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Title: Rhodian Priests after the Synoecism
Author(s): DIGNAS, Beate
Journal: Ancient Society
Volume: 33    Date: 2003   
Pages: 35-51
DOI: 10.2143/AS.33.0.503594

Abstract :
All textbooks on Greek religion emphasize that priests were not representatives of a religious sphere, that they were rather civic magistrates, fully institutionalized within the secular life of the polis; that the office itself had nothing to do with dogma or expertise, let alone with power. These statements are based on the important observation that a distinction between 'sacred' and 'profane' or between 'religious' and 'secular' introduces a dichotomy alien to Greek thought. This article examines the Rhodian example of such a 'polis-controlled-religion'.

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