Week 6 – Greek Gods and sanctuaries

Readings: Dunstan, chapter 6.

The roots of Greek religion

• Mingling of religious beliefs and practices between the incoming Greek-speaking peoples and the indigenous inhabitants.
• Indo-European sky god (Zeus).
• Also a Cretan sky god (quite different from those of the incomers).
• Homer and Hesiod: major Greek deities were given a home on Mount Olympus.
• The Olympians identified with local deities and assigned as consorts to the local god or goddess.
• Zeus became markedly polygamous (his main wife: Hera, the patron goddess of Argos).

No Greek theology

• Not in the sense of a rationalized exposition of the normative understanding of the gods.
• Homeric epics and Homeric Hymns bring information, but those were not supposed to be comprehensive or authoritative.
• Hesiod’s Theogony provides a creation myth focusing on deified abstractions and explains  how the gods originated and how they acquired their honors.
• But once again, not meant to be authoritative.
• The ranks of the Twelve Olympians resulted from a political decision.
• Most of the gods were originally local.

Zeus and the Olympians

Anthropomorphism

• Anthropomorphic deities (human in form and character).
• Idealized mortals (beauty).
• Larger than life (emotions & powers).
• Extraordinary feats.
• On the other hand: tragically human in pain and sorrows, rivalries, and sins.
• ICHOR runs through their veins
• They drink NECTAR and eat AMBROSIA.
• Proof of their divinity: their immortality.

Olympian deities

• Home of major deities: Mt. Olympus.
• Individual deities frequent favorite cult places.
• Worshiped: temples, statues, altars, animal sacrifices.
• Priests serve them.
• Oracular shrines (Delphi): god's responses to prayers & inquiries of suppliants.

Chthonic deities

• Gods primarily associated with underworld are called CHTHONIC ("of the earth").
• Hades is primarily a chthonic deity: king of the Underworld;
• The same for Persephone (at least when she is with him).
• Hecate and the Furies: other important chthonic deities.

Family of the gods

• Zeus & Hera: king and queen, father and mother.
• Important spheres of power: Zeus (sky), Poseidon (sea) and Hades (Underworld).
• Formerly independently powerful deities transformed into siblings/children of Zeus.
• Zeus’s reign: lasting order and stability.
• Able to maintain his position by giving each Olympian some power.
• Conceived as family (significant).
• Zeus: extensive power, but neither unlimited nor unchallenged.
• Divine family: project Greek human social hierarchies onto Olympus.
• help explain human experience of contradictions and oppositions in life.

• The fourteen deities reduced to a canon of twelve Olympians:

· Aphrodite                  · Apollo

· Ares                          · Artemis

· Athena                      · Demeter

· Dionysus                   · Hephaestus

· Hera                          · Hermes

· Poseidon                   · Zeus

•Hestia and Hades removed.

Zeus and Hera

• Zeus (former sky god) married Hera (originally an earth mother goddess).
• She retains much of her inherent dominance (difficult partner).

Hera

• Patron of married life;
• Offspring: Hephaestus, Ares, Eileithyia, & Hebe.
• Queen of Heaven.
• Retains the Great Goddess’s parthenogenetic ability (Hephaestus).
• Jealous, nagging wife, resentful of Zeus’ powers.
• Virginity renewed every spring (Cretan?).
• Famous cult at Argos.
• Marriage to Zeus permanent & faithful but always tense (patriarchy).
• Try to influence Zeus. 
• Resentment at Zeus’ usurpation of powers formerly her own.
• Frequent opposition.

Zeus

• Unfaithful husband, upbraided and intimidated by a nagging wife.
• But also almighty god of morality and religion.
• Kind of supreme being.
• Indo-European sky god. 
• Storm god (clouds, thunder, and lightning).
• Uncontrollable sexual appetite (Aphrodite).
• His lust = both his “shadow” and his will to dominate.
• Offspring:
• gods (Apollo & Artemis),
• heroes (Perseus and Herakles),
• divine abstractions (Muses & the Graces).

The sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia

• Most important sanctuary of Zeus
• North-western Peloponnese.
• Olympic games (776 BC, Herakles).
• Temple of Zeus, adorned with wonderful culture sculptures.

The sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona

• Northern Greece.
• Oracle of Zeus.
• Private individuals and political representatives came to Dodona with questions of every sort.
• Answer, various omens:
  • rustling sacred oaks’ leaves
  • priestess.

Apollo – Attributes and functions

• Son of Zeus and Leto.
• Twin brother of Artemis.
• Realms: Music, prophecy, medicine, archery, poetry, dance, intellectual inquiry, herds and flocks.
• God of light (Phoebus, “radiant” or “beaming”).
• God of plague.
• Purificator.
• Animals: swan, wolf and dolphin.
• Attributes: bow and arrows, laurel crown, lyre, tripod (prophetic powers).

Apollo – Birth

• Hera (jealous) forced Leto to roam the earth.
• Selter in Delos (floating island).
• Leto thus able to give birth to the divine twins.
• Delos secured to the sea-bed by four columns.
• One of the most important sanctuaries to Apollo.

