Personal protection and tailor-made deities: the use of individual epithets*

Abstract

Centre international d'étude de la religion grecque antique

Native Deities and Multiple Identities: An Anthropological Approach to Reconceptualising Divine Marriage in the Roman Provinces

“…Whilst scholars such as Derks (1998) have argued that Roman deities had more than one function, it is important to acknowledge precisely how Roman concepts of divine function and identity compare with its Iron Age counterparts. The existence of Graeco-Roman divine epithets has provoked considerable debate, centred upon the conflicting notions of the epithet as signalling distinct or separate deities, or signalling one form of a particular, singular, divine identity (Wallensten 2008). King (2003: 291), arguing for the latter, suggests that the Romans believed that divinities had multiple aspects and possessed more than one formoperating in particular contexts under particular names.…”

Epithets, divine (Greece and Rome)

“…The other categories actually prove to be variants of toponymic or (mostly) functional epithets (Parker 2003): some refer to ritual facts (Apollo Hekatombaios); others clearly derive from a theonym and closely bind a deity to another one (Athena Areia, Zeus Ares; cf. Parker 2005); "individual epithets," derived from personal names, link a god to the founder of a cult and often to his progeny (Wallensten 2008); some emphasize the power of the deity (JUPITER Optimus Maximus) or its faculty to respond to the worshipers' wishes (Epekoos). Finally, some quite frequent "topographic" epithets belong to both functional and toponymic categories, since they can refer both to landscapes favored by a god and to a peculiar place through a generic denomination: so, Zeus Akraios can be a generic Zeus of mountaintops; but for Magnesians, he was also the Zeus whose sanctuary was at the top of nearby Mount Pelion.…”

Olímpia e os Olimpiéia: a origem e difusão do culto de Zeus Olímpio na Grécia dos séculos VI e V a.C.

“…Wallensten (2008) de contextualização histórica e física dos epítetos. Partindo do principal testemunho que demonstra que Olímpia de fato foi dedicada ao deus do Olimpo -o testemunho de Diodoro sobre a instituição dos jogos olímpicos por Héracles -apresentamos os testemunhos arqueológicos encontrados sobre a divindade no Olimpo e em Díon, assim como as suas prováveis origens em Olímpia.…”