numina:

see above page 397, 401,

 

ipso facto:

Latin, by the fact itself; by the very nature of the deed

 

Mutilation of the Hermae:

In 415 BC, in the midst of the Peloponnesian War & just before the Athenian fleet left for the Syracuse expedition, all of the Athenian hermai were vandalized.  Many thought such an impious act would threaten the success of the pending expedition; many believed it was the work of saboteurs, from Syracuse or Spartan sympathizers in Athens itself.  One suspect was the writer Xenophon.  The commander of the Syracuse expedition, Alcibiades, also came under scrutiny.  His enemies, playing on the public outrage, used it as a pretext further investigations.  Alcibiades was accused of other acts of impiety, including mutilations of other sacred objects & the mocking of performances of religious mystery ceremonies.  He denied the accusations & offered to stand trial.  However the Athenians rejected further disruption of the expedition any further.  He left with the fleet; his opponents wanted to use his absence to incite the people against him at a time when he would not be able to defend himself.  Once Alcibiades had left, his enemies had him charged and sentenced to death in absentia, for the mutilation of the hermai, and the supposedly related crime of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries. See below

 

desecration of the Eleusinian mysteries:

in 415 BC Athenian aristocrat Alcibiades was condemned partly because he took part in an "Eleusinian mystery" in a private house.  These Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter & Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in Greece.  They were on an old agrarian cult, with possible roots in the religious practices of the Mycenaean period.  The special committee set up to investigate the mutilation of the Herms discovered in the course of their inquiries that some of the suspects had performed the rites in private homes, before non-initiates; sacrilegious acts.  Alcibiades had performed the rituals outside their proper place in the Eleusinian sanctuary.  He seems to have done this repeatedly with different groups of participants under his direction while playing the role of Hierophant.  The rites are being performed by the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time

 

ἀσέβεια:

Greek, meaning ungodliness, impiety; at Rome disloyalty to the Emperor; the word was the opposite of “εὐσέβεια” a term which meant showing reverence in accordance with tradition towards the gods, parents, the dead, or the polis.  ἀσέβεια signified the lack of reverence towards & profanation of ‘sacred matters’ including sacred places, monuments of the gods, religious festivals, functions or rituals; it included neglect of the sacred & violation of laws perceived as ‘natural’ or the breaking of an oath.  It could also refer to an improper ritual conduct, like making sacrifices on the wrong day or in an untraditional manner, or the lack of acceptance of the cult officially recognised by the polis.  The was the religious duty of the citizen to maintain cult objects, participate in religious activities like festivals & rites, perform priestly service when called & avoid the impious.

 

Sophist-Stoic speculation:

The pre-Socratics of the 6th & 5th centuries introduced a new approach to human inquiry: they moved away from explanations of Nature (e.g. thunder) based on god or gods, to more rational, observable explanations.  Thales of Miletus (a city in Ionia) was one of the first to do this.  Following this, in the last half the 5th century Ionian speculation was spread across Greece in a wave of higher education: the Sophists.  Protagoras (490-420 BC) was the first of these; others included Gorgias (483-375 BC) & Prodicus (465-395 BC), a friend of Socrates.  The speculation about the physic world broadened into speculation about religion itself, politics, history, geography & the origins of civilization.  Socrates was part of this new higher education.  His approach involved examining commonly held truths that shape beliefs & scrutinizing them to determine their consistency with other beliefs.  His speculation eventually led to charges of impiety & his death.  He had a deep influence on Antisthenes (446-366 BC) who, filled with enthusiasm for his master’s idea of virtue, found a school of his own, where he attracted the poorer classes by the simplicity of his life & teaching.  This school became known as the Cynics.  In turn this philosophy influenced Zeno of Citium (334- 262 BC) who in 301 BC began teaching in Athens, at the Agora.  His philosophy was based on the moral ideas of the Cynics & emphasised the goodness & peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature: Stoicism.

 

Stoic disposition:

Beginning around 301 BC, Zeno of Citium began teaching at the Stoa Poikile in Athens.  Unlike the other schools of philosophy.  His ideas were based on those of the Cynics. His most influential follower was Chrysippus, who was responsible for systematizing the school.   It is a philosophy of personal ethics & teaches that the path to happiness is found in accepting the moment as it comes, to avoid being controlled by either desire for pleasure or fear of pain; by using one's mind to understand the world, by doing one's part in nature's plan, by working together & treating others fairly and justly.  It is a philosophy of passive compliance rather  than active investigation

 

“unknown gods”:

see above page 404