CLST 203 Vocabulary

Abaton

Ground on which no-one was allowed to walk.

Abdication

Renouncing of sovereignty.

Acrophonic

The use of a picture symbol of an object to represent phonetically the initial sound of the object’s name.

Actant

In A.J. Greimas’ parlance, a role played by a character in a narrative.

Aetiology

A story that explains the cause of something.

Agnostic

One who holds that anything beyond material phenomena cannot be known.

Aischrologia

Use of foul language, especially in a ritual context.

Alpbabet

A writing-system in which each letter expresses one phoneme.

Alternate history

A story that proposes a “what if"?” scenario about events that have actually happened.

**Ambrosia

Amphidromia

An Attic festival in which a newborn’s father and friends carried it round the hearth and named it.

Amphithales

(Greek) A child both of whose parents are still living.

Aniconic

A simple material symbol of a deity not shaped into any image or human form.

Anthropomorphic

Treating a deity as having a human form and character.

**Apatheia

Apocrypha

A writing of doubtful authorship or authenticity.

Apologue

(Greek) A law-court speech in self defence.

Aporia

A state of inconclusiveness.

Apostate

One who has abandoned their religious faith, from the Greek aphítamai, “I stand back”

***Apotheosis

**Apotropaic magic

Appeasement

An act designed to pacify someone who is angry.

Aretalogy

A narrative (perhaps as brief as a single epithet) of the miracles performed by a god or hero

Arx

(Latin) A stronghold, castle, citadel or fortress

Asphodel

A lily-like plant said to grow in Elysium

Asylum

A sanctuary for refugees from which they cannot be forcibly taken without sacrilege.

Atheist

One who denies or disbelieves the existence of God.

Atonement

The action of setting at one, or being at one, after discord.

Attic (geography)

The region of Greece whose capital is Athens.

Attribute

A quality ascribed to any person or thing.

***Augur/Augury

**Auspication

Autochthonous

Said of the earliest known dwellers of any country

Avunculate

The special relationship existing in some societies between a maternal uncle and his sister’s son.

Baitylos

(Greek) A meteoric stone, held sacred because it fell from heaven; also the name of the stone swallowed by Cronus.

Barbarian

Someone who does not speak Greek.

Bas relief

A sculpture or carved work in which the figures project less than one half of their true proportions from the background.

Belief

Faith. Trust in someone, often a god or God.

Betrothal

The act of engaging in contract of marriage.

**Blood sacrifice

Sacrifice (which see)

Boundary

That which serves to indicate the limits of anything.

Bride-price

Money paid to a girl’s father in exchange for taking her as one’s bride.

Bronze

An alloy of copper and tin.

Bucranium

An ox-skull, or an architectural ornament representing one.

Cairn

A pyramid of rough stones raised as a marker, often of boundaries.

Canonical

Authoritative, orthodox, standard

Cantharus

A large two-handled drinking cup.

Capital (of column)

The head or top.

Caryatid

A female figure used as a column to support an entablature.

Caveat

A warning, admonition, caution.

**Cella

Censor

One of two magistrates in ancient Rome, who drew up the census of citizens and had the supervision of public morals.

Centaur

A fabulous creature, with the head, trunk and arms of a man, joined to the body and legs of a horse.

Changeling

A child surreptitiously put in exchange for another.

Charter

A written document establishing the foundation of some institution.

Church Fathers

Christian theologians who hammered out the official doctrine of the church over the first few centuries in which is was the official religion of the Roman empire.

Cinnabar

The red form of mercuric sulphide, the most important ore of mercury, often used, as a pigment.

Clue

A ball of thread or yarn; hence that which guides or threads a way through a maze, perplexity, difficulty, intricate investigation , etc.

College (of priests)

An organized society of persons performing certain common functions and possessing special rights and privileges.

Comedy of Innocence

The first stage of a sacrifice, in which the victim is portrayed as consenting to be sacrificed.

Commensality

Eating at the same table.

Communion/Communal

An organic union of persons united by common religious faith and rites.

Conscience

The internal recognition of the moral quality of one’s motives and actions.

Contrapasso

(Italian) Punishment of a sin by a process either resembling or contrasting with the sin itself.

Conversion

The action of turning in mind and feeling to a religious belief or opinion.

Corpus

A complete collection of writings.

Cothurnus

A thick-soled boot reaching the middle of the leg worn by ancient tragic actors.

**Chthonic

Cryptozoology

The study of non-existent animals.

Cuneiform

Wedge-shaped or arrow-headed characters of the ancient inscriptions of Persia, Assyria, etc.

*Cursus honorum

Decipherment

Making out the meaning of anything obscure.

Deism

Belief in the existence of a God with rejection of revelation.

Delirium

Literally, going outside the furrow.

Demigod

The offspring of a god and a mortal.

Dialect

A variety of the language arising from local peculiarities.

Diaspora

A group of people dispersed from their original homeland.

**Di Manes

(Latin)

Divination

Foretelling of future events by supernatural or magical means.

Dogma

A body of opinion or belief, doctrine.

Dokana

(Greek) At Sparta, two upright parallel bars joined towards each end (as symbols of the Dioscuri)

Dowry

A sum of money that a father gives to his daughter’s husband.

Draft-dodger.

One who has avoided compulsory military services.

Drag

Feminine attire worn by a man.

Dragon

A huge serpent or snake.

Dualism

The doctrine that there are two independent principles, one good and the other evil.

Dying god

A god typically from the ancient Near East who dies and is resurrected, e.g. Osiris, Adonis, Zagreus.

Dynasty

A succession of rulers of the same line or family.

**Ekstasis

Egalitarian

Whatever asserts equality.

Eidolon

Phantom. An unsubstantial image, spectre.

*Elysium

Enagisma

(Greek) A sacrifice offered to a hero.

Endocannibalism

Funerary cannibalism.

Endogamy

The custom of marrying only within the limits of a clan or tribe.

Ennead

Any set of nine things.

Envy vs. jealousy

The gods can envy one another, but they are also jealous of human beings, because they are always afraid we may try to overthrow them.

Ephemeral (meaning in Greek)

Subject to what each day brings.

Epigonoi

(Greek) The “afterborn” sons of the Seven against Thebes.

Epithet

An adjective expressing some quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of a person or thing.