Greek Religion

1.0

Overview

What this topic covers and how it underpins the rest of the course.

1.1

What Greek Religion Was

Polytheism, and practice before belief.

1.2

The Olympians and Anthropomorphism

The chief gods, imagined in human form and character.

1.3

The Scope and Limits of Divine Power

What the gods could and could not do.

1.4

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Gods and Mortals

Honour and favour exchanged between gods and humans.

1.5

The Gods Through Their Epithets

Zeus Agoraios, Phratrios, Philios, Herkeios — one god or many?

1.6

Homer and Hesiod

How they shaped Greek ideas of the gods.

1.7

The Role and Nature of Hero Cults

Heroes worshipped between mortals and gods.

1.8

Lesser Divinities and Daimones

Nymphs, daimones and the minor powers.

1.9

Panhellenic, Localised or Personal?

How widely gods and heroes were worshipped.

1.10

Olympian and Chthonic Gods

The gods of the sky and the powers of the earth.

1.11

Fate, Hubris and Nemesis

The limits set on mortal ambition.

2.0

Overview

How individuals, rather than the state, met the gods.

2.1

Prayer, Vows and Votive Offerings

The basic way an individual approached a god.

2.2

Mystery Cults

Initiation, personal choice and individual participation.

2.3

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The Great Eleusinia (source: red-figure plaque of the cult of Eleusis).

2.4

The Healing Cult of Asclepius

God and hero, incubation and miracles (source: Asklepios anatomical votive).

2.5

The Oracle at Dodona

The advice private individuals sought.

2.6

Dreams, Omens and Epiphany

Everyday signs of the divine.

2.7

Curse Tablets and Magic

The boundary between religion and magic.

2.8

Death, the Afterlife and Orphic Beliefs

What the Greeks hoped for after death.

2.9

Religion and the Life Cycle

Birth, coming of age, marriage and death.

3.0

Overview

Religion as the framework of communal life.

3.1

Levels of Participation

Household, deme, polis and Panhellenic.

3.2

Religious Authority and Impiety

Where authority lay, and impiety.

3.3

Politics and Religion

The links between politics and religion.

3.4

The Panathenaia

Its significance for Athens (source: Panathenaic amphora).

3.5

Other Festivals

The Thesmophoria and the City Dionysia.

3.6

Religion and Warfare

The gods in war.

4.0

Overview

Temples, sanctuaries and sacred space.

4.1

The Athenian Acropolis

Layout and civic importance, including the Parthenon and Erechtheion.

4.2

Delphi and the Delphic Oracle

State and private consultation (source: Kodros Painter Pythia kylix).

4.3

Olympia and the Games

The sanctuary and its Panhellenic significance.

4.4

Temples and Sacred Space

The temenos, altars and dedications.

4.5

Sanctuaries Beyond Religion

Politics, economics, prestige and competition.

4.6

The Household and the Oikos

The hearth, Hestia and herms.

5.0

Overview

The central acts of Greek worship.

5.1

Why Ritual Was Performed

The purpose behind the acts.

5.2

Priests and Priestesses

The priest's role, aristocratic families, and the role of women.

5.3

Blood Sacrifice

Its purpose, process and significance (source: Nausicaa Painter sacrifice amphora).

5.4

Prayer, Libation and Purification

The ideas of miasma and katharsis.

5.5

Votive Offerings

State and private contexts.

5.6

The Social Function of Sacrifice

Feasting, meat distribution and the Promethean division.

6.0

Overview

The challenge philosophy posed to traditional religion.

6.1

The Rise of Philosophical Thinking

How it was viewed, and whether the ideas were truly new.

6.2

Xenophanes

His critique of the gods of Homer and their anthropomorphism.

6.3

Socrates and Impiety

His ideas on the divine and justice, and how radical they were.

6.4

The Sophists and Scepticism

The impiety trials of Anaxagoras and Diagoras.

7.1

Belief versus Participation

Did the Greeks believe, or was practice what mattered? Why “largely monotheistic” is false.

7.2

Personal versus Civic Religion

The individual and the state.

7.3

Women and Greek Religion

Women's roles across the subject.

7.4

Sanctuaries: Religious Space or Arena?

Religious space versus political and competitive arena.

7.5

Myth and Religious Worship

How myth and cult connect.

7.6

The Influence of Homer and Hesiod

Across the whole subject.

7.7

Politics and the Control of Religion

How the state managed religion.

7.8

Religion in Everyday and Civic Life

Religion woven through daily life.

7.9

Modern Scholars

The polis-religion model and lived religion (Parker, Price, Zaidman, Garland, Emerson).

7.10

Using the Sources

The five objects and three sites — what each can and cannot tell us.

7.11

Exam Technique

Section A short answers, the 10-mark source and idea questions, the 20-mark, and Section B 30-mark essays.