Diagoras (impiety):

aka Diagoras of Melos (fl. 415 BC) an atheistic poet, charged with profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries & revealing its secrets to the uninitiated turning many of them away from the proper initiation, probably just after the trials of Alcibiades.  He fled Athens & the Athenians set a reward for his death or seizure.  Aristophanes (in the Clouds, 423 BC) mentions Diagoras in a political context when he ridicules Socrates as the ‘Melian’, referring to his ‘godless’ beliefs.  Aristophanes (in the Birds 414 BC) again mentions Diagoras, referring to the warrant for his killing.

 

Anaxagoras (impiety):

aka Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (500-428 BC), Pre-Socratic philosopher, born in Ionian coast, Asia Minor, citizen of the Persian Empire; served in the Persian army during Greco-Persian Wars who came to Athens in 480 BC (the year of Salamis) where he remained for 30 years.  Pericles admired him & the poet Euripides gained an enthusiasm for science and humanity from him.  His scientific speculations included claims that Helios (the Sun) & Selene (the Moon) were not divine but rather the former was just an extremely heated metal & latter an inhabited world.  These speculations made him vulnerable to a charge of impiety; in 540 BC he was prosecuted by Cleon.  His friend Pericles spoke in his defence; when the Athenians began to blame him for the Peloponnesian war, Pericles sent Anaxagoras to Lampsacus for his own safety(434 BC).

 

Protagoras (impiety):

aka Protagoras of Abdera (490-421 BC) sophist whose treatise On the Gods illustrated the principles of his agnosticism.  The Athenians charged him with impiety & he was exiled from all of Attic; he barely avoided losing his life after they agreed to kill him for his writings, which they found incongruous with their own beliefs; his works were publicly burnt during the meeting of the Athenian Assembly.

 

Aristotle (impiety):

the trial of Aristotle (who was pro-Macedonian) occurred around 322 BC following the death of Alexander.  At this time Athens was strongly anti-Macedonian & hostile to anti-democrats (such as Aristotle).  Eurymedon the Hierophant, one of the priests overseeing the Eleusinian Mysteries, & Demophilus accused Aristotle of several impious acts, including the composition of a ‘paean’ (a song dedicated only to a god) & an inscription in Delphi for Hermias.  Having heard the charges, Aristotle fled Athens in fear of a trial, going into exile to the Euboean Chalcis where he died not long after.  When asked why he fled Aristotle replied that he did not want the Athenians to wrong philosophy twice (in reference to the prosecution of Socrates). 

 

Alcibiades (impiety):

Alcibiades & friends were accused of mutilating the hermae & profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries.  Before the trial could take place Alcibiades set sail with the fleet for Sicily.  His absence emboldened his enemies; they began to accuse him of other sacrilegious actions & alleged that these actions were connected with a plot against the democracy.  When hsi fleet arrived in Catania, the state trireme Salaminia was waiting to bring Alcibiades for trail of impiety.  Alcibiades told the heralds he would follow them back but in Thurii he escaped.  In Athens he was convicted in absentia and condemned to death, his property was confiscated & a price put on his head.

and see above page 410, the Mutilation of the Hermae

​

Peloponnesian War:

(431–404 BC) Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.  It became an all-out struggle between city-states, with atrocities on a large scale.  It shattering religious & cultural taboos, devastated vast swathes of countryside & destroyed whole cities.  The war marked the dramatic end of the golden age of Greece.

 

Books of Numa (burned):

in 181 BC, a buried chest with the writings of the Roman king Numa Pompilius was found in Rome, part written in Greek dealing with Pythagorean philosophy.  The Senate commanded the praetor to burn them (although the books were an obvious forgery).  This act was used to justify similar actions later, during the whole period of the Roman Empire.  Book burning became a solution was employed against defiant or inconvenient individuals as a way to confirm the imperial authority.

 

Isis temples destroyed (at time of Caesar):

Between 59 and 48 BC the Senate ordered the destruction of Isis temples on 5 occasions (59, 58, 53 & 48 BC).  The edict of 59 BC officially condemning the Isis cult may have been accompanied by private demonstrations & attacks against Isis believers & the destruction of statues & alters.  Nonetheless the Isis cult was very popular with the masses in Rome.

