Greek religion ocr

Zeus

Order justice king of the gods

Hera

Marriage wife of zeus

Poseidon

Sea and horse brother of zeus

Athena

War tactic wisdom craft heroes daughter of zeus

Artemis

Archery maidens daughter of. Zues twin of apollo

Apollo

Sun music prophecy son of Zeus twin of artemis

Aphrodite

Beauty love daughter ror ouranos

Qphrofite was born from

Ouranos' nutsack bein cast off into the sea

Demeter

Agriculture sister of zeus

Hermes

Messengers travellers merchants and thieves son of zeus

Hephaestus

Blacksmith son of zeus and hera

Hestia

Hearth sister of zeus

Dionysus

Wine theatre son of zeus

Hades

God of the underworld not one of the big 12 bcs he's underground

Persephone

Queen of underworld wife of hades daughter or demeter

Ouranos and gaia

Parents of the titans

Cronos and Rhea

Parents of the gods

Homer and hesiod are significant because

They are our main source for how Greeks viewed the gods during duringht 8th and uth centuries bc

Homer and hesiod had a

Lasting impact on how the Greeks viewed their gods

Herodotus on Homer and hesiod

He ascribes them the originators of Greek religion "the day before yesterday that the Greeks came to know the origin and form of the gods for Homer and hesiod (described the gods)"

Homer

Wrote the odyssey and the illiad

Hesiod

Wrote Theogony and Works and Days

Works and Days

Advice about agriculture and loving morally good lives using the gods

Hesiod tells us

The origin of the gods, why they deserve worship and how

Gods were usually

Anthropomorphised

The Greeks belived they and the gods had

A reciprocal relationship, if they pleased the gods the gods would do them favours

Gods were given epithets because

They ruled such a wide variety of areas

Zeus Agoraios

Worshipped specifically for the market

Zeus Phratrios and Athen Phratria

Worshipped. Specifically for clans

Zeus Philios

Worshipped for the household and the individual regarding property and pregnancy/birth

Zeus Herkeios

Worshipped for the fence regarding protection of the family

How to choose which iteration of the god?

Greeks would often consult oracles on whether to worship specific gods with appropriate epithets

A Greek hero

A person who lived and died (real or mythic is irrelevant) and committed great feats

Cleomedes of Astypalea

Killed his openent and was disqualified, so he tore down a school killing 60 kids and he vanished

Heracles

Most famous of heroes worshipped virtually everywhere

Heracles is unusual as

He was worshipped so widley as hero and god

Hero cults

Had similar practices to regular cults

Worship could be

Panhellenic, localised and personal

Heroes might have been

Household, localised and panhellenic

Heracles household

To protect the home

local divinities

Some gods may have been soley local

Asclepius

God of healing personal god rather than commmunity

Mystery cults

Despite being for initiates their festivals would still be a public festival

Elusinian initiation

Cleaning and fasting then the revealing of the epopteia (secret)

Why join the elusinian mysteries?

Learn the epopteia, reach ecstasis, promised a place in the Elysian fields in the afterlife

Alcibiades against the elusinian mysteries

He was convicted of mocking the cult

Telesterion at Eleusis

In the complex for demeter and persophone, continually renovated housed spectators and potential initiates

Ninnion Tablet

A potential ritual from the elusinian mysteries

The lesser mysteries

Preparation for the great mysteries festival

The mysteries festivals

3000 people assemble (initiated and not) and are instrcuted by the archon basileud they march together to bathe and purify then rest and head to eleusis

mystagogue

Could initiate someone into a cult

Myst

person wishing to be initiated

Archon Basileus

An archon who was responsible for laws regarding religion, homicide, and acts of deliberate wounding.

Heirophant

Leading priest of the elusinian mysteries

Kykeon brew

Mushroom and barley brew to bring u closer to demeter

Asclepius cult

Started as a hero but gained god status worship, several sanctuaries for him were made

Sanctuaries of asclepius

Prepatory bath, sacrifice, rest in the stoa, stays depended on illness, treatments included medicine surgery and incubation

Incubation treatment

Sleeping in the shrines of asclepius, the stoa

Ascelipus offerings

Usually votive offerings of the healed (or yet to be) body part

Miracles

Recorded on votives, helped prove a deity's godhood,

Amphiareios healing sanctuary

Incubants and worshippers slept on the skin of a sacrificed ram, had an altar with 14 different gods and heroes, a koimeterion for incubation and theatre, gendered baths and a fountain house

Polytheism

Belief in many gods

Aetiology

the study of causation, or origination

James Redfield on the Illiad

Gods are a "chief source fo comedy"

Geoffrey Kirk on the gods of Homer

"these divine scenes successfully avert the theatre of monotony, because they provide a total change of atmosphere and behaviour ... all sorts of not very heroic qualities are allowed to enter the lives of the gods"

Jasper Griffin on Homer

The epics are full of "really impressive gods" who deserve the worship they recieve

William Allan on the gods

Gods are not portrayed as being amoral but instead offer divine justice

votive offering

A gift of gratitude or an offering made to a deity; often in the form of a small statuette

Epithet

an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned

Agora

the marketplace in ancient Greece

Phratry

a 'brotherhood' -a subdivision of the four old tribes of Athens which was carried over into the new democratic system after 508/7

Oracle

A person or an agency that provides advice or guidance about the future through prophetic power belived to derive from the gods

Robert parker on hero cukts

"the tenancy of the Greeks to appeal to a plurality of gods, to recruit a team, appears in this area of life more than any other"

heroisation

the process by which a living person becomes a hero/is made a hero

Panhellenic

The sense of cultural identity that all Greeks felt in common with each other.

Deme

a village or district which was the smallest political constituency in the Athenian democratic system

Thesmophoria

Athenian festival for women that honored the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone; its central ritual was the sacrifice of pigs

Herodotus

"father of history" whose writings focused on the Persian wars

Xenophon

Student of Socrates, wrote about the end of the pelopennisian Wars, was forced to move to sparta

Oracle at Dodona was the

Oracle of zeus at epirus

The oracle at Dodona was consulted via

An inscription on a lead tablet

The oracle at Dodona was consulted about

Which god to pray to, should I do x or y, travel and moving places, marriage and children

The oracle at Dodona is evidence that

Oracular authority was widely respected by individuals and the state

Polis

A city-state in ancient Greece.

Levels of religous participation

Household, deme, polis and panhellenic

Individual worship

Sacrifice to a household god at home

Polis worship

Heading to a civic festival to make offerings

Panhellic worship

Heading to a panhellenic site and worshipping there

Oikos

household and family

three main household gods

Zeus Ktesios, Zeus Herkeios, Apollo Agyeios

Zeus Ktesios

Protector of property and wealth, in the storeroom/pantry

Zeus Ktesios Representation

Two handled vase draped in white wool ribbon, filled with seeds water and olive oil

Zeus Herkeios

protector of the house, of property, of the fence statue in the courtyard

Apollo Agyeios

Protector of the house from outside, above the door

The hearth

Dedicated to hestia, protected the family and home inside

The Herm

A small pillar depicting Hermes acting as protection for the house and family but also as road markers

The father was responsible for

Tending to household cults and family tombs jncludinng upkeep and worship

The son would be

Welcomed into the fathers phratry during a three day festival, the Apatouris, in honour of Zeus Phratrios

Women in Athens

Were not full citizens, had limited/no rights, but could engage in a variety of cults

Arrephoros

Performed in may in honour of athena polias, two arrephoroi took a basket through the acropolis to aphrodite