Ancient Greece: Mythology & Religion (Notable Terms, Concepts, Characters or Deities, Events / Stories etc.)

Oracles (All Facts)

• Places in which the the future was foretold or some prophecy was given, located throughout Ancient Greece

• Consisted of open-air spaces, in positions with outstanding natural features related to the particular deity with whom the place is connected or represented by

• Associated with temples that were built to honor the Greek gods

  • These temples were based on the idea of a rectangular room with an entrance at one end and a porch created by extending the two side walls, between which there were often columns

  • These temples were built as the house of the god rather than as a place in which people congregated to worship

    • Acts of worship took place at a separate altar which stood opposite the front of the building; in which only members of the priesthood and lay officials were allowed into the temple itself

  • These temples were built next to “treasuries” in some cities, which were miniature temples that displayed the cities’ wealth and piety

• The sacred sites chosen for these sanctuaries generally started out as places of worship by previous inhabitants

Oracle Process (All Facts)

• Every month, ordinary men and delegates from the cities came to ask the advice of the god as he spoke by way of the Pythia

• Process in which

  • First, the applicant had to make an offering in money or in kind

    • City spokesmen paid more than private individuals, but they were ushered to the head of the line

  • Second, he made a sacrifice, usually a goat, which was examined by the priests, and if the portents were good, then he was allowed to enter the temple

  • Third, he asks his question in front of the Pythia and attendant priests and she makes her utterances

    • The questions that were asked covered many subjects

      • Delegates of cities asked if their cities should go to war or make peace

      • Individuals asked if they should make certain voyages or marry certain people

  • Lastly, the utterances of the Pythia are interpreted, sometimes having the wrong conclusion drawn from it with disastrous results

• Process in which one of its most important tasks was to advise cities where to set up colonies

  • There was a practical aspect to these consultations as well as the religious function, for the priests kept copies of all the Pythia’s utterances, and information is filed in the temple’s library, thus enabling them to make a rational judgement

Oracle of Delphi (All Facts)

• Most prestigious and revered oracle

• Dedicated to Apollo

Oracle of Dodona (All Facts)

• Second most prestigious oracle

• Dedicated to Zeus

• The namesake process there is indicated by the rustling of the leaves on the sacred oak trees there

Pythia (All Facts)

• Title given to the priestess at the Oracle of Delphi

• The god Apollo spoke to the people that went to the Oracle through this priestess

• Was always a peasant woman chosen for her purity

Thysia / Animal Sacrifice (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the namesake process by which Greeks reached their Gods

• Was an important part of daily life, both as a

  • Tribute to the Gods (slaughtering for ritual)

  • Source of Food (preparing meat for eating)

• Was always conducted prior to making a

  • Political Decision

  • Military Initiative

• Goats, sheep, and oxen were commonly or primarily used

• Conducted by special butchers

• The form of the namesake ritual depended on

  • What was given up to the god or gods

  • The god or gods addressed

  • The occasion

• In all instances, however, the item being offered was

  • Festively prepared

  • Groomed

  • Had its horns gilded

  • Led to the altar (with apparent willingness)

• Places in which this process was carried out were marked out by carrying round a sacred basket and sprinkling water over both the offering and participants in the ritual

• Process in which

  • Barley grain was then thrown at the offering to secure its acquiescence in the ritual

  • Priests cut a few hairs off the head of the item being offered

  • Then, the head of the item was pulled back to point towards the sky, and its throat was cut

  • The silence at this point in the ritual was broken by the sound of many women screaming

  • The offering was then

    • Skinned

    • Butchered

  • The offering’s heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were

    • Removed

    • Skewered

    • Roasted

    • Tasted (by every participant in the ritual)

  • The offering’s tail, gall-bladder, and thighbones were burnt on the altar

    • The prime lean cuts were

      • Roasted

      • Distributed

      • Eaten

  • The remains were boiled and made into sausages or puddings (for the “less favored”)

Greek Temples (All Facts)

• Most potent and beautiful displays of Greek genius and prestige

• Architectural form that emerged from obscurity after the fall of the Mycenean civilization of Greeks

• Was one of the first symbols of the collective government of the polis (city-state), the new form of government which emerged after the fall of the Mycenean civilization of Greeks with their monarchies