Apollo – The killing of Python

• His first achievement.
• It protected the sanctuary of Python (Delphi).
• Apollo killed Python with his bow and arrows.
• He then took charge of the oracle.
• Pythian Apollo.
• Bronze tripod; divine powers of the priestesses (Pythia).
• Hallucinating vapors, chewing of laurel leaves.
• Most important oracle center of Apollo.

Athena – Characteristics

• Athena's birth: allegorises:
  • Wisdom from male god;
  • Special bond of affection between them;
  • Championship of heroes and male causes.
• A dread goddess of war, she remained a virgin.

Athena – Appearance

• Aloof kind of loveliness (youthful masculinity).
• Owl & snake.
• Helmet, spear, and shield.
• With a female winged figure (Nike, "victory").
• Victorious war goddess (Athena Nike).

The contest between Athena and Poseidon

• Over control of Athens and Attica.
• Poseidon produced a salt spring or a horse.
• Athena brought forth an olive tree (won).
• Olive: fundamental to Athenian economy and life.
• Poseidon was appeased and continued to be worshipped in Athens.

The Parthenon

• Great temple to Athena Parthenos (Acropolis of Athens, 5th century BC).
• Parthenos, « virgin »: standard epithet of Athena.
• Beautiful Doric temple.
• Included the famous statue of Athena Parthenos.

Athena Parthenos

• This monumental statue of Athena stood in the cella (or naos).
• Gold and ivory.
• Held a figure of Nike (Victory).
• Wore helmet & aegis (with head of Medusa).
• Spear and shield.
• The statue has not survived.

Aphrodite

• Aphrodite arose from the sea, amidst the foam (aphros) from the severed genitals of Uranus.
• Allegorizes the powerful sexuality of her nature.
• She has a double nature (duality)…

The duality of Aphrodite

• Aphrodite Urania:
  • Born from male alone
  • Goddess of pure love: spiritual gratification instead of physical satisfaction.
  • From Uranus: heavenly Aphrodite of philosophy and religion.
• Aphrodite Pandemos:
  • Daughter of Zeus and his mate Dione.
  • Aphrodite Pandemos, « Aphrodite of the People » .
  • Sex & procreation (body).
• Duality: sacred & profane love.

The character of Aphrodite

• Beauty, love, and marriage (great power).
• Universality: everything from hallowed married love to temple prostitution.
• Art: duality and multiplicity.

Artemis – Birth and nature

• Daugther of Zeus and Leto
• Leto bore Artemis and Apollo on Delos.
• She helped in the delivery of her brother.
• Goddess of childbirth (with Hera and Eileithyia).
• Artemis and Apollo closely linked together.

Artemis, Selene and Hecate

• Virgin, yet also fertility goddess:
  • Childbirth
  • Young humans and animals.
• Ephesus: statue with multiple breasts.
• Moon-goddess: women, lunar cycle, menstrual period.
• Above all, virgin huntress, the goddess of nature itself.
• Moon: cold, white, aloof, and chaste.
• Selene: earlier goddess of the moon.
• Hecate: fertility goddess of the Underworld (Fury, black magic).
• Triple-faced statues (three aspects of the moon):
  • Selene (heaven),
  • Artemis (earth) 
  • Hecate (Underworld).

The nature, attributes and worship of Hermes

• Lord of herds.
• Mt. Cyllene and Arcadia: rich in flocks.
• Devious, clever talker, prince of thieves.
• Slayer of Argus.
• Guide of dreams and guide of souls (psychopompus).
• Messenger of the gods.
• Archetypal trickster and master of persuasion.
• Divine messenger who also guides our souls to Hades (psychopompus, “guide of the soul”).
• Traveler & herald:
  • Petasus, broad-brimmed hat.
  • Sandals, often winged.
  • The caduceus, a herald's staff.
• Hermes & Apollo have a great deal in common: both gods of shepherds, flocks, and music.
• Hermes is a teen-age Apollo.

Herms

• Herms (sing: Herm) : rectangular pillar equipped with male genitals and with the head or bust of Hermes on top.
• Brought fertility and good luck.

Dionysus

The nature of Dionysus

• Vegetation (vine, grape, wine, with the exhilaration it can bring).
• Intoxication of nature and of sex.
• The emotional and the irrational:
• fury, fanaticism, and violence,
• ecstasy of mysticism.
• God of life-giving fluid: most difficult to control and liable to change form and nature
• Wine can give pleasure but can also cause disorientation and unrestrained actions.

Dionysian religion

• Both the bestial and the sublime.
• Dance and music: spiritual release.
• The god took possession of his worshipers
• They ate the raw flesh of the sacrificial animal.
• They believed the god to be present in the victim.
• Ceremony: Omophagy.
• Female followers: Bacchae (mortal women possessed by the god).
• Also called Maenads (mythological nymphs).

