Building the Supernatural: The Cult of Glykon of Abonuteichos From Lucian of Samosata to Cognitive Science

We can argue that the making and the spread of the cult of Glykon of Abonuteichos can be explained through a cognitivist template. Lucian of Samosata’s Pseudomantis booklet and the material evidence, which testifies to the building and the spread of Glykon’s cult by Alexander of Abonuteichos, belong to a historical context characterized by instability, deadly epidemics and military pressure. It is a historical context, therefore, in which people feel reality with anxiety; one of the reactions is the growing up of the belief in prophylactic and prophetic cults, capable to protecting and forecasting. Since Lucian had pointed out that fear and hope were the forces that dominated the lives of men, just as the same had denounced that Alexander of Abonuteichos was ready to exploit those forces to his advantage, the cult of Glykon could be labeled as a trick. However, cognitive science and specifically the hard-wired brain circuit research may offer an alternative explanation: the interaction between potential risk of low probability, but high impact events (unstoppable irruptions of the Germans, or generalized impotence against the spread of disease) can impact on the hard-wired brain circuit activity capable of keeping social and individual anxiety, implicitly conditioning mentality and behavior of a religious “entrepreneur” and consumers, both concerned about protection and forecasting, fear and hope.