• These monuments were now built in the place of the tombs and palaces of the kings of the Mycenean Age

  • Some were even built on the foundations and/or ruins of the old Mycenean palaces

• They were built for the gods who protected the various polis or “city-states”

• They did not bring religion indoors, however, and were simply the houses of the gods, where their images were kept and only priests were allowed inside

  • Religious ceremonies were performed at separate altars outside them, continuing the tradition of open-air worship

• They were built of mudbrick, often painted, on stone foundations, with wooden pillars supporting steeply-pitched thatched roofs

  • Had metopes - designs on a frieze between the pillars and the roof

• Their basic ground plan was of a rectangular main room (naos) with a projecting porchway on pillars

  • Later, a colonnade (peristyle) added around the main room (naos) allowed for a lower-pitched roof and offered better protection for the mud walls

  • Even later, the use of heavy clay tiles for the roof led to the replacement of the wooden pillars with stone columns in which the namesake constructions were eventually made entirely out of stone

Metopes (All Facts)

• Designs on a frieze between the pillars and the roof of the Greek Temples

Naos (All Facts)

• Rectangular main room that was part of the ground plan of the Greek Temples

Greek Mythology (All Facts)

• Religious system in which the Ancient Greeks worshipped a multitude of gods

Greek Gods (All Facts)

• Believed by the Greeks to

  • have been human in form

  • have lived in various parts of the universe

  • display human traits and habits

  • divine due to being immortal

  • assume animal or human disguises to intervene in worldly affairs where they punished or assisted by use of miracles

  • like to visit their own sanctuaries to receive sacrifices from faithful humans

  • undertake tasks according to their particular attributes

  • have held court on Mount Olympus in Thessaly

  • have fed on ambrosia and drink nectar, which bestowed eternal youth

Zeus (All Facts)

• Father of both Greek gods and humans

  • God of the sky, of rain, and of thunder

  • God of justice

  • In Athens, he

    • Polieus - God of the City

    • God of the Agora (meeting place)

    • God of the Boule, where he presides over debates

• Is a general protector of all Greeks

• Is Soter (Savior), who averts danger

• Usually a benign god who watches over the universe

• Concerned with maintaining peace between people

• Hates crime and murder

• Always punishes those guilty of opposing established order by sending the avenging Erinyes or Ate who drive individuals to distraction causing them to destroy themselves

• Grants authority to kings

• Cities are placed under his protection

• Presides over relationships, watching over families

• His wife and sister was Hera

• His children included Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Ares, and Athena

• Liked to seduce women, who would then give birth to demigods like Hercules, son of Alcmene

• Created storms and hurled thunderbolts

• Settles all disputes on Mount Olympus immediately

• Even gods who are not hid children address him as father and stand in his presence

• Unites many divine attributes

• Presides over friendships in his capacity as the “Xenios” variant of his namesake

  • Xenios makes it an obligation to offer hospitality to strangers

• In Athens, he is worshipped in the capacity of “Polieus” or “God of the city”

Poseidon (All Facts)

• Brother of Zeus

• Married to Amphitrite

• Formidable god

• God of the Sea

  • He manifests himself in the unleashing of the waves

  • He is the incarnation of the anguish the sea always causes, unpredictable and subject to sudden changes of mood

• He lived in the depths, near Aegae in northern Greece, in an indestructible golden palace

• He drove a golden chariot across the sea without getting it wet

• He uses a trident to strike the waves and raise the storm

• Exercised an unpredictable authority over his maritime kingdom and its inhabitants

• His power extends onto land, where blows from his trident provoke earthquakes

• God of Horses

  • Can terrify or calm horses at will

• Horsemen and sailors alike are powerless against his sudden anger and can only offer up prayers

• The first catch of the tuna fishing season is offered to him

• Woe betide any mortal who makes an enemy of him

Hera (All Facts)

• Greek Goddess and guardian of women and marriage

• Her husband and brother was Zeus

• Her children included Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Ares, and Athena

Apollo (All Facts)

• Greek god of the sun, music, medicine, and divination

• His twin sister was Artemis

Artemis (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of the moon and hunting

• Virgin huntress goddess

• Was the goddess of transitions and mistress of wild animals

• Was said to live in marshes between dry land and lakes, or the fringe between the forest and the town