Dionysus’ followers

• Satyrs: mythological male counterparts of Maenads.
• Part man and part animal: horse's tail and ears, goat's beard and horns.
• Nude, sexually excited.
• Sileni (Silenus in sing.) are also older satyrs, some of whom are wise.

Demeter

• Earth goddess: brings forth the fruits of the earth.
• Art of sowing and ploughing.
• Goddess of planned society.
• Mother of Persephone.
• Persephone abducted by Hades (underworld).
• Demeter wandered the earth in search of her.
• No harvest during this time.
• Deal: with Hades (winter); with Demeter (summer).
• Attributes: fruits of the earth and the torch, snake (earth-creature) and pig (fertility).

Poseidon

• God of the sea.
• Son of Cronus and Rhea.
• One of the three major gods: 
• Poseidon became ruler of the sea,
• Zeus: sky,
• Hades: underworld.
• Also the god of earthquakes and horses.
• Very moody divinity.
• Symbols: dolphins, tridents, and horses.

Hephaestus

• God of fire.
• Son of Hera (alone), married to Aphrodite
• Patron of all craftsmen.
• God of volcanoes.
• Lame god.
• Great craftsman; «odd-job god ».
• Shown as an animated bearded cripple bent over his anvil.
• Ugly.
• Often walks with a stick.

Ares - Mars

• God of war. Son of Zeus and Hera.
• Male aggression & fighting spirit.
• Tall and handsome, but vain and cruel.
• Very unpopular in Greece.
• Mainly worshipped in Thracia.
• Thick Brute: no match against Athena.
• His sister: Eris (Strife).
• His sons: Deimos (Dread) & Phobos (Fright).
• Attributes: shield & sword.

Worship

• Most common public act of worship: sacrifice (of grain or of animals).
• Open-air sacrifices given to the Olympian gods
• Other given to chthonic (earth-bound) gods.
• Olympian sacrifices: therapeia, the "service" due to the Olympian gods.
• Kind of business transaction ("I give that you may give").
• No question of sin or repentance.
• Chtonic sacrifice: darker, nocturnal, fearful, motivated by the fear of spirits.
• Apotropaic magic that turned away or averted the chthonic spirits.

Sacrifice

• Multiple functions; e.g.:
  • before important undertakings,
  • to introduce a new-born child  or a young man.
• Temples: not public gathering places; they held the cult image of the deity and the accumulated votive gifts.
• Victims: mostly food animals (blood, bones, and hide for the gods; the worshippers kept and ate the rest).
• Altars in front of the temple, in the temenos.
• Votive gifts offered to the gods for benefits, to propitiate the gods for crimes, to fulfill a religious vow or to honor some religious custom.
• Worshippers were expecting rain, good harvest, military victories, etc.
• Prayer highly formulaic and ritualized.

Priesthood

• Professional or full-time clergy were exceptions (mostly at the oracles of pilgrimage).
• Priesthoods were frequently ancestral prerogatives.
• No necessary correspondence between the sex of deities and that of priests.

Temples

• In the earliest times: groves, caves, or mountain tops.
• In the Mycenaean times: in the king's palace.
• Temenos: the precinct allotted to the deity, containing the altar, temple and other sacral features.
• Temples were already known in Homeric times (of wood and simple design).
• End of the 7th century BC: replaced by stone temple, with rows of columns on all sides.
• Image placed in the central chamber (cella).
• No ritual associated with the image itself.

Festivals

• Among the more elaborate: the Panathenaea, celebrated at high summer.
• Every fourth year: the Great Panathenaea.
• Athenians provided the ancient wooden image of Athena with a new robe woven by the wives of Athenian citizens.
• The Great Panathenaea included a procession, a torch race, athletic contests, mock fights, and bardic recitations.
• Other example: the Great Dionysia (spring) with procession and dramatic contests.

The Olympic Games

• Great festival of Zeus held every fourth summer.
• A truce was proclaimed.
• Sacrifice and libation at the altar of Zeus, at the tomb of Pelops and the altar of Hestia.
• Processions, bards, games, banquets for winners.
• Same pattern in the games held in honor of Zeus at Nemea, of Apollo at Delphi, and of Poseidon at the Isthmus.

Mystery religions

• Religious consolations that the traditional cults could not provide (mystical awakening, systematic religious doctrine, afterlife, communal worship).
• Some of these mysteries were ancient and local.
• The ancient Greek term μυστήρια (mysteria) means "initiation".
• These cults focused on mythic figures who had descended into Hades and returned (death and rebirth): such as Persephone, Dionysus and Orpheus.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

• Initiation ceremonies held every five years for the cult of Demeter and Persephone.
• Eleusis: a small town NW of Athens.
• Great importance.
• The rites and beliefs were kept secret.
• Promises of divine power and rewards in life after death.
• Based on the legends about Demeter, searching for Persephone.
• She teaches the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus and his father, King Celeus.
• The Eleusinian Mysteries celebrated Persephone's return (return of life on earth).
• Under Peisistratus, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic.
• Men, women and even slaves were allowed to be initiated.