ABSTRACT
The theory of cognitive dissonance explains the consequences for Athenian religious belief of Athens’ catastrophic defeat in the Lamian War in 322 bce. Athenians could not find in their traditional political theology any explanation for why they suffered unprecedented punishment at this time. In fact, Athenians concluded that the gods had not just permitted but indeed had overseen their sufferings—a point obscured in modern scholarship by a misunderstanding of the text of Plutarch. The Athenian demos therefore experienced an undeniable disconfirmation of their deeply held belief that, if they protected the honors of their patron deities, those gods would provide them with national safety. The severe cognitive dissonance arising from this inexplicable experience motivated Athenians in 307 to declare their human liberators, the Macedonians Demetrius Poliorcetes and Antigonus Monophthalmus, to be savior gods. These events and their aftermath marked a tipping point in the development of the idea of a savior god incarnate in a human body and present on the earth.