• Ruled over wild animals and hunting

  • Also, she protected the young animals, whom hunters were not allowed to kill

• Associated with taming sexuality

  • However, in some Greek myths, heroines rejected her and devote themselves entirely to hunting, killing the young men who seek their hands

• Her namesake cult at Brauron was where she supposedly helped young Greek girls prepare for marriage

• In Sparta, ceremonies that celebrated her trained both young men and women in near-impossible endurance and combat tests to help them master their instincts, as they believed the wild life must precede maturity

Aphrodite (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of beauty and sexual love

Hermes (All Facts)

• Greek messenger god and god of travelers

• Carried messages and conveys the souls of the dead to Hades (the underworld)

• Known as the “divine trickster” and not merely a god, but a friend of mankind as well

• Son of Zeus and the nymph Maia

• Patron of ambassadors and messengers

• Shepherds took him to be their special god

• Watches over trading of all kinds including treaties, oaths, and any other sort of bargain

• Is always on the move

• Watches over travelers and the roads they follow

• Takes his name from a Greek word meaning “pile of stones” as the roads of Greece were dotted with such stones or cairns, often in the shape of an erect phallus (penis) which marked the midpoint between the country’s villages and the center of Athens

• Worship of him is centered around phallic symbols and he is known for his sexual success

• Spirit of communication

• Wears the helmet of Hades which makes him invisible

• Flies with winged sandals

• Holds a staff that is a magic wand

• Created Apollo’s lyre from a tortoise shell

• However, he was also known to be a thief since being a baby, in which he stole the sacred cattle of his fellow-god Apollo

  • Robbers took him to be their special god as well

• He is involved in many stories of the gods using him to carry out special tasks that required his swift cunning and resourcefulness

Ares (All Facts)

• Greek god of war

Athena (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of intelligence

  • She was believed to have an inventive practical intelligence

• Patron of the arts and artisans

  • She inspired craftsmen, potters, and waves

  • She guided pilots safely through currents

• Patron goddess of Athens (named after her), she towered over religious and secular life there, even after its political demise after the (Second) Peloponnesian War

  • Was a complex goddess, whose example nourished the virtues which made Athens preeminent

• Was a warrior, often depicted in helmet and breast-plate holding a spear and shield

• Was the supreme judge, who ensures that justice is done

• Was a virgin

• According to Greek myth

  • Her mother Metis, a nymph, who was renown for her cunning, struck fear into Zeus, who swallowed her when she became pregnant with the namesake goddess

  • In retaliation, Metis gave Zeus a headache and he was struck on the head with an axe by which the namesake goddess sprang from the wound in his head, fully formed

• According to Greek myth

  • it was her who, through the use of her intelligence, convinced Odysseus that he had finally ended his journey and arrived back home

Hades (All Facts)

• Greek god of the underworld

Dionysus (All Facts)

• Greek God of drunkenness, dance, and joy

• One of many Greek gods of fertility

• His particular importance is in his celebration of creativity without restraint

• Unusual amongst Greek gods

• Thought to be of foreign origin

• Is the only one born of a mortal woman

• In Greek mythology, he was the son of Semele, daughter of Cadmus, the King of Thebes, who coupled with Zeus, but was punished for wanting to see her divine lover being killed by a thunderbolt

  • Zeus rescued the child from her womb and it was born again from his thigh

• In Greek mythology, he has particular power over women, causing them to reverse their usual protecting behavior towards children

  • In Greek mythology, it is not animals but their own children whom women to tear to pieces in a frenzy

• In his entourage there are satyrs who are the spirits of the rural wild life

Cult / Festival of Dionysus (All Facts)

• Annual Greek Religious Cult / Festival celebrating the namesake wine god in which dance, mime, and choral song were undertaken

• Was an old-fashioned orgy of terrifying violence in which groups of women

  • threw away all restraints

  • went to the forests or mountains outside of town and became totally ecstatic on a diet of wine

  • danced to frantic rhythms

  • sung out ‘Hail Bacchus’

  • captured rabbits, hinds, and fawns and, in their delirium, tore them to pieces with their bare hands and ate them raw and bloody in a ritual

• Festival in which drinking vessels with pictures on them were used to drink wine

  • The pictures showed sexually excited males, some of which were depicted as having goats’ legs and horses’ tails in scenes of dancing and revelry

