Saving the Community

In contrast to Christianity, the Greek concept of soteria had an important public dimension as well as a private one. This chapter investigates the wide-ranging power of ‘saviour’ gods in the lived religious experience of Greek communities. Drawing on honorific decrees, dedicatory inscriptions, so-called sacred laws, and epiphanies and miracles performed by the gods, it explores the full range of saving experiences and concerns of communities at various levels (Panhellenic, polis, sub-polis). Under what circumstances, and with what expectations, did the Greeks establish cults of ‘saviours’? How were communal experiences of divine deliverance commemorated, propagated, and exploited by Hellenistic cities in inter-state competitions? It also examines the growth of festivals called Σωτήρια‎ in various parts of the Greek world, which celebrated the power of their ‘saving’ gods on the one hand and the special ‘protected’ status of the polis concerned on the other.