The dissertation describes and analyses the most significant deities of eastern origin in the Black Sea region, a region where many different spheres of cultural and religious influence were displayed. It is a common sense that the Black Sea, a very important geographically area, with important neighboring countries (the Anatolian ones in our case) had and still has access to various religious and cultural notions from all over the world. Among them, the cults of eastern deities were penetrated from East to the Black Sea and managed to play a small or bigger role in the official and private religious life of the Greek colonists.
The paper deals with Cybele, Attis, Mithras and Mên, deities of eastern origin, either Phrygian or Indo-Iranian. The information provided upon their cults stems from archaeological data and epigraphic material, despite the fact that the material for some deities is not so extent. Their emergence begins from the Archaic or Classical Period and continues to the Roman era. The study is divided in four parts, one for each deity, describing the following: their historical background, some elements for their name origin and their functions, their iconography, syncretic characteristics and cult festivals for some of these deities. The last part of each chapter deals with the colonies of the Black Sea region: in which of them their cult appear and in what extent those deities were incorporated or not to the local Greek pantheon.
The examination of the most significant monuments and temples of Cybele, Attis, Mithras and Mên in the Black Sea region would make the target reader realize that the Greek settlers remained faithful to the Greek pantheon but at the same time they “welcomed” more or less the Anatolian cults, mainly, due to their resemblance to the Greek gods. Therefore, it will be obvious through our analysis that Greeks not only affected the eastern religious ideas and cults but were also affected by them, a process that could never be one-sided.
Finally, in order to accomplish our research, texts of ancient sources, images of the most important monuments or sanctuaries and a general map containing all the colonies of the Black Sea region, in which the above deities appear, are added in our dissertation for a better documentation of the discussed issues.
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