Major

Lecture Greek Religion

I want to start by pointing out that the term religion is problematic. The Greeks themselves had no word equivalent to religion

Religion comes from the Latin word religare meaning ‘to bind’. The idea of religion is a modern concept and what we understand as ‘religion’ has been shaped by the history of Christianity. In a very real sense there is no such thing as religion.

We tend to think of religion as a total system covering an organisation such as a church, a set of beliefs, an ethics, a set of religious practices. Modern world very much gives a priority to belief.

Ancient Greek ‘religion’ was totally unlike our modern understanding of religion. In what does religion consist? Beliefs, Rituals, Relationship to God(s)?

The Greeks had a whole range of practices and beliefs but they did not necessarily form a consistent whole. There is no Bible or Koran. There are no equivalents to prayer books or liturgies. (In Athens a liturgy was something that a rich Athenian funded, such as a chorus at a drama festival. The ecclesia was just the Assembly)

The Greeks, like the Romans, valued what can be described as piety, honouring the Gods and behaving accordingly. Hence, they were highly disturbed by behaviour that transgressed proper ways of acting. This could include something like chopping down a sacred olive tree.

Practice rather than belief was what mattered.

The sources are therefore more scattered than for other matters. Many of them are relatively late or early.

Firstly there are the stories about the Gods and the heroes, many of which are to be found in Homer and Hesiod. These are the sorts of things to which we tend to be attracted.

[116] Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all 4 the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether 5 and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love.

THE CASTRATION OF URANUS

[134] But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and

lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.

1. And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her. 7 Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae 8 all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes 9 because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.
2. For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.

https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html

There is a violence and harshness in some of these stories that we might not normally associate with religion.

The Olympian Gods ruled by Zeus are not really all that Interested in human affairs, in the sense of their behaviour towards human beings. Hence Xenophanes (6th century) claimed:

"Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are a shame and a disgrace among mortals, stealings and adulteries and deceivings of one another"

http://www.crandallu.ca/courses/grphil/Xenophanes.htm

The Gods and Goddesses range across the whole of nature. Zeus is a Sky God but there are Gods or spirits for all the rivers and various other natural features of Greece.

There are also heroes, such as Hercules, son of Zeus and Alcmene, who was called on to carry out a number of tasks. He had a sanctuary at Marathon where the Athenians held an annual festival in his honour. For the Athenians another hero was Theseus . He also was seen at Marathon.

New Gods could be added to those already being worshipped. Pan and Boreas were added to the list at Athens in the fifth century.

Deities were anthropomorphic as they were seen to have human form, although they could also shift to animal form as well. This was recognised by Xenophanes:

Fr. 16: The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair.

http://www.greek-islands.us/greek-gods/zeus/zeus.jpg

http://www.glogster.com/media/2/5/61/66/5616608.jpg

How then did these stories relate to the actual religious practices of the Greeks?

Religion was about communal activity, not individual belief. It was intertwined with family, neighbourhood and civic activity. It was not separate from what we would today call politics. Civic festivals for the coming of age of young citizens, ephebes, into their demes in Athens or welcoming new wives and children into their tribes were both religious and civic in nature.

There was no ‘freedom of religion’ in Athens.

There is a speech by Lysias defending a man accused of removing the stump of a sacred olive tree from his land; these were meant to be offshoots of the olive tree originally planted by Athene on the Acropolis. Death was the penalty for destroying these stumps. In this speech the accused argues that there was no stump there in the first place

https://cmuntz.hosted.uark.edu/texts/lysias/7-defense-in-the.html

The Gods were meant to be honoured by their temples which were meant to be their homes. They were built to honour the Gods and thereby to earn their favour. One of the primary ways in which the Gods could be honoured was through sacrifice.

The main sacrifice was food, often an animal, anything from cattle to pigs but often a sheep or a goat. The altar would be outside the temple. There would be a procession towards the altar. Young women would carry the basket which contained the sacrificial knife. Water would be poured on the head of the animal to make it assent to the sacrifice. Then the beast would be stunned and the knife plunged into its throat with the blood spurting out onto the altar. Women would utter a ritual scream and then the animal would be butchered by a man. One portion would be offered to the Gods, the rest would be boiled and distributed to the participants. Those officiating would get the tastiest bits (offal) and someone would see what omens were contained in the liver.

• was not always the case that the offering would take the form of meat. On other occasions an amount of wine, a libation, would be poured on the ground as a sacrifice.
• sacrifice was a communal activity that had enjoyable elements. It allowed one to honour the Gods and also to eat meat. This was paid for by the polis and the polis would have communal dining rooms.

http://www.lessing-photo.com/p2/100303/10030309.jpg

http://www.magisterwebb.com/imagines/museums/upenn/sacrifice.jpg

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/sacrifice.htm

In Athens religion was regulated by the assembly which admitted new cults, and determined salaries and other conditions for cultic officials. They considered the accounts of temple treasuries and incomes. Religion was a state matter. The Panathenaea was celebrated annually and included competition and prizes including 1,000 drachma crown and 500 drachmas cash for the winner of the kitharode, performer of Homeric epic.