Atlas (All Facts)

• Greek God who holds up the sky

Astraeus (All Facts)

• Greek God who takes care of the stars

Theseus (All Facts)

• Greek Hero, Mythological Champion of Democracy

• He became increasingly popular in Athens during the rule of Cleisthenes

  • Was annexed, as it were, as the “hero-father” of the new democracy of Cleisthenes

• Was the mythical slayer of the minotaur

• His deeds were represented throughout Attic pottery

• Festivals were held in his memory

• Sacrifices were devoted to him

• His cult had to do not so much with his heroism but with his rule as “king of Athens” since it was he who

  • Unified the city-state of Athens

  • Established Athens as the sole center of political life

Medusa (All Facts)

• Greek monster who was a snake-haired gorgon

• Her stare could turn men into stone

• Was slain by the Greek hero Perseus

Perseus (All Facts)

• Greek hero famous for slaying Medusa

Pan (All Facts)

• Greek god of savage beasts, shepherds, sheep, and goats

• Small, horned creature, with the legs of a goat and torso of a man

• Lived in caves, far away from the cities, in a twilight world inhabited by nymphs and satyrs

• Famous for his potent bestial sexuality and his spreading of panic amongst those who encountered him

• Sacrificial banquets took place in honor of his sexual potency, rituals of worship which were quite attractive to Greek women

• Lived at the frontier between the human, the divine, and the bestial, having embodied the uncivilized but fascinating power of procreation

• Appeared before the runner Philippides as he raced to summon the Spartans to resist the invaders from Persia

  • On this occasion, he showed the benign side of his nature, but it was usually considered wise to make oneself scarce when this uncouth god appears

  • In his presence, there was nothing a general could do except tell his men to lay down their arms

Aphaea (All Facts)

• Local Greek goddess worshipped on Aegina

• Greek goddess of hunters and fisherman

Temple of Aphaea (All Facts)

• Temple dedicated to the namesake Greek goddess of Aegina

• Built on top of the original sanctuary commemorating the Greek myth of Britomartis, the Cretan nymph and daughter of Zeus who fled to and hid on Aegina from Minos

Britomartis (All Facts)

• Cretan nymph and daughter of Zeus

• She fled and hid on Aegina from Minos

• The original sanctuary commemorating the myth involving this figure was destroyed long before the Temple of Aphaea was built on top of it

Treasury of Delphi (All Facts)

• The Athenians, triumphant after their victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, showed their gratitude to their god Apollo by building the namesake structure in his honor at his namesake place of worship

• Inside it, they left offerings of silver, plundered from the abandoned Persian camp during the battle

• The building was decorated by sculptures, made from Parian marble, and were as fine as any in Greece at the time

  • The sculptures depicted scenes from the exploits of the Greek heroes Theseus and Heracles

Dike (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of justice

• Daughter of Zeus

Cult of Demeter / Eleusis (All Facts)

• Cult developed around the worship of the namesake Greek goddess and her daughter Persephone

• Its spirituality finds its most complete expression in the rituals most associated with it known as the Eleusinian Mysteries

• Only the initiated were allowed to attend, but it was open to all Greek-speakers, even slaves, regardless of age or gender

  • After being initiated, they were sworn to silence

• Its members received preliminary instruction during smaller festivals associated with it such as the festival at Agrae at the end of the winter

• Consisted of an elaborate religious festival, which lasted over a period of nine days every September

  • Its principal ritual began in Athens and on a beach at Phaleron, where the Mystae

    • sacrificed a pig

    • bathed in the sea (to purify themselves)

  • Then, on the fifth day of the festival, this cult’s members marched in procession to the sanctuary of the namesake goddess and her daughter at the namesake site

    • There, in the Hall of Initiation, the namesake mysteries reached their climax

• Their original temple was built by the namesake group to placate the namesake goddess after they had rejected her gift of eternal life for the King’s son, Demophon

Eleusinian Mysteries (All Facts)

• Series of rituals strongly associated with the Cult of Demeter

• Practiced in Athens and the namesake city-state

• Details of these rites are shrouded in great secrecy, but the priests probably mimed the legend of Persephone and unveiled sacred symbols of fertility during them

Demeter (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of Earth’s fertility and resurrection

