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Hellenistic religion is any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the peoples who lived under the influence of ancient Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 culture during the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period describes the era which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia....
 and the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 (ca. 300 BC to 300 ad)The Hellenistic period constitutes one of the most creative periods in the history of religions. It can be described as a time of spiritual revolution in the Greco-Roman world, where old cults died or were completely transformed, and where new religions were born.

Religion saw significant transformations, morphing Classical Greek polytheism
Ancient Greek religion

Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult ....
 into more abstract and philosophical terms, evolving into Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
 by the 3rd century.






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Hellenistic religion is any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the peoples who lived under the influence of ancient Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 culture during the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic period

The Hellenistic period describes the era which followed the conquests of Alexander the Great. During this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its zenith in Europe and Asia....
 and the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 (ca. 300 BC to 300 ad)The Hellenistic period constitutes one of the most creative periods in the history of religions. It can be described as a time of spiritual revolution in the Greco-Roman world, where old cults died or were completely transformed, and where new religions were born.

Religion saw significant transformations, morphing Classical Greek polytheism
Ancient Greek religion

Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult ....
 into more abstract and philosophical terms, evolving into Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
 by the 3rd century. Mystery religion
Mystery religion

Mystery Religions, Sacred Mysteries or simply Mysteries, were "religious Cult of the Graeco-Roman world, full admission to which was restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites."...
s remained popular, indeed the Hellenistic period may be taken to extend into the Roman period
Roman Greece

Roman Greece is the period of History of Greece following the Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth 146 BC until the reestablishment of the city of Byzantium and the naming of the city by the Emperor Constantine I as the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD....
, since the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 was affected by Hellenism to the point of assimilation, re-casting their Ancient Roman religion in Hellenistic terms by interpretatio romana of Greek concepts, until the abolition of the Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremony held every year for the Cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance....
 in 392. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of Mithraism
Mithraism

The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery cult which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD....
, influenced by a Hellenistic flair for Persia, and according to David Ulansey by astrological speculation related to the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes
Precession of the equinoxes

In astronomy, precession refers to a gravitationally-induced slow but continuous change in an astronomical body's rotational axis or orbital path....
 in the 2nd century BCE. Hellenism was fond of astrology
Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
 in general, and the classical Zodiac
Zodiac

Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the heavens through the constellations that divide the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude....
, ascribed to the Chaldeans by the same sympathy for oriental mysticism that gave Mithras his popularity and furthered the rise of Gnosticism
History of Gnosticism

The history of Gnosticism is subject to a great deal of debate and interpretation. The complex nature of Gnostic teaching and the fact that much of the material relating to the schools comprising Gnosticism has traditionally come from critiques by orthodox Christianity make it difficult to be precise about early sectarian gnostic systems, although...
. Hellenistic religion is the context in which Early Christianity
Early Christianity

Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus and the First Council of Nicaea ....
 arose and developed, and Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 as it emerged in the 4th century seamlessly continued many of its characteristics.

See also

  • Christianity and Paganism
    Christianity and Paganism

    This article provides an overview of the relations between Christians and Pagans.Early Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled Paganism....
  • Early Christianity
    Early Christianity

    Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus and the First Council of Nicaea ....
  • End of Hellenic Religion
  • Gnosticism
    Gnosticism

    Gnosticism refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a Nature created by an imperfect god, the demiurge; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, and is contrasted with a superior entity, ref...
  • Hellenistic Judaism
    Hellenistic Judaism

    Hellenistic Judaism was a movement which existed in the Jewish diaspora before the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, that sought to establish a Judaism within the culture and language of Hellenism....
  • Hellenistic philosophy
    Hellenistic philosophy

    Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with Neoplatonism....
  • Hermeticism
    Hermeticism

    Hermeticism is a set of philosophy and Religion beliefs based primarily upon the Hellenistic Egyptian Pseudepigrapha attributed to Hermes Trismegistus who is the representation of the congruence of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes....
  • Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)
    Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)

    The imperial cult in ancient Rome was the worship of a few select Roman Emperors as Roman godss once they were deceased; the only emperor to declare himself a god while still living was Domitian which caused outrage....
  • Magic in the Greco-Roman world
    Magic in the Greco-Roman world

    Magic in the Greco-Roman world is a branch of the disciplines of classics, ancient history and religious studies. In the ancient post-hellenistic world of the ancient Greece and Ancient Rome , the public and private rituals associated with religion are accepted by historians and archaeologists to have been a part of everyday life....
  • Mystery religion
    Mystery religion

    Mystery Religions, Sacred Mysteries or simply Mysteries, were "religious Cult of the Graeco-Roman world, full admission to which was restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites."...
  • Neoplatonism
    Neoplatonism

    Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
  • Sophia (wisdom)
  • Sol Invictus
    Sol Invictus

    Sol Invictus was the Roman official religion sun god created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 and continued, overshadowing other Eastern cults in importance, until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I....