiatory Inscriptions (‘Confession Inscriptions’)

Human Transgression – Divine Retribution analyses pagan concepts of religious transgressions, how they should be regarded and punished, as expressed in Greek cultic regulations from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD. Also considered are the so-called propitiatory inscriptions (often referred to as ‘confession inscriptions’) from the 1st to the 3rd century AD Lydia and Phrygia, in light of ‘cultic morality’, an ideal code of behaviour intended to make places, occasions, and worshippers suitable for ritual. This code is on the one hand associated with ‘purity’ (hagneia) and removal of pollution (miasma) caused by deaths, births and sexuality, and on the other with the protection of sacred property. This study seeks to explain the emphasis of divine punishments in the Lydian and Phrygian inscriptions, while rare in most Greek cultic regulations, as part of a continuum within pagan religion rather than as a result of an absolute division between Greek and Oriental religion.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Part 1. Introduction and Aims of the Study

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Aims of the study

Part 2. The Propitiatory Inscriptions

Chapter 3. The Propitiatory Inscriptions and their Religious Context

Chapter 4. Earlier Research on the Propitiatory Inscriptions

Part 3. Religious Transgressions and Punishments

Chapter 5. Greek Cultic Morality

Chapter 6. Prohibitions and Punishments in Greek Cultic Regulations

Chapter 7. Transgressions in the Propitiatory Inscriptions

Part 4. Conclusions

Chapter 8. Conclusions

Part 5. Appendices, Bibliography and Index Of Citation

Appendix A: Cultic Regulations

Appendix B: Propitiatory Inscriptions

Bibliography

Index of Citations

Aslak Rostad (born 1972) holds a PhD in Ancient Greek and is Associate Professor of Classics at Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU), Trondheim.