• Mother of Persephone

• Was given refuge in Eleusis after he daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades and made queen of the underworld

• In return for the Eleusians’ hospitality, she gave her favorite one, Triptolemus, an ear of corn, which was the symbol of renewed life

  • However, Zeus intervened with Hades, and persuaded him to allow Persephone to visit her mother every summer in Eleusis

  • Her return each year was held to symbolize the annual rebirth of the crops in Greece

Persephone (All Facts)

• Daughter of Demeter

• Carried off by Hades to be made queen of the underworld

• Zeus intervened with Hades, and persuaded him to allow her to visit her mother Demeter every summer in Eleusis

• Her return each year was held to symbolize the annual rebirth of the crops in Greece

Hecatombaion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of July

• Month in which the Athenian year (and associated religious calendar) begins

• Month when Kronos, father of Zeus, is honored

• Month in which masters and slaves feast at the same table, often in the fields where they work

• At the end of the month, a national festival, the Panathenaea is held

Panathenaea (All Facts)

• National festival held at the end of the month of Hecatombaion (July) every year throughout Greece, it lasted two days

  • However, every fourth year, it was celebrated with extra splendor over four days in the “Great” variant of the namesake

  • This festival was so massive that it was believed the gods themselves gathered to watch it unfold

• Was

  • the greatest of the state festivals held in Athens

  • a celebration of the splendor and solidarity of the city-state of Athens under the protection of the great goddess Athena whose birthday it marked

  • an expression of religion, patriotism, and pride that involved the whole community

• Begun with a night of dancing, singing, and torchlit races

  • At dawn, a huge procession set off from the Cerameicus across Athens towards the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis

    • At its head were the bearers of ritual offerings

      • Foreigners came with trays of cakes and honeycombs

      • Officials carried the paraphernalia of the priests

      • Others brought sacred branches of olive or oak

      • The whole population of Athens followed behind

    • The purpose of the procession was to present a new robe to the goddess

      • Woven, with much ritual, by girls chosen from the Athenian aristocracy, the robe was draped over Athena’s statue at the Acropolis

      • These young virgin women were escorted by horsemen as they led the procession up to the Acropolis

• The festival reached a climax with the sacrifice of a large number of cows at the great altar near the Parthenon

  • Many came from Athenian communities overseas

  • Others were brought with the proceeds of rents on public land

  • Some of the meat from the many cow sacrifices was set aside for religious and secular officials while the rest was distributed among the people of the city

• Following the cow sacrifices, a series of contests and competitions were held in honor of various gods, not just Athena

  • Some involved feats of athletics

  • Others took the form of recitals of heroic poetry

  • Winners of these contests and competitions were awarded with jars of oil pressed from Athena’s sacred olive trees

• Established, according to legend, by Theseus; but reorganized in 566 BCE

Boedromion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of September

• Rites in this month are for initiates only

• During this month, people celebrate Apollo’s “sure resource” in battle

Pyanepsion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of October

• This month opens with another festival for Apollo, when the god is presented with a vegetarian metal of beans, legumes, wheat flour, figs, and pots of honey

• Month in which the Oschophoria of Dionysus is held

• Month in which Demeter is honored in which married women excluded men from their honoring Demeter and observed abstinence and fertility rites

Oschophoria (All Facts)

• Procession held in honor of Dionysus during the month of Pyanepsion (October)

• Involves adolescents bearing heavy bunch of grapes and being greeted with wild cries

Poseideion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of December

• Month in which a festival takes place in which terracotta phalluses are planted by women, particularly those of dubious virtue, and men are excluded from the festival

Gamelion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of January

• Features hectic wine festivals

Anthesterion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of February

• Features hectic wine festivals

Elaphebolion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of March

• Month in which spring arrives, when Athena is thanked

• Month when foreigners flock to see performances of Greek theater

Mounychion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of April

• Month in which cakes are offered to Artemis

Thargelion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of May

• Month in which two “scapegoats” laden with evils are expelled before Apollo is feasted and the statue of Athena is bathed in the sea and fed dried figs

Skirophorion (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek equivalent of the month of June

• Month in which sacrifices are undertaken commemorating the first killing of a plough-ox and the first sacrifice

Kronos (All Facts)

