Cult is thecare (Latin:cultus) owed todeities orsaints and their temples, shrines, or churches; cult is embodied inritual andceremony. Its presence or former presence is made concrete intemples,shrines andchurches, andcult images, includingvotive offerings atvotive sites.
Cicero definedreligio ascultus deorum, "the cultivation of the gods".[1] The "cultivation" necessary to maintain a specific deity was that god'scultus, "cult", and required "the knowledge of giving the gods their due"(scientia colendorum deorum).[2] The nouncultus originates from thepast participle of the verbcolo, colere, colui, cultus, "to tend, take care of, cultivate", originally meaning "to dwell in, inhabit" and thus "to tend, cultivateland(ager); to practice agriculture", an activity fundamental to Roman identity even when Rome as a political center had become fully urbanized.
Cultus is often translated as "cult" without the negative connotations the word may have in English, or with theOld English word "worship", but it implies the necessity of active maintenance beyond passive adoration.Cultus was expected to matter to the gods as a demonstration of respect, honor, and reverence; it was an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion (seedo ut des).[3]Augustine of Hippo echoes Cicero's formulation when he declares, "religion is nothing other than thecultus ofGod."[4]
The term "cult" first appeared inEnglish in 1617, derived from the Frenchculte, meaning "worship" which in turn originated from theLatin wordcultus meaning "care, cultivation, worship". The meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829. Starting about 1920, "cult" acquired an additional six or more positive and negative definitions. In French, for example, sections in newspapers giving the schedule of worship forCatholic services are headedCulte Catholique, while the section giving the schedule of Protestant services is headedculte réformé.
In the specific context of theGreek hero cult, Carla Antonaccio wrote:
The termcult identifies a pattern of ritual behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates.Rituals would include (but not necessarily be limited to) prayer, sacrifice, votive offerings, competitions, processions and construction of monuments. Some degree of recurrence in place and repetition over time of ritual action is necessary for a cult to be enacted, to be practiced.[5]
In theCatholic Church, outward religious practice incultus is the technical term forRoman Catholic devotions orveneration extended to a particularsaint, not to the worship of God. Catholicism and theEastern Orthodox Church make a major distinction betweenlatria, the worship that is offered to God alone, anddulia, which is veneration offered to the saints, including theveneration of Mary, whose veneration is often referred to ashyperdulia.
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