NAME: SATYAM KUMAR

ROLL NO. 64
TOPIC: RELIGION IN ATHENIAN GREEK
We observed at the beginning of this chapter that though Greece was not a politically unified entity yet
as a people Greeks shared many cultural traditions. This was special true of Greek religion. The Greeks
had a common religion tradition. Some of their religious beliefs were a part of universal heritage of the
eastern Mediterranean. The basic framework of Greek religion of the Archaic and Classical Periods can
be seen in the Homeric epics. Iliad and Odyssey are not religious texts, but they give almost a complete
picture of Greek religious mythology as it had evolved by the end of the dark ages

The Homeric epics, together with Hesiod's Theogony, carried out the task of systematizing Greek
religion. Greek religion as outlined in Iliad and Odyssey was a religion that was acceptable to the upper
classes. Since Homer was mainly concerned with the doings of the Mycenaean warrior aristocracy he
depicted the religion which was practised by the aristocracy of his own times i. e. later 'dark ages').
Consequently he might have excluded those aspects of Greek religion which were popular at the level of
the poor folk, However the influence of the epics was so great that the version of Greek religion
presented by him had a wide appeal throughout the Archaic and Classical Periods.

Greek religion was pantheistic (pantheism may be defined as 'readiness to believe in all or many gods').
There were twelve main gods. The Greeks believed that these gods lived on Mount Olympus located in
Thessaly Hence they are called Olympian gods. The twelve Olympian deities mentioned in Homer are
Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and
Artemis. O these Hephaestus, Hestia. Demeter Hera Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis were female
deities. Zeus was the head of the pantheon, the king of gods, His weapon was a thunderbolt. Poseidon
was the elder brother of Zeus and the god of the was the son of Zeus and was considered to be sea.
Apollo extremely handsome. Apollo was associated with archery, prophecies, song and music. Hera was
the wife of Zeus. Originally she had been a mother-goddess. Demeter had also on a mother-goddess and
was later worshipped as the goddess of grain, especially wheat. An important festival, the Eleusinian
Festival, was celebrated in her honour in Attica. Eleusis, near Athens, had a large temple of Demeter.
The Greek cities adopted particular gods or goddesses as their patron deities. Athena was the patron
goddess of Athens. This does not mean that the worship of Athena was confined to Athens alone. The
patron deities might enjoy a special status in the respective cities which had chosen them, but they were
worshipped in other states also. Homer portrayed the Olympian divinities as having almost human
characteristics and emotions. LThe gods and goddesses had their loves, their jealousies, their rivalries,
their conflicts and their struggles for power.

Greek religion was not dominated by a priestly class. There were priests, but they did not monopolize
religious rituals and ceremonies. The minor role of the priests had been further reduced by the Classical
Period. Public religious events were the concern of the state. There were some aristocratic clans which
traditionally supplied the priests for these occasions, but over a period of time ordinary citizens too got
the right to conduct official rituals. A few priestly positions became elective posts. It was not always
necessary for specialists in ritual to carry out rites at collective public worship of gods and goddesses,
Public worship took on the shape of festivals in which people from the entire polis, or from an entire
region, would participate. There would be sacrifices of animals and the meat would be distributed
among the participants. Music, theatre, poetry-recitation, and sports were an integral part these
festivals. Greek drama owes its origin to some of these festivals where plays were enacted in the course
of the celebration. The Homeric epics were recited at the festival of Athena (called Tanathenaea') in
Athens. Similarly, the Olympic games were organized at the time of the festival of Zeus held in (the
Olympian plain where this festival was held is in Peloponnese and should not be confused with Mount
Olympus in Thessaly). The Olympian festival was held every four year and was probably well established
by the beginning of the Archaic Period (776 BC is the traditional date of the first Olympiad). Athletic
competitions took place at this festival and attracted contestants from all over Greece. Some of the
other notable festivals where such games were held were the festival of Apollo at Delphi and the festival
of Poseidon in Corinth.

The Greeks constructed temples dedicated to their gods and goddesses. The temples were regarded as
abodes of the respective deities. The worshippers did not go inside the temple for religious ceremonies.
The ritual was performed outside the temple, usually in the open. The construction of elaborate temples
stimulated Greek architecture. Some of the finest examples of classical Greek architecture are the
temples of this period. In the age of Pericles the Athenians produced a number of architectural
masterpieces. A huge temple dedicated to the Olympian deities was built at this time. This temple,
called the Parthenon, is a vast structure with a high roof resting on numerous pillars. The Parthenon was
decorated with beautiful sculpture. Since arches were unknown to Greek architecture, heavy roofs of
large buildings had to be supported by pillars which were placed close to each other. The use of the arch
permits wider space between supporting pillars. This is why buildings like the Parthenon were so
overcrowded with pillars. Nevertheless the Greeks tried to relieve the monotony of the pillars by
introducing varied designs for them. Distinctive styles of pillars came to denote architectural styles, e.g.
Corinthian, Doric and ionic.

Apart from public worship, usually sponsored by the state there were private religious ceremonies in
which individual or families appealed to particular deities for various purposes The ceremony might just
consist of a ritual sacrifice to propitiate a god or goddess. As we have noted there were also mystical
cults which believed in a more personal relationship with the divine. Moreover, there were local deities
and older mother- goddess cults which coexisted with the Olympian gods. The the bull (worship and
sacrifice of bulls), which was cult of widespread in Greece since Minoan times, remained an feature of
Greek religion at all levels.

Another aspects of Greek religion was the practice of seeking intimation of one's future, and advice,
from a god. it Sid mat the gods revealed the future in the form of was held at the signs which could only
be interpreted by specialists. These specialists were associated with certain sacred places called acles.
The oracle at Delphi was famous throughout Greece, he was an ancient shrine of Apollo which had a
stone known the omphalos. The omphalos was regarded by the Greeks as navel or centre of the world.
Apollo was the god of prophecies and oracles and it was he who communicated the will of the gods to
humans through the priests of Delphi. There were other oracles as well.

In the Archaic Period another god was added to the group of Olympian deities. This god was Dionysus.
The rise of the Dionysus cult is one of the most fascinating aspects of Greek religion in this period. The
worship of Dionysus was rooted in the remote past. It was a major cult at the popular level, but was not
patronized by the aristocracy for which reason Homer did not include Dionysus among the Olympian
gods. But it was too powerful a cult to be easily ignored. It is generally recognized that the Dionysus cult
originated among the more primitive communities of Thrace and then spread to other parts of Greece
during the Archaic Period. By the Classical period it had been fully incorporated into Greek religion and
had been endorsed by the ruling classes. There were various of Dionysus. He was the god of wine,
pleasure and intoxication. He was also called Bacchus. Besides, he was the d of tragic art, The Dionysus
cult had a large following Women. The practices of the cult involved drinking of wine, wild dancing, and
going into an ecstatic state. Dionysus was the principal deity of the Orphics. Orphism, with emphasis on
mysticism, represents the mystical side of the Dionysus cult

In the late Archaic Period Dionysus was raised to the status of an Olympian god. The evidence suggests
that at the same time the goddess Hestia was dropped from the Olympian pantheon. In the Classical
Period festivals of Dionysus became major cultural events. Plays, especially tragedies, would-be
performed at these festivals. The Dionysian festivals gave birth to the great tradition of Greek tragedy.
Classical drama reached its peak in the fifth century BC. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were the
masters of tragedy while Aristophanes wrote comedies. The plays made use of Greek myths and legends
for their themes, but some of them also commented on contemporary society. Oedipus the King,
written by Sophocles, is a fine example of the vast literary output of the classical age.