Belief in Belief and Divine Kingship in Early Ptolemaic Egypt: The Case of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Arsinoe II

Autor(en)

Nikolaos Roumpekas

Abstrakt

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 po- tentates. 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 gener- ated 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 over- seen or rejected solely on the basis of the political agendas that in principle motivated such practices, as most scholars have traditionally argued.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Religionswissenschaft

Journal

Religio: Revue pro religionistiku

Band

23

Seiten

3-23

Anzahl der Seiten

21

ISSN

1210-3640

Publikationsdatum

2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

603908 Religionsgeschichte, 603909 Religionswissenschaft

Schlagwörter

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/belief-in-belief-and-divine-kingship-in-early-ptolemaic-egypt-the-case-of-ptolemy-ii-philadelphus-and-arsinoe-ii(5f2c0934-e129-42b9-a5fa-9beb29420c2c).html