Download Religion in Ancient Greece

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Religion in Ancient Greece
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 While politically divided, Greece was surprisingly culturally unified
 Evidenced most by
Same language
Same religion
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Gods and Goddesses
 Anthropomorphic
Possess human characteristics (virtues and failings)
 The gods did not make the world, but live within it
 called hoi athanatoi, or the deathless ones
 Do not love humans, nor do they ask to be loved by them – their actions seem to
support this
 Struggle for power amongst one another
 Are capricious (fickle)
– unexplainably
sudden changes in
mood or behaviour
Role of Gods in Universe
 Control everything
Movement of stars and planets down to success or failure of crops
 Gods for everything in universe
Pantheon of Gods
 12 major gods
not the only gods just the most widely recognized and important
 Known as Olympian Gods
Lived on Mount Olympus in northern Greece
 honoured at festivals on a regular basis
 Temples built to their honour pepper Greece
Name the 12 Olympians and what they are the god/goddess of
 Zeus – god of sky and chief among the gods
 Hera – goddess of marriage and childbirth
 Poseidon – god of the sea and earthquakes
 Demeter – earth mother; goddess of fertility and crops
 Hestia – goddess of the hearth
 Athena – goddess of wisdom and skills
 Apollo – sun god and the god of music, harmony and order
 Artemis – goddess of hunting and the moon
 Hermes – messenger of the gods
 Aphrodite – goddess of beauty and love
 Hephaestos – god of metalwork
 Ares – god of war
 Hades – god of the underworld, and Dionysus – god of wine and drama – are not
counted among the Olympians
Practice of Religious Beliefs
 practice on an individual basis
 To invoke any god, you would travel to one of the many shrines, altars, or temples
Say a prayer, and or leave a small gift
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Why invoke a God?
 Appeal to a god because of an:
Illness
Bad harvest
Upcoming battle
Joyous occasion
Marriage
birth
Mostly hoping for a gods blessing
Or to avoid punishment
How to offer a prayer
 Stand alone
 Arms outstretched towards the sky
 Speak out in a loud and clear voice
 Anyone could call on a god directly
Had no powerful class of priests
No organized “church”
No religious teachings or laws
Priests/
Priestesses
 Did not dress or live differently from other Greeks
 Job took up little of their time
 Came almost exclusively from upper classes
Mostly hereditary
 Job held little political authority or economic gain
 Duties included:
presided over special rituals
Took care of temples
Their duty was to carry out a ceremony/ritual
duty did not include preaching morality
One group traveled and preached to the poor
Oracles
 Gods spoke through specific people
Priests or priestesses at particular shrines
 consulted to find answers to pressing questions
 Anyone could approach an oracle
 Most famous oracle?
Oracle of Apollo at Delphi
Delphi
 Delphi dates back to 1400 B.C., oracle dates to around 8th c. B.C.
Visited by Greeks and non-Greeks
No major decision made without consulting Delphic oracle
 Temple built around a sacred spring
 Considered to be the omphalos (“navel”) of the world
 The Pythia (priestess of Apollo)
Went into a trance and uttered messages (usually cryptic) from Apollo
Sat on a tripod inhaling hydrocarbon gases (naturally occurring in area)
Seeped up through fissure in earth
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Seeped up through fissure in earth
Answers put into coherent, but ambiguous from by prophētai (“interpreters”)
 Delphi became like a treasury as Greek states sent gifts to keep the oracle on their
side
 Used until 4th c. A.D.
