Ridere degli dèi

Abstract

The Charlie Hebdo shooting has tragically attracted new attention on a characteristic of the monotheistic religions that had been progressively overshadowed at least in Western societies: the impossibility of making fun of God and religion in general. On the contrary in Greek and Roman societies the practice of “laughing at the gods” was considered perfectly legitimate, as shown by a plurality of examples from Homer to Lucian of Samosata. The essay aims at describing the cultural motivations of this phenomenon, by emphasizing some of the most relevant differences between polytheistic and monotheistic religions.

Keywords

• Divinità
• monoteismo
• politeismo
• ridere
• epiteti
• antropomorfismo