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The Contrariness of Speech and Polytheism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

David Daube
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Extract

The ancient Greeks never speak of themselves as “polytheistic,” of their religion as “polytheism.” Certainly, thinkers comparing various world-views must have given a place to this one early on. Sextus Empiricus, ca. A.D. 200, notes that, if one looks around, some people assume one god, hena theon, some many, pollous; such an observation could probably have been made hundreds of years before. Yet from here to the labels “polytheistic” and “polytheism” is a big step. They are met in no text B.C. It is Philo, outsider and critic, who first employs them.

The ground was prepared in that the adjective was current long before, though not descriptive of a creed. Significantly, the noun is not traceable earlier at all, nor the nominal use of the adjective, what we translate as “a polytheist.” Here is the passage with the adjective from Aeschylus. The daughters of Danaus flee from Egypt to Greece with their father in order not to be forced into marriage by their cousins. Expecting the latter to pursue them, they take refuge at the sanctuary of Argos, favoured—the father explains—by quite a few of the mightiest Olympians; and they implore the king not to let them be dragged from this “many-godded seat.” Even for Lucian, Philo's junior by over a century, the adjective has much the same meaning and, of course, there is no noun.

Type
Symposium in Honor of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 317 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1994

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References

1. The history of “atheistic” etc. is very different. But even here, caution is needed. In De Return Natura 1.23.63, Cicero refers to Diagoras, atheos qui dictus est, “called the Atheist.” Then he tells of the harsh fate of Protagoras, which made many tardius ad hone sententiam profitendam, “more hesitant to profess this opinion.” H. Rackham, the Loeb translator (1951, p 63), renders: “which discouraged many people since from professing atheism.” But no noun “atheism” appears in the original. I may take this opportunity of warning against overgeneralizing the result. “Health” precedes “healthy.” The sequel is obviously “heal,” “health,” “healthy.”

2. The Suppliant Maidens 423 and following.

3. 204 and following.

4. Zeus the Tragedian 14: polytheotatos, superlative of polytheos. Well translated in Loeb by Harmon, A.M., Lucian, vol 2, 1915, p 111Google Scholar, “packed with gods.” He notes the allusion to Homer, Iliad 8.5, where a most self-confident Zeus addresses “all gods and all goddesses.”

5. Philo 61.170 and following.

6. 39.214.

7. Questions and Answers on Genesis 4.2, concerning Genesis 18.2.

8. 17.485 and following.

9. Philo, Supplement I, Questions and Answers on Genesis, 1953, p 274Google Scholar.

10. Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.2, concerning Exodus 22.20.

11. Questions and Answers on Exodus 2.36, concerning Exodus 24.8.

12. Philo, Supplement II, Questions and Answers on Exodus, 1953, p 78Google Scholar.

13. Deut 23.1 and following.

14. The allegorizations occur in other places but without the actual words “polytheistic” and “polytheism.” Allegorical Interpretation III 3.8: eunuch = without the soul that generates belief in God, bastard = deserter from the One God. Unchangeableness of God 24.111: eunuch = living for pleasure, unable to hear God. Drunkenness 51.213: eunuch = living for pleasure with no wisdom. Dreams II 27.184: eunuch = living for pleasure. Decalogue 2.8: the bastards = idolaters. Special Laws I 60.325 and following. Philo first offers his literal interpretation: 23.2 bans him who makes himself a eunuch, 23.3 both the harlot and her children. Then he notes that these two provisions are particularly susceptible of figurative exposition; and finally that eunuch = denying Forms or even God, a harlot's children = affirming a multitude of rulers, a “polyarchy.” Polyarchy, it will be remembered, gets bad marks from Thucydides, Xenophon and Josephus.

15. 28.144.

16. Gen 11.5.

17. For example, Deut 14.1.

18. Gen 42.11.

19. 12.64 and following.

20. Lev 11.42.

21. 12.69.

22. 37.205.

23. Reminiscent of the passages from Lucian cited above.

24. 6.2.15.

25. Anecdota 19.11.

26. 11.26.

27. Jewish Antiquities 19.4.4.257.

28. Though the fuller form remains possible—just as in the German case. As it happens, Procopius employs it in Anecdota 19.11 quoted above: among the misdeeds for which Justinian got wealthy guys prosecuted is support of the “green party,” merous prasinou.

29. Josephus (Loeb), Vol 9, 1965, p 333.

30. Maybe it would be best to put “of the so-called green” with a footnote: Scilicet green faction.