Tackling Greek Religion.

These pictures reflect natural disasters that could be mistaken
for acts of the gods.
Top: Tsunami reflecting the power of Poseidon.
Bottom Left: A drought, perhaps caused by enraging a fertility
goddess like Persephone.
Bottom Right: Lightning, Zeus's true form perhaps?

Right well, previous commitments, laziness and time constraints mean that I can’t quite do this posting straight away although I am writing straight after the lecture again. Unfortunately, unlike last week I do not really have any ideas in my head.

I found the lecture quite interesting and it wasn’t till the very end that it really did make me think about religion and if the Greeks had it. When the question was posed on the board I immediately went yeah, of course. What are the reasons why they didn’t? The question confused me because it seemed obvious but I suppose by thinking about defining religion maybe they didn’t. I really liked what Susan said about how maybe they had religion but not a religion (Explain). It can’t really be separated unlike religions today. It was also pointed out that they didn’t have a word for religion, only ‘θρησκεία’ which Perseus translates as ‘religious worship, cult and ritual’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines religion as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods”. So the obvious difference here seems to be a difference between passive and active participation. Whereas religion is merely belief, ‘Thriskeia’ is active participation in the worship of that belief. Another interesting point for me was that religion is a choice for many of us now but then it wasn’t questioned at all. It was just what you did. Perhaps it was because of aetiological reasons. If you don’t know how the world was made but there are stories claiming that higher, more powerful beings than yourselves created the earth wouldn’t the easiest, simplest and the most obvious course of action simply be to worship and appease them? The gods in Greek myth are horrible and vindictive and so out of fear you would try and placate them.

For example, in the Homeric hymn to Athena when she appears out of Zeus’s head

“Mighty Olympus went reeling

 Dreadfully under the impact of grey-eyed Athena, and round it

 Earth gave a horrible groan, and the depths of the sea were excited,

Seething with purplish waves, and the salt water swell was suspended.”

(Hymn 28. 11-13)

Even Zeus, the contested king of the gods, was relieved when she took off her armour.

Examples of the vindictiveness of the gods can be found in many places – the story of Artemis and Actaeon where he comes across her bathing and she turns him into a stag and his dogs kill him in a frenzy as told in Callimachus’ Hymn 5. In Euripides’ Hippolytus, Aphrodite takes revenge on Hippolytus for worshipping Artemis alone while snubbing Aphrodite, which ends in his tragic death.

Zaidman suggests that when looking at Greek religion we need “cultural estrangement”, a separation of our own preconceptions and ideas of what ‘religion’ entails. Whenever I think of religion I know that I am thinking of it through Christian eyes because that’s all I know, even though I wouldn’t identify as a Christian myself. And that is another odd thing. Religion is a choice for most of us, or is it? My mother was brought up in a very Catholic setting where she was just expected to believe what she taught and even as an adult she felt pressured into having me christened even though she no longer believed anymore. So is religion about belief? It can just be a part of someone’s life so even though they don’t really believe wholeheartedly, they will still follow rituals because it is expected of them.

Bibliography.

• Bruit Zaidman and Schmitt Pantel (1989). Relgion in the Ancient Greek City. Translated by Paul Cartledge. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge
• Evelyn-White. H.G (Trans) (2000) Homeric Hymns 5-33. Available: http://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html#28. Last accessed 25^th March 2013.
• Mair, A.W (Trans) (2000) Callimachus Hymns 4-6 Available: http:www.theoi.com/Text/CallimachusHymn2.html#5. Last accessed 25^th March 2013.
• Oxford University Press, (2013). Religion. Available: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/religion. Last accessed 25^th March 2013.
• Perseus. (2013) Greek Word Study Tool. Available http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qrhskeia&la=greek.  Last accessed 25^th March 2013.

Images.

• http://wallpapers.free-review.net/12__Lightning.htm
• http://edgecast.metatube-files.buscafs.com/uploads/gallery/pics/gallery_pic_1612_19391.jpg
• http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/54152000/jpg/_54152151_jex_1112383_de14-1.jpg