Kyrios and despotes: addresses to deities and religious experiences

Abstract

: Addresses to deities as kyrios/a and despotes ( “ master ” or “ lord ” ) top a list that encompasses a rich lexicon of divine rulership. My study tackles two combined issues raised by these two onomastic attributes: (1) do they betray mainly the memory of a more peculiar and closer religious experience of deities than do other addresses? (2) to what extent do the two terms express a prominent status of the experienced deities leading towards a “ henotheistic ” interpretation, as usually conceptualized by modern research? The collection and study of epigraphic testimonies invited me to distance my conclusions from both the three features generally recognized when deities are praised thus (slave ’ s submission, oriental flavor and henotheism) and current interpretations that treat the two terms as synonymous, as if expressing the same kind of experience of the deity. In the three geographical – thus cultural – areas under scrutiny, where these ritual epithets are the more numerous (the Levant, Thracia and its surroundings, and Egypt), any divine power is implicitly kyrios in his/her own sanctuary. Despotes might be a better candidate for advocating an evolution towards a hierarchical/henotheistic conception of the pantheon and its expression in specific religious experiences.