Omens, Curses and Superstition
 Any rare, natural occurrence (thunderstorm, earthquake, or eclipse) – sign of good or
bad luck
 When misfortune befell you
First move was to find out which god you had offended
 Would often pour a few drops of wine on the floor as libation to the gods before
drinking
 Dreams were of profound significance
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Festivals
 Frequently held all across Greece
 Honoured the gods
 Involved:
Sacred processions
Religious ceremonies
Carnivals
Dancing and singing
Feasting and drinking
Competitions were also important
Could compete in drama, oratory, music, or sports
 Athens had over 60 festivals each year
Panathenaea
 Largest festival in Athens
Honouring Athena
 In event was a massive procession to the Acropolis
Gihugic ship led the procession
Carried a sacred robe for the statue of Athena (laid on her knees as offering)
Following the ship were:
Girls carrying baskets of scents and jars of wine
Boys carrying pitchers
Old men waving olive branches
Sheep and cattle for sacrifice
Olympic Games
 Festival honouring Zeus
Every 4 years, lasting 5 days
 Held from 776 B.C. – 396 B.C., at Olympia
 Contests of athletic skill were those engaged in by Homeric heroes (chariot racing,
running, wrestling, boxing, javelin throwing, discuss)
Chance to display heroic qualities
 Originally participation reserved wealthiest
reforms made it possible for any free men and boys to enter games
Potters could compete against wealthy landowners
 Winning based on abilities (meritocracy)
 Approx. 40,000 in attendance
 Women could not compete or even act as spectators (under pain of death)
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 Women could not compete or even act as spectators (under pain of death)
 Victors crowned with wreath of wild olive, and received fame throughout Greece
Also often received financial reward on return home
Winning would be highlight of one’s life
Olympic Games Schedule
 Day 1
Sacrifices, oaths and checking of athletes
 Day 2
Morning: Equestrian events
Afternoon: Pentathlon, quoits (players throw rig of stone/metal at a peg), sprint,
wrestling, long jump, javelin
 Day 3
Morning: Religious observances
Afternoon: Boys’ events
 Day 4
Morning: Track events
Afternoon: Wresting, boxing, and racing in armour
 Day 5
Banquet and sacrifices
Panhellenic Games
 Drew people from all over Hellas
 4 major games:
Olympic Games (for who and where)
Pythian Games for Apollo at Delphi (582 B.C.)
Isthmian Games for Poseidon near Corinth (581 B.C.)
Nemean Games for Zeus at Argos (573 B.C.)
 Olympic games and Pythian Games were biggest attractions
 Staggered so there would be one major game every 2 years
Oil and Strigil
 most often used by athletes
 Applied oil to body before competing
Kept dirt out of pores
 Strigil (curved metal tool) was used to scrape oil and accumulated dirt of body
 Scented oils also used
Accompanied by use of strigil
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Death and Afterlife
 Hermes led deceased to the River Styx
Divide b/w worlds of the living and dead
 Charon waited to ferry souls across into the underworld (Hades)
Two coins over the eyes to pay Charon for boat ride
Underworld
 Cerberus, underworlds watchdog, stands at entrance
Prevents those entering from leaving
 Judges of the dead assign each ghost to his appropriate place
 Details vary
Hades generally seen as a dreary place
Shadowy and cheerless existence
Elysian Fields – the blessed realm
 Paradise of the heroes and virtuous people
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 Paradise of the heroes and virtuous people
 In the underworld (virtuous people) or far in the west (heroes)
 Eternity in the company of other heroes
 Beautiful surroundings
 Heroic pursuits of hunting and banqueting
Seriousness of Religion – Alcibiades and the Mutilation of the Herms (415
B.C.)
 Herms
Stone pillar bearing images of the face and phallus of Hermes
Stood outside homes and temples, and at crossroads (like in the Agora)
Associated with good luck
 One spring morning in 415 B.C., was discovered that all herms of Athens were
mutilated and castrated
Result: anxiety, dismay, and rumours that there was a plot to overthrow gov’t
Seen as bad omen for naval expedition to invade Sicily (during Peloponnesian War),
that was supposed to leave that morning
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Seriousness of Religion – Alcibiades and the Mutilation of the Herms (415
B.C.) Cont.
 Alcibiades(relative of Pericles) , politician and general, was accused (by political
enemies)
Was known rule breaker/troublemaker
Charged with sacrilege (had also apparently mocked religious mysteries at private
house party)
Allowed to set sail before trial, but his enemies had him formally charged (trial
begun) after he left for Sicily
Alcibiades defected to Sparta, and became and military advisor aiding them in war
against Athens
Hellenistic Greek Religion
 Greek religion (like most polytheistic religions) wasn’t discriminatory
Practiced syncretism (identifying their own gods with gods of other peoples)
Flexible and allowed for reshaping
 As Greek culture spread (result of Alexander the Great) and made contact with other
religions practices and beliefs changed
 This most easily seen in Hellenized Egypt
Egyptian gods take on characteristics of Greek Gods
Ptolemy I had Egyptian priest Manetho and Athenian ritual expert Timotheus create
new patron god for Alexandria
Sarapis – combined Egyptian and Greek elements (Hades, Osiris, Dionysus and
Zeus
 Greeks incorporated cults of Isis and Osiris into their religious practices
Isis (identified with Aphrodite, Demeter, and Athena) becomes queen of the
universe, benefactress of all people, and creator of civilization
 The word “Greeks” comes to refer to those of Greek culture not Greek birth
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