Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2020)
Phenomenon of priesthood in ancient Greek religion: its conceptual schemes and perspectives of research in western science of the 19th — 21st centuries
Abstract
The article gives a comparative analysis of conceptual approaches to the phenomenon of priesthood in Ancient Greece in western scientifi c literature of the 19th — 21st centuries. It studies the problem of institualisation of the class of priests in the present-day western science. Based on the analysis of V. Burkert’s works, it formulates an “axiom” as an inventory of comparative and apophatic statements about ancient priests. It is argued that to these belong the closedness and elitism of the class of priests; the absence of the system of initiation; the absence of a unifi ed practice independent of the localisation of the cult; the absence of a uniform doctrine. The formulation of the statements of the “axiom” helps to identify in the relevant literature a conventional scheme of five conceptual approaches to the phenomenon pf priesthood in Ancient Greece. The unifi cation of these conceptual approaches in a holistic structure (by the principle of the attitude of the authors to the role of the priest and the problem of the institution of priests) allows one to construct a system of perceiving the priesthood: priests of the polis, diviners and seers, intermediaries between the worlds of people and gods, keepers of rituals, experts in communicating with the divine. In its fi nal part, the article formulates three questions to the relevant scientifi c literature which are necessary to verify the proposed conceptual scheme of “perceiving the priests”: 1) the problem of Christianity-centred perception of priests; 2) the problem of ignoring rituals of rural sanctuaries and giving priority to urban temples; 3) the problem of the phenomenon of the “attitude to the divine reality” in connection with priesthood in Ancient Greece. The solution for these questions (i.e. fi nding the link between the rite of sacrifi ce with divination practices, the study of the phenomenon of “divine obsession” and attention to temple practices of rural sanctuaries) allows one to look at the study of Greek priests in the context of the history of ancient magic as an evolution of the system of ritual and cult-related practices.
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