• Greek god of time

• Father of Zeus

• Honored in the Hecatombaion month (July)

Hercules (All Facts)

• Greek demigod, son of Alcmene

• Becomes a victim of Hera’s jealousy as Hera is the god Zeus’s lawful wife

• Known for his “12 Labors” imposed upon him by Eurystheus

  • Strangled a Nemean lion with his bare hands

  • Slayed the nine poisonous heads of the hydra of Lerna

  • Captured the wild boar of Mount Erymanthus

  • Captured the golden-horned stag of Arcadia

  • Shot the man-eating birds of Stymphalia

  • Cleansed the cattle stables of King Augeus by diverting two rivers through them

  • Captured the mad bull that terrorized Crete

  • Captured the man-eating mares of King Diomedes

  • Slayed the Queen of the Amazon and took her girdle

  • Seized the cattle of Geryon beyond the pillars named after him (Gibraltar)

  • Retrieved the golden apples guarded by the Hesperides

  • Managed to recover the dog Cerberus which guarded the underworld’s gates

• He died when his wife Deianeira gave him a love potion which turned out to be poison

• He was removed from his funeral pyre by Zeus and immortalized as a God

Deianeira (All Facts)

• Wife of Hercules

• She gave him a love potion which turned out to be poison

Temple of Zeus at Olympia (All Facts)

• Designed by the architect Libon of Elis

• An artificial mound raises the building 10 feet above ground level and its monumental size is further emphasized by

  • its massive proportions

  • the contrast of white walls against violent blue and red triglyphs and dripstones

  • the majesty of sculpted metopes and pediments

• Designed to house a gold and ivory statue of Zeus by the great sculptor Phidias

• The size and grandeur of the building are symbolic of the fact that Zeus stands above all other gods

• Contains a collection of sculptures with 12 metopes depicting the Labors of Hercules

  • The well-known image of him holding a club is fixed by this episode

• This structure reflects the fact that the name of the namesake god is on the lips of all Greeks

Themis (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of law

• She assists Zeus

Amphitrite (All Facts)

• Wife of Poseidon

Olympia (All Facts)

• Sanctuary in Elis where the Olympic Games were held from 776 BCE - 394 BCE

• Located in the Alpheus Valley in the northwest of the Peloponnese

• Is a holy place and shrine dedicated to Zeus

• Attracted thousands of pilgrims each year

Olympics (All Facts)

• Held every four years to honor the glory of Zeus

  • Promoted the development of the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia

• Brought together athletes from all the different Greek cities

• Old animosities were put aside when heralds proclaimed the sacred truce for the games

  • Warring states put aside their weapons and competitors, spectators, and pilgrims were given safe conduct to the games

  • Thus, for a time, the Greeks, often divided, were reconciled by the accomplishments of the athletes

• Visitors from all over the known world came to see the athletes compete

  • However, women were barred from the arena

• Strictly controlled by the people of Elis who run the festival

• Last 5-7 days

  • The first is given over to ceremonies with blasts on the trump, sacrifices, and banquets

• Events originally consisted of foot races, with young men running bare naked; but also boxing and wrestling (pankration), the pentathlon, the race in armor, and various horse and chariot races

  • Adolescents competed in running and wrestling contests

• A month before they opened, heralds and religious ambassadors announced the date of the great gathering

• Were overseen by the aristocracy of Elis, who presided over all religious ceremonies at Olympia, of which they were considered the earthly guardians

• The opening ceremonies begin at Elis two days before its start in which the competitors set out on a two day march to Olympia

  • The march, 35+ miles long, took the athletes through Pieria, where they washed themselves and sacrificed a pig, and Letrini, where they rested the night before arrival in Olympia

• There were around 20,000 people in the crowd watching the competitors each time

Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sunium (All Facts)

• Can be seen by all ships heading for Athens

Temple of Hera at Olympia (All Facts)

• Built by Theodorus and Roecus of Samos

Hephaestus (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek god of fire, volcanoes, forges, and blacksmithing

• Patron deity of crafts

Hephaestion (All Facts)

• Temple dedicated to the namesake god of fire and blacksmithing that was the patron deity of craftsmanship that was built in Athens

Greek Funerals / Burials (All Facts)

• Athenians and most Greeks believed that everyone, apart from certain criminals, was deserving of one of the namesake

