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Herodotus on the cults of the Persians (1)

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01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery






01 Religious and ideological doctrines and imagery



Keywords
gods
Persia
religions
Period
5th century BCE
Greek Classical Age
Channel
Greek philosophers and scholars


Text
Herodotus 1.131:
It is not their custom to make and set up statues and temples and altars, but those who make such they deem foolish, as I suppose, because they never believed the gods, as do the Greeks, to be in the likeness of men; but they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus, and to him they offer sacrifice on the highest peaks of the mountains; they sacrifice also to the sun and moon and earth and fire and water and winds. These are the only gods to whom they have ever sacrificed from the beginning; they have learnt later, to sacrifice to the heavenly Aphrodite, from the Assyrians and Arabians. She is called by the Assyrians Mylitta, by the Arabians Alilat, by the Persians Mithra.


Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Herodotus 1.131

Bibliography

Godley 1960, I 170-171Godley, A. D. Herodotus. 4 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000226.php


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