Dictionnaire du paganisme grec: Notions et debats autour de l'epoque classique [Paperback]

English summary: This dictionary proposes to venture beyond the framework of Greek religion to explore the notions which the Greeks formulated within the framework of their uncertain relationship with the sacred. It formally acknowledges not only the absence of the word religion in Classical Greek vocabulary but also the Greek's sole certainty: mortals' lack of knowledge.Greek paganism lies at the crossroads of two complementary attitudes - one mental and the other gestural. The Greeks were certain that they were immersed in ignorance of the sacred: there was no Revelation, no credo (according to monotheistic criteria). Yet to them, existence of the gods seemed evident. They thus dealt with their ignorance through a dual and impenetrable administration: one in which that of the sacred was absolutely inseparable from that of the city-state.In leaving the sole path of religion for the broader one of paganism, readers will discover many uncharted facts: it was not the Greeks' participation in cults, nor their pilgrimages to the temples of mysteries which tended to their souls, but rather philosophy. French description: Si les Grecs eurent une seule sagesse, ce fut celle de ne rien entendre aux sirenes du proselytisme. C'est la grandeur de ce qui sera plus tard appele, sans trop le comprendre, paganisme .Les Grecs ont toujours une lecon d'actualite a transmettre.Le message fut donne a une humanite qui s'effrayait de sa condition : l'inconnaissance. La logique du syllogisme commence alors a fonctionner :pour qu'il y ait inconnaissance, il faut des maitres pour ne pas divulguer un enseignement. Et si ces maitres sont des dieux alors la boucle se contracte en une sorte de croyance.Ce dictionnaire propose un depassement du cadre religion grecque pour s'ouvrir sur les notions que les Hellenes ont echafaudees dans leur relation incertaine au sacre. En s'interessant au paganisme , il prend autant acte de l'absence du mot religion dans le vocabulaire grec classique lÓP