DEISIDAIMONIA. - A Greek word meaning "respectful fear, piety toward the gods" (Xenophon, Aristotle), but it is also used with an unfavorable meaning for "the exaggerated fear of the gods and of omens," that is, for a scrupulous religion, uneasy about itself and also superstitious and bigoted.
The portrait that Theophrastus (Characters, XVI) draws of the man who exaggerates and multiplies religious practices and purifications, and lives in terror of omens and impurities, is noteworthy. The practices recalled seem to us moderns superstitious; for the Greeks they were usual rites: in Theophrastus' portrait they are excessive and exaggerated.
Bibliography2 worksH. Bolkestein, Theophrastos' Charakter der D. (Religionsgesch. Vers. und Vorarb., 21, 11), Giessen 1920; P. J. Koets, Διτυλισμωδία. A contri
BIBL.: H. Bolkestein, Theophrastos' Charakter der D. (Religionsgesch. Vers. und Vorarb., 21, 11), Giessen 1920; P. J. Koets, Διτυλισμωδία. A contribution to the knowledge of the religious terminology in Greek, Utrecht 1920.
Banti, Luisa. “Deisidaimonia.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, col. 1334. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/deisidaimonia.
MLA
Banti, Luisa. “Deisidaimonia.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IV, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, col. 1334. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/deisidaimonia.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec4_deisidaimonia,
author = {Banti, Luisa},
title = {Deisidaimonia},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {IV},
pages = {1334},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/deisidaimonia}
}
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