The Great Panathenaea was held every four years and included athletic and equestrian events, sailing events and a dance performed in full body armour and Athenian youths and maidens singing sacred songs in honour of Athena.

A special group of young women would weave a special garment a peplos which was meant to be a birthday present for Athena.

The festival culminated in a thysia the procession of the sacrificial animas which be led to the slaughter. It would nod its head in assent after having barley thrown in its face and then it would be knocked down and its throat slit. It was important that the animal be killed in the correct ritual fashion.

One of the primary objectives of religion was to keep the Gods working in one’s favour. This was a world that could not be controlled, or the illusion of control created. Life could be precarious, cities could be conquered and individuals enslaved.

Oracles were one way of attempting to find out what the future held in store. Even today we have fortune tellers, astrology and other means of trying to predict what will happen.

The most famous oracle was at Delphi. There the Pythia was a virgin who served Apollo. This is how Diodorus Siculus describes the origins of Delphi

26 Since I have mentioned the tripod, I think it not inopportune to recount the ancient story which has been handed down about it. It is said that in ancient times goats discovered the oracular shrine, on which account even to this day the Delphians use goats preferably when they consult the oracle. 2 They say that the manner of its discovery was the following. There is a chasm at this place where now is situated what is known as the "forbidden" sanctuary, and as goats had been wont to feed about this because Delphi had not as yet been settled, invariably any goat that approached the chasm and peered into it would leap about in an extraordinary fashion and utter a sound p311quite different from what it was formerly wont to emit. 3 The herdsman in charge of the goats marvelled at the strange phenomenon and having approached had the same experience as the goats, 17 for the goats began to act like beings possessed and the goatherd began to foretell future events. After this as the report was bruited among the people of the vicinity concerning the experience of those who approached the chasm, an increasing number of persons visited the place and, as they all tested it because of its miraculous character, whosoever approached to spot became inspired. For these reasons the oracle came to be regarded as a marvel and to be considered the prophecy-giving shrine of Earth. 4 For some time all who wished to obtain a prophecy approached the chasm and made their prophetic replies to one another; but later, since many were leaping down into the chasm under the influence of their frenzy and all disappeared, it seemed best to the dwellers in that region, in order to eliminate the risk, to station one woman there as a single prophetess for all and to have the oracles told through her. And for her a contrivance was devised which she could safely mount, then become inspired and give prophecies to those who so desired. 5 And this contrivance has three supports and hence was called a tripod, and, I dare say, all the bronze tripods which are constructed even to this day are made in imitation of this contrivance. 18 In what manner, then, the oracle was discovered and for what reasons the tripod was devised I think I have told p313at sufficient length. 6 It is said that in ancient times virgins delivered the oracles because virgins have their natural innocence intact and are in the same case as Artemis; for indeed virgins were alleged to be well

suited to guard the secrecy of disclosures made by oracles. In more recent times, however, people say that Echecrates the Thessalian, having arrived at the shrine and beheld the virgin who uttered the oracle, became enamoured of her because of her beauty, carried her away with him and violated her; and that the Delphians because of this deplorable occurrence passed a law that in future a virgin should no longer prophesy but that an elderly woman of fifty should declare the oracles and that she should be dressed in the costume of a virgin, as a sort of reminder of the prophetess of olden times.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/16B*.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/delpipythia.jpg

The problem is that it appears that there was no actual chasm or emanations from the rocks underneath. The words uttered by the oracle were notoriously ambiguous and not necessarily correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToVeoUzhR0Q

Lead tablets discovered at another shrine at Dodona in North West Greece give an indication of what ordinary people asked of an oracle:

• To what God should I sacrifice if I want to recover my eyesight?
• Has someone stolen my blankets and pillows?
• Am I the father of this child?
• How can we have a child?

There were a range of religious practices, including the Eleusinian Mysteries which took place just outside Athens at Eleusis. Ceremonies were meant to elaborate on the mysteries that apparently offered happiness in the after life.

Slaves could participate in these mysteries but generally there was little in the way of religion for slaves. This was because religion was designed as practices for the members of a community of which slaves were not part.

Another practice involved attending sanctuaries looking for cures for diseases. This involved the god Asclepius.

As noticed earlier there were criticisms of religious practices and beliefs, especially by the intellectual elite. It is possible that Anaxagoras and Protagoras were prosecuted for impiety. Certainly this was the basis of the charges laid against Socrates. It dangerous to be seen as someone who did not conform religiously. One issue regarding Socrates was that he consulted his own personal daemon

When the Athenian ships leave for Sicily there is the mutilation of the Herms and the parody of the Eleusinian mysteries, both of which could be linked to the ultimate failure of the Sicilian campaign. This is well documented especially by Andocides’ speech On the Mysteries. These two events caused panic leading to the execution of many people. Andocides’ trial was held over 15 years later.

https://symbolreader.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/h-herm.jpg?w=640

It was still dangerous to neglect or mock the Gods at times when bad things happened.