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T. IV, Vol. 1
p315 Pantheon

Article by E. Saglio in

Daremberg & Saglio,
Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines,
Librairie Hachette et Cie., Paris, 1877‑1919.

translation and © William P. Thayer

PANTHEON or PANTHEIUM (Πάνθεον, πάνθειον). — The same sentiment that led to the invocation of all gods and all goddesses in one and the same formula (θεούς πάντας καὶ πάσας)​1 so as to avoid omitting any, also led to the construction of temples and altars to them in common. Pausanias cites one very ancient such temple at Marios in Laconia,​2 and others in Argolis,​3 Messenia,​4 and Arcadia.​5 There were several altars dedicated to all the gods at Olympia,​6 in the sacred wood of Despoina, at Akakesion.​7 The emperor Hadrian consecrated a temple to them at Athens.​8 Others are indicated by inscriptions​9 in Greece, in Asia Minor, in Syria. The mention that is made there of priests and priestesses of all the gods would suffice to establish, in certain places, the existence of similar altars and shrines.

The pantheon of Rome, built by Agrippa, consecrated in 27 A.D.,​10 restored a first time by Domitian,  p316 then by Hadrian after a fire, and finally by Septimius Severus,​11 is still standing. Its founder had erected it in honor of Julius Caesar, whose statue was placed between those of Venus and Mars, the supposed ancestors of his family, with those of other divinities around them, in niches that can still be seen in the interior perimeter of the rotunda [aedicula], fig. 132).12

The Author's Notes:

1 Xen. Anab. V.9.31; Demosth. De coron. init. etc.; many inscriptions. See the examples collected by Hoefer, in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. Pantes theoi.

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2 Paus. III.22.8.

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3 Id. II.25.5.

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4 Id. IV.32.1.

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5 Id. VIII.7.6.

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6 Id. V.14.8 and 15.1; Schol. Pind. Ol. III.60; VIII.12.

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7 Paus. VIII.37.10.

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8 Id. I.5.5 and 18.9.

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9 Hoefer, cited article; S. Wide, Lakonische Kulte, p253; Immerwahr, Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens, I, 250; L. Heuzey, Le Panthéon des Rochers de Philippes, Rev. arch. 1865, t. XI, p449.

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10 Cass. Dio LIII.27; Pliny IX.121; XXXVI.38; Macrob. III.17, 18.

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11 Cass. Dio LXVI.24; Chron. of 354; Oros. VII.12; Hieron. 16.

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12 For the building and its history, see: Desgodetz, Les édifices ant. de Rome, Paris, 1682; Adler, Das Pantheon in Rom, Winckelmannsprogr. Berl. 1871; Lanciani, Notiz. d. scavi, 1881, 1882; Id. Bull. comun. 1892, p562 f.; O. Gilbert, Gesch. u. Topogr. d. Stadt Rom, III, p115 f.; Richter, Topogr. d. Stadt Rom2, 1901, p232; E. Guillaume, Le panthéon d'Agrippa, Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1892, p562 f.; Beltrami, Not. d. scavi, 1892, p88 f.; Id., Il Pantheon, Relazione d. indagini eseguiti nelli anni 1892‑93.

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