Abstract
In this lecture we will address hosiotēs, one of the ancient Greek words that refers to "piety". Hosiotēs was a key notion in classical Greek religion, reflecting a core value in Athenian democracy. The term refers to what humans should do to please the gods and to obey (unwritten) religious norms. By using methods from modern linguistics, I will show that the meaning of hosiotēs, usually considered as highly problematic and paradoxical in the scholarly literature, is in fact straightforward. Contrary to what has been argued, the word hosios does not have two radically opposed meanings ("sacred" and "profane"). We will compare the notion of hosiotēs withnear-synonymous key notions, such as eusebeia (another word for piety), dikaiosonē (justice) and themis (also referring to unwritten norms). Finally, we will examine what it means when Greek authors say that gods, too, are hosios.
