Faith and Belief in the Ancient Mediterranean

The Greek and Roman gods are perhaps one of the best-known elements of Classical culture. And yet there is no ancient Greek word for religion. Can we speak, then, of ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in a Greek and Roman context, or are these concepts misnomers when applied to pagan religion? And where does Mesopotamian religion fit into this picture of ancient Mediterranean religious cultures? This course not only teaches students about religious practice in Near Eastern, Greek, Roman and Byzantine worlds, but encourages deep reflections about what it means to ‘believe in the god(s)’ within and throughout the religious transformations that accompanied the historical period c. 3000 BCE-600 CE. The development of new cults, the deification of kings and emperors, and the rise of monotheistic religions like Christianity all attest to the complex and shifting nature of the ancient religious landscape in the Mediterranean. Within this, was there room for religious dissent? How accommodating were official state religions to variety, change and localism? How do our concepts of ‘agnostic’ and ‘atheist’ map onto the lived religious experiences of ancient peoples? Students of this course will learn about how the concepts of faith and belief in the ancient Mediterranean intersected with other key elements of society and culture including politics, art, architecture, science and philosophy.