Belief in belief and divine kingship in early Ptolemaic Egypt: the case of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Arsinoe II
One of the main questions accompanying the phenomenon of deified kings in the Graeco-Roman world is whether people actually believed in the divine nature of their potentates. Taking Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his sister/wife Arsinoe II as a case of study, I argue that even though divine kingship wa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Společnost
[2015]
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| In: |
Religio
Year: 2015, Volume: 23, Issue: 1, Pages: [3]-23 |
| Further subjects: | B
Deification
B Ptolemaic Egypt B Arsinoe II B divine kingship B Ptolemy II B belief in belief |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | One of the main questions accompanying the phenomenon of deified kings in the Graeco-Roman world is whether people actually believed in the divine nature of their potentates. Taking Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his sister/wife Arsinoe II as a case of study, I argue that even though divine kingship was a political development that sought to establish a dynasty and, hence, political stability within a Hellenistic kingdom, it nevertheless generated a kind of belief. Drawing on Daniel Dennett's notion of 'belief in belief', I suggest that in the case of Ptolemaic Egypt believing in the belief that Ptolemy II and his sister/wife were divine was a possible 'religious' reaction by the people of Egypt. Such an approach suggests that the phenomenon of divine kingship generated a kind of response that must not be overseen or rejected solely on the basis of the political agendas that in principle motivated such practices, as most scholars have traditionally argued. |
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| ISSN: | 2336-4475 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religio
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| Persistent identifiers: | HDL: 11222.digilib/134551 |