Greek Religion Scholars

Renshaw on the double benefit of temples

“Such grandeur [of their temples] had the double benefit of honouring the gods and flaunting the city’s wealth and culture”

Tomlinson on the separation of sanctuaries

“Sanctuaries in the Greek world were areas set aside for religious purposes and separate from the normal secular world”

Garland on sanctuaries

“Simply a piece of consecrated ground”

Zaidman on temples as unnecessary

“The temple was not an indispensable element of Greek religion. Rituals were mostly performed outside, not inside the temple” - Zaidman et al

Harrison on the gods

“The gods were biddable; they were on the whole, friendly and fairly rational”

Kishlansky et al on the Greeks interaction with the gods

“Greeks made regular offerings to the gods, pleaded with them for help, and gave them thanks for assistance.”

Sourvinou-Inwood on the similarities between individual and group worship

“A religious mentality in which the individual’s act of worship is not different in nature from that of the group’s”

Hornblower et al on religion as more public than individual

“Primarily a public religion rather than a religion of the individual”

Zaidman on the inseparability of festivals and daily life

“Inseparability of festivals from the very definition of Greek civil life”

Parker on social grouping being religious

“Every formal social grouping was also a religious grouping, from the smallest to the largest”

Mikalson on Deme worship

“The deme was a closed community, the deities of that deme were part of that community, and worship of those deities was a marker of membership in that community”

Faraone on household activities similar to civic

Male householder’s religious activities “essentially replicated civic cult”

Faraone on non-animal sacrifice

Non-animal sacrifice is more characteristic of household than civic religion

Price on Demes being integrated but also individual

“The Attic demes were thus integrated into the religious life of the Athenian state while preserving their own individuality”

Price on demes as different

“Some demes had festivals reflecting central polis festivals whilst others include the worship of heroes peculiar to that locality”

Zaidman on festivals as inseparable

“Inseparability of festivals from the very definition of Greek civic life”

Marinatos on sanctuaries

“Sanctuaries were multidimensional institutions which served the needs of their communities and the needs of the Greek city-state as a whole.”

Z+P on women watching the Olympics

“Women, apart from priestesses of Hera, were not even permitted to watch”

Z+P on the Olympic games

“Competition was the most highly esteemed method of measuring oneself against others, precisely because the gods themselves sanctioned it”

Garland on Christian writers on the Eleusinian mysteries

“Christian writers consistently suggest that the rituals connected with the sanctuary were disgusting and obscene”

Garland on the purpose behind the mysteries

“Only guess at the ‘spiritual’ meaning of the Mysteries”

Z+P on Eleusinian mystery initiation

“Did not involve instruction of a dogmatic nature, but was rather a process of internal transformation”

Price on the incentive behind being initiated

“Suggest that the bleak view of the afterlife implied in funerary rituals was accompanied by an alternative for those initiated there”

Garland on performing a sacrifice before Asclepius

“Required to perform a preliminary sacrifice before undergoing purification”

Price on the Asclepeion at Epidarus

“It was so spectacular that it features in one of the ancient lists of wonders of the world”

Price on the equality in turning to Asclepius

“Men and women were equally likely to turn to Asclepius for help”

Z+P on Asclepeion priests making profit

“The priests of Asklepios could make a profit from the practice of their art”

Price speculating on why they turn to Asclepious

“As there were other ways of obtaining diagnoses and cures, people must have had particular reasons for turning to Asclepius”

Kirk on the gods being unheroic

“All sorts of not very heroic qualities are allowed to enter the lives of the gods”

Garland on all participating in the Panathenaia

“All elements of the citizen body took part”

Z+P on the Panathenaic procession

“(procession existed) to give a visual representation of its unity and power and to embed its religious practice within the civic space”

Z+P on the Panathenaia trying and failing to rival other games

“The attempt [to rival the olympics] did not fully succeed. The Panathenaic games remained more Athenian than Greek”

Garland on Delphi’s reputation

“Delphi’s reputation was so great in the archaic period that even non-Greeks consulted it”

Garland on the uncertainty of how the Pythia prophesied

“Evidence for laurel-chewing is extremely late and archeologists now believe that there was no natural chasm for the Pythia to sit over”

Garland on the interpretation of the oracular message becoming part of the experience

“The interpretation of the oracular message, which human intellect, unaided by the gods, had to provide was an integral part of the oracular experience”

Z+P on the importance of an oracle

“Besides the holding of games, possession of an oracle was a second major way for a sanctuary to acquire privileged Panhellenic status”

Price on the reduction of political consultation at Delphi

“[consultation was less common in the Classical Period] because of the development of political institutions that could reach political decisions within the state”

Sowden, Eidinow and Cole on the social aspect of oracles

“Places where strangers from across the Greek world would meet and tell each other their stories”

Sowden, Eidinow and Cole on the impressiveness of Apollo at Delphi

“Santuary of Apollo at Delphi is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in Greece”

Z+P on Dodona?

“Focal assembly point around which Greek identity could be affirmed through common religious cults as much as through common language”