Greek Culture and Society

Term II, Lecture 4

Greek Religion

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Religion and worship

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Religion and worship

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Religion and worship

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Religion and worship

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Main features of a Greek sanctuary

• Location• Altar• Temenos• Priest• Calendar

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What was a Greek sanctuary?

Sanctuary of Poseidon, Cape Sunion, Attica

8Altar of the Temple of Apollo, Gortyn, Crete

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Temenos of the Temple of Zeus, Dodona

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Everyday Rituals

• Home hearth is sacred to Hestia• Everything hunted is sacred to Artemis• Everything farmed is sacred to Demeter• All sea-going activities are sacred to

Poseidon• All weather phenomena are sacred to Zeus• Travelling and trading is sacred to Hermes• Metal-working is sacred to Hephaistos• Wool-working and household work are

sacred to Athena

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Hestia, the most gentle and charitable of divinities, guardian of the oikos

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Ephaistos, the god blacksmith

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Thundering Zeus

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Sacred Calendar from Kos

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Sacred Calendar from KosMonth A: Batromeios• ?: An ox from the

Chiliastes to Hestia Hetaireia

• ?: Annual Festival to Zeus Polieus. Sacrifice of ox.

• 10th: A pig and a kid to Dionysos Scyllites

• 20th: An ox to Zeus Polieus

• 20th: A pregnant sheep to Athena Polias

• 21st: A pig and a kid to Dionysos Scyllites

• 23rd: A sheep and a pregnant ewe to Demeter

• 24th: A pig and a kid to Dionysos Scyllites

Month B: Karneios• ?: A pregnant ewe to

Rhea• 10th: A heifer to Argive

Royal Hera of the Marshes

• 11th: A pig to Zeus Machaneus

• 12th: 3 sheep, an ox, ½ medimnos of barley and wine to Zeus Machaneus

• 12th: Heifer/sheep to Athena Machanis

Month C: Pedageitnion• 21st: 3 sheep to the

Heroes• 28th: A lamb to Herakles• 28th: An ox to HeraklesMonth D: Unknown• 17th: A sheep to Delian

Apollo• 17th: An ewe to Leto• 19th: A goat to the Graces• 20th: A sheep and an ewe

to Apollo Karneios and Artemis

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The Panathenaic Procession• It is generally accepted that the Parthenon

Frieze portrays the Processions at the festival of the Great Panathenaia that was celebrated every four years in Athens

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Panathenaic Processiona proposed order

• Four little girls carrying a peplos for the life-size statue of Athena Polias

• Priestesses of Athena and Athenian women carrying gifts • Sacrificial animals (cows and sheep) • Metics (resident aliens), wearing purple robes and carrying

on trays cakes and honeycombs for offerings • Musicians playing the aulos and the kithara. • A colossal peplos (for Athena Parthenos) hung on the mast

of a ship on wheels • Old men carrying olive branches• Four-horse chariots with a charioteer and fully armed man

(apobatês) • Craftswomen (ergastinai - weavers of peplos) • Infantry and cavalry • Victors in the games • Ordinary Athenians arranged by deme

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Sacrificial animals (cows and sheep)

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Musicians playing the aulos and the kithara

20Old men carrying olive branches

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Metics (resident aliens), wearing purple robes and carrying on trays cakes and honeycombs for offerings

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Craftswomen (ergastinai - weavers of peplos)

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Infantry and cavalry (who is missing?)

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Demeter andTriptolemos

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Herma: Square or rectangular pillar of stone, terracotta, or bronze; a bust of Hermes' head, usually with a beard, sat on the top of the pillar, and male genitals adorned the base.

415: The Hermae affair

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The Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi

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The Pythia

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Athenian Thesauron

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Thuc. VI.16.1-2‘Athenians, I have a better right to command than others--I must begin with this as Nicias has attacked me--and at the same time I believe myself to be worthy of it. The things for which I am abused, bring fame to my ancestors and to myself, and to the country profit besides. The Hellenes, after expecting to see our city ruined by the war, concluded it to be even greater than it really is, by reason of the magnificence with which I represented it at the Olympic games, when I sent into the lists seven chariots, a number never before entered by any private person, and won the first prize, and was second and fourth, and took care to have everything else in a style worthy of my victory. Custom regards such displays as honourable, and they cannot be made without leaving behind them an impression of power.

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The archaic aristocracies of Attica

The archaic aristocracies of Attica

The cult of heroic excellence

Being healthy is the best thing for a mortal man;Second comes beautyThird an honest health;Fourth, being young amongst your friends.

The sites of Menidhi/Acharnae and Thoricus

The Mycenaean tombs of Thorikos

The Mycenaean tombs of Thorikos

The Mycenaean tombs of Thorikos