Perception et construction du divin dans l’Antiquité

Abstract

How can we perceive what the emotions of the Ancients were in their commerce with the gods? Divine apparitions, phenomena of possession, and miraculous healings are so many experiences which would have concerned the ancient city as a whole, calling it to find signs and images to express the emotional reactions stemming from these experiences as well as the means to master them. The emotions – fear, reverence, and joy – constituted an important medium for the ancient representation of the gods: the installation of cult statues and divine images and the construction of ritual spaces had the effect of inciting in those seeking contact with the divine an emotional upheaval signified by the creation of a sacred atmosphere, a theatre appropriate for the manifestation of the divine presence. Emotions thus appear as the essential element through which the contact between human and divine was constructed: they are both the certain indicator of a divine presence and the matter used to stage this presence. This volume puts specialists from the Greek, Roman, and Mesopotamian worlds into dialogue in order to approach the divine representations of Antiquity from the point of view of the relationship between religion and emotions.