Mythos (Sep 2023)
Les polythéismes antiques aux IVe et Ve siècles : Antioche, un observatoire privilégié ?
Abstract
Antioch was not, from the 4th century, the predominantly Christian metropolis that is generally presented, a city where traditional religion was only a survival and where the “last pagans” took refuge in clandestinity. With the help of numerous sources, which must be compared, we must reopen the question of polytheistic manifestations and ask ourselves “how did one become a pagan in the 4th and 5th centuries?” The analysis raises several paradoxes: the first puts in tension the attachment to tradition and certain reinterpretations of religious practices; the second follows the - moving - limit between licit and illicit; the third opposes discourse and practice, which is particularly illustrated by the rhetorician Libanios, a first-rate testimony on the situation of a pagan in late Antioch.
