This might be a stupid question but I genuinely don't know the difference between hellenism and paganism. I believe they're different I just don't know how😖😖😖
all hellenists are pagans but not all pagans are hellenists. paganism is a pretty broad term, there are different types of pagans such as hellenists, witches, norse pagans, wiccans, and other pagan groups
Hellenism is a subset of Paganism
Paganism (in the modern meaning of the word) is just pre Abrahamic religions or religions based on ancient beliefs.
Hellenism is one.
Wiccan is another.
Nordic Paganism aswell
You get the point.
Obviously, Paganism originally meant every religion besides Abrahamic ones, so We Pastafarianians and religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and even Atheism and Agnosticism would also be Pagan (by Atheism and Agnosticism, im referring to it in general, tho there are Atheist Pagans, tho they are a minority) but now that definition of the word isn't used often (only used by evangelical christians).
So yeah, I hope this helps!
This exact thing lol 😆
you know how there are different branches of Christians? Paganism is kind of like that,not every pagan is hellenic, but every hellenic is pagan Example: Catholics, Mormons, Angelicanism... you get the point
Paganism is an umbrella term that covers many different types of pre-Christian religions and belief systems.
Hellenism is a type of paganism that primarily focuses on the Greek deities.
They are completely different things. Paganism is an umbrella term for polytheistic religious traditions.
Hellenism is a term that denotes and refers to Greek culture. Please see below for a concise historical summary. Hellenism isn’t a religious term.
“The term Ελληνισμός (Hellenism) was used in antiquity first by the grammarians and Strabo to denote "correct Greek." Then in biblical passages, it means "Greek habits;" in the Acts of the Apostles (6:1; 9:29), the term Hellenistai means more than just "those who act in a Greek way," probably something like Greekness in our modern sense of the word, that is, Greek culture.
In modern times, the nineteenth-century ancient historian J.G. Droysen, in his Geschichte der Hellenismus (History of Hellenism), gave the term a special flavor: It now meant not just "correct Greek" but was applied more widely to "the fusion of Greek and oriental." Droysen associated the word "Hellenismus" with the period of the maximum diffusion of Hellenism, when the Greeks with Alexander and his successors visited distant oriental places. This is the so-called "Hellenistic Age," that is, the period between Alexander's accession to the throne, 336 BC, and the victory of Octavian (later Augustus) at Actium in 31 BC. SO in its Latin/German use, the term came to be applied to a period of history and referred no longer to a process.
In English, on the other hand, "Hellenism" has never been limited to the Hellenistic Age, whereas "Hellenistic" is not an adjective corresponding semantically to the noun "Hellenism," but rather refers to the Hellenistic Age. The current consensus among scholars, such as Walter Burkert and Martin West, on ancient Greek religion or Sarah Morris on ancient Greek art, is that "Hellenismus," that is, the "fusion of Greek and oriental" in its Latin/German form, is not restricted to the Hellenistic Age. Oriental influences in art and religion are to be found at very early stages and are not distinctive to the Alexandrian period. Hellenism, therefore, needs to be revisited now.
What is missing is the sense of classification on whether Hellenism is an ethnic, political, or cultural category. Yet, classification was not an issue in earlier centuries, and modern ideas cannot be retroactively applied to antiquity, when there was no real concern for the performance of ideas. Still, we may examine the complexity of Hellenism and map its diachronic pathways.
As our study shows, the term "barbarian" was not an ethnic term. The classification Greek/barbarian is a soft and permeable one. There is a development in the difference between Greeks and barbarians. The earlier accounts, such as whether the Macedonians were Greeks, are pseudo-problems, as Simon Hornblower shows in Chapter 2. Yet, during archaic times, there was a static element in the definition of Greekness, an internal structure.
In Hellenistic times, a distinction appears between a political and a cultural Hellenism. There are multiple Hellenisms during the same period: Sicilian, Egyptian, in Seleucid Asia, etc. The existence of these various Hellenisms undermines any objective criteria by which Hellenism is defined and the emphasis is now given to what the people themselves thought was Greek. Seleucids and Egyptians bestowed the denomination "Greek" to certain social classes of the locals, so that, for instance, they could be exempt from paying taxes, whereas barbarians were often paid less or nothing for their services to the "Greeks." Here is an example of the use of cultural characteristics for the benefit of the empire. Cultural Hellenism in the eastern Mediterranean implied autonomy, intermingling, and expansion during the Hellenistic years.
During the period of the Second Sophistic (second century AD), Greece was associated with leisure time and culture. The image of Greece is created during this period, but also the very "structure" and concept of the image. The structure has now two chronological phases; the first sets the norm and the second repeats the norm.
The sense of Hellenism for the Romans was a Utopian project, an ideal community, which did not exist in the past or present, composed of intellectuals. This concept of Hellenism formulated the idea of Hellenism and Greek national identity during the later periods. As a kind of ideological representation of Hellenism, it is aUtopian cultural ideal that presents the intellectuals as leaning towards assimilation and participation. A certain normativity is created, as it acquires the characteristics of a norm widely approved. In Down from Olympus (1996), Susan Marchand presents Hellenic Hellenism as a reflection of Western Hellenism, which still uses concepts that entail normativity. In Japan, there is no concept of ruins, since every 80 years there is reconstruction; there, the normative cultural context was Confucianism. For the Western world, the normative cultural context is the artistic, dramatic, and philosophical output of the Greeks, that is, the concept of Hellenism for the Westerners. As Japan is to China, so was Athens to Hellenism and Europe.”
Zacharia, K. (2016). Introduction. In Hellenisms: Culture, identity, and ethnicity from Antiquity to modernity. Routledge.
Hellenist s are people who believe the Greek deities exist pagan is a term Christian’s use to categorise groups of people who believe in polytheistic pantheons of gods
"Pagan" is not a "Christian's term". Academics like Ronald Hutton and Michael York, neither of whom is a Christian, use it.
Pagan is a term derived from the latin for rural; it refered (or refers) to folk belief as opposed to organized religion. Hellenistic is divided into two groups, ancient and classical. Ancient hellenistic culture is mythical and pagan, classical hellenistic culture was developed by city states; most notably Athens. It is philosophy and drama.
You mean Hellenic, not Hellenistic
sure
Hey there! Looks like you're new to Hellenism. Got questions? Check out our…
community wiki
We also recommend you read our About page and use the search bar to find more information. Our sub's rules and resources are located on our sub's sidebar.
Happy researching! |
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.