• They thought that

  • without the namesake, the deceased cannot gain access to the afterlife in the house of Hades

  • a corpse is regarded as having nothing further to do with the gods of the living, and therefore must be hidden in the earth to avoid pollution or offense to them

• They tend to follow the same pattern

  • First, the body is bathed

  • Second, it is dressed in clothes such as would have been worn in life

  • Third, it is laid on a couch, and a honeycake or other offering is placed in the mouth for Charon

  • Fourth, Lamentations are recited, together with libations (ritual pourings of various liquids such as wine, milk, honey, and water)

  • Fifth, a procession to the cemetery (located outside the city walls to avoid pollution) occurs

    • There, the namesake action results in one being

      • In a coffin

      • Cremated, with the bones being buried in a jar or urn

Charon (All Facts)

• Boatman who ferries across the subterranean River Styx to Hades

The Orphic Sect (All Facts)

• Characterized by their

  • Dressing in all-white

  • Vegetarianism (members refused to eat meat)

  • Sexual Puritanism

  • Belief in reincarnation (belief that the individual human soul will eventually find peace after many reincarnations)

  • Indulging in Bacchic rites

• Believed that animal sacrifice was akin to cannibalism

• Protected their dead with tablets inscribed with ritual formulae placed on tombs

• Derived from the poet Orpheus

Orpheus (All Facts)

• Was a bard, legendary musician and prophet, who

  • charmed with his music

    • animals including the beasts and birds

    • nature including the trees and streams

    • the underworld

  • Cast spells over nature

  • Descended into the underworld where he met a terrible death

    • He was torn to pieces by infuriated women

• According to him, the origin of man was very bloody

  • The child Dionysus was beaten by the Titans, cut into pieces, skewered on spits and grilled

  • Zeus struck down those who did it with lightning, and the human race was born from their ashes

• His lyre was given to him by Apollo

Hestia (All Facts)

• Greek goddess of the hearth

• Worshipped by Athenian women within their gynaceum, or living quarters, in Athenian homes

Arkteia / Cult of Artemis Brauronia (All Facts)

• Practiced at the Brauron Sanctuary near Philaidai, on the east coast of Attica under the aegis of the namesake goddess of the hearth

• Practice in which young girls took to the woods, pretending to be she-bears or “arktoi” and dancing naked to rhythmic music

• This practice was supposed to help

  • to prepare the pubescent girls for marriage

  • to experience their animal natures, including their ripening sexuality

  • to show them the need for “taming” by men in marriage if they are going to take their places in society

Amphidromia (All Facts)

• Ancient Greek birth ritual

• Was

  • of ancient origins

  • an important aspect of family life

• Its purpose was to

  • integrate the new-born child into the family

  • purify the house after the messiness of the birth

• After a birth, a sign was put on the door of the home

  • For boys, this was an olive branch

  • For girls, this was wool

  • After the sign was place, pitch was smeared on it to ward off evil spirits

• After a birth,

  • the women

    • cleaned the household

    • sprinkled water in a ritual cleansing

  • the father

    • carried the infant round the hearth at a run

  • the family

    • sing in thanksgiving

• On the tenth day of this ritual, the child is fully integrated into the family and given a name

  • Boys were usually given the same name as their paternal grandfather

    • This was done in order to ensure the continuity of the family name in a society with high mortality rates

• Whenever a child was born, the father got to decide whether or not he wanted to keep it

  • He may have tested its fitness by various tests

    • For example, some Greek fathers rubbed them with icy water, pure wine, or urine

  • Sometimes, they abandoned their newborn child

    • The usual reason for this was in order not to divide up an already small estate

      • A daughter was more likely to be rejected in this way

  • Abandoned children were taken to a wild spot and left in a pot known as a pithos, in the hope that a passing shepherd may take pity on it

  • Childless couples were altered to an impending abandonment

Metis (All Facts)

• Mother of Athena

• Nymph known for her cunning

• Struck fear into Zeus, who swallowed her when she became pregnant with the namesake goddess

  • In retaliation, she gave Zeus a headache and he was struck on the head with an axe by which her daughter Athena sprang from the wound in his head, fully formed

Euterpe (All Facts)

• One of the muses of Greek mythology, she presides over music and plays the flute