 

image of Isis thrown into Tiber (under Tiberius):

In 19 AD Emperor Tiberius again suppressed the Isis cult (according to Tacitus).  It was deemed a hotbed of immorality, an affront to Roman decency.  Good Romans wished to maintain proper moral attitudes in the presence of the gods.  As well as this moral-religious issue, Isis was linked to the Ptolemies & Alexandria, a foreign faction clearly hostile to the Republic and a haughty Hellenistic city which Rome feared.  Politics was never far removed from Roman religion.

 

failure to sacrifice to image of Emperor (a crime):

Decius (201- 251, emperor 249 to 251 AD) issued an edict in 250 AD ordering everyone in the Empire (except Jews) to perform sacrifice to the Roman gods & well-being of the emperor.  The Imperial cult was inseparable from that of Rome's official deities; its cult was believed essential for Rome's survival, its neglect was treasonous.  The sacrifices had to be performed in the presence of a Roman magistrate & confirmed by a signed and witnessed certificate.  Anyone (including Christians) who refused to offer a sacrifice for the emperor & the Empire's well-being by a specified date risked torture and execution.  A number of prominent Christians did, refuse & were killed in the process.

 

Satyric drama & comedy (and the Gods):

The satyr play was a form of Attic theatre performed in the Dionysian festival following the tragedies.  Their mythological-heroic stories & style of language are similar to that of the tragedies.  Satyrs & comedies became more relevant in the 430s.  Satyr plays influenced other forms of performance, especially Middle Comedy.  This comedy brought with it the humbling of gods & heroes done through the domesticizing of these characters.  Gods, artists, politicians & citizens were legitimate targets, a kind of licensed buffoonery, with no legal redress for anyone slandered.  A relaxation in standards of behaviour was allowed & the holiday spirit included bawdy irreverence towards both men & gods Although impiety could be punished in 5th century Athens, the absurdities implicit in the traditional religion was fair game.  Only the polis was above slander.

 

The Roman Stoic (faithlessly observed ritual forms):* see EndNote<A>

The prime example of the Roman Stoic is Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD, emperor 161 to 180 AD).  Before becoming Emperor, at the senate's request he joined all the Roman priestly colleges.  In Meditations (written 170-180 AD) he acknowledged the gods for providing him with such good moral exemplars & with circumstances conducive to his moral development.  One of the most famous depictions of Marcus Aurelius shows him about to sacrifice a bull.  Although Cleanthes (330-230 BC, 2nd head of the school) was no Roman Stoic, he clearly is part of a Stoic tradition that far from eschewing the traditional Greek Gods & religious practices, instead gave them high approval.  His Hymn to Zeus is notable in its praise & honour to Zeus, which is deemed to be the highest privilege of all rational beings.  It is no progressive new style but a textbook example of the traditional cult hymn addressed to the supreme Olympian deity, full of traditional form (a 3 way division-Invocation, Hymn and Prayer).  Its Zeus is no an abstracted Stoic Logos or REASON but a recognizable culmination of a god developed from Homer to Pidar, a divine father, king & ruler of the world, a god to whom we can turn & who can correct our mistakes.  Furthermore Stoic philosophical technical terms are mostly absent.  Roman Stoics like Marcus Aurelius would have certainly paid homage to the gods in traditional prayer, ritual & sacrifice without compromising their philosophy.

 

Lessing (& Faith):

(1729–1781), German dramatist & Enlightenment philosopher, who trusted in a "Christianity of Reason", in which human reason (initiated by criticism & dissent) would develop, even without help by divine revelation.  He defended the faithful Christian's right for freedom of thought & argued against revelation or literal interpretation of the Bible; he questioned miracles.  He championed for religious tolerance; his plays, especially The Jew and Nathan the Wise are pleas for social & religious toleration.  The latter work contains the famous parable of the 3 rings (symbolising the 3 Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism & Islam) owned by 3 sons; each believes he has the 1 true ring, but judgment is reserved to God

 

Goethe (& faith):

A freethinker, he believed one could be inwardly Christian without following any of the Christian churches, many of whose central teachings he opposed.  He distinguished between Christ & Christian theology & was critical of Christian theology.  His secretary portrayed him as enthusiastic about Christianity, Jesus, Luther & the Reformation, calling Christianity the "ultimate religion" yet Goethe pronounced himself as “non-Christian”; he once described the cross among the 4 things he most dislike.  Born into a Lutheran family, his early faith was shaken by news of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake & the 7 Years' War.  A became a devoted Spinozist.