To finish...

I have now come to the end of the module Ancient Greek Religion; this was my first experience of blogging. My first experience of blogging has been difficult in certain ways this is due to the fact that I am very used to writing in an essay format that I was not sure how to approach ‘blogging’. I feel like I have managed to find my ‘blogging voice’ as I have written more blogs and I have got more used to the idea and techniques of how to blog.

One thing I was not expecting was to actually find as much information as I did about Hecate, as I knew nearly nothing about her to begin with I thought there would be only a small amount of the information however there was a lot to find when you actually looked for it. I was also surprised that Hecate was in the animated series of Hercules as I see her as one of the minor less famous Greek Gods. I feel she was only put in to the Hercules series as she is linked to Hades and he is one of the main characters of the Hercules series. Even if this is the case it still shows that Hecate was important as she is still included. Hades and Hecate in the Disney series of Hercules are in the picture. I have started and finished with a picture from the Disney series as it has truly shocked me that Hecate was chosen to play a part in the series as well as it is something that will be in the public view today.

I think that if I blog again for a module it would be in my interest to improve my time management instead of doing the blog post a week or two after the lecture, it would be better if I did the posting the same day of the lecture or very soon after. I would also try to set out what I wanted to write in my blog and in what order as then I think my blog could have been better structured and all the details I wanted to put in would probably flow better.

I have really enjoyed my first blogging experience especially using the topic of Ancient Greek Religion and I have enjoyed doing the research on Hecate and finding out about a Goddess I knew nearly nothing about. The research I have done regarding Hecate has made me want to look at her in further detail and carry on learning about her character.

 

Image

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/7Cs1Gy2J3t0/hqdefault.jpg

Imperfect Gods?

There are a few Gods that do not fit ‘perfectly’ into a particular group of deities. The main god that ‘does not fit’ in is Dionysus, who is depicted in the image. Dionysus does not fit in the Olympian twelve perfectly for many reasons; one reason is that he is technically a demi-god as his mother was Semele, a mortal that died as she asked to see Zeus (her lover) in his true form. Semele died whilst pregnant with Dionysus, Zeus rescued Dionysus and placed him in his thigh till he was ready to be born. This is why I said he was technically a demi-god as he was conceived by a mortal and an immortal however he was born from an immortal that fathered him. Dionysus is known as the thirteenth Olympian God because he does not fit in the Olympian twelve.

 

Dionysus is also not seen as a ‘perfect’ fit in to the Greek Gods as it seems he was a late arrival to Greek religion as he was not mentioned in early literature. The fact that Dionysus was ‘a late arrival’ would have meant that the play ‘the Bacchae’ by Euripides was probably true. In the play the King of Thebes Pentheus did not believe that Dionysus was a ‘proper’ God and told the people of Thebes not to worship him, he was later punished for these actions. The fact that Dionysus was a ‘late arrival’ to the Greek Pantheon would mean that he would not have been accepted or worshipped as much as the other Gods in the pantheon hence why Dionysus does not fit in the Olympian twelve as he was a later arrival and could of arrived after the ‘Olympian twelve’ had been decided on.

 

Hecate was seen as a Goddess that did not fit perfectly this is probably due to her attributes of witchcraft, the moon, necromancy and magic. The Ancient Greek people had trouble trying to fit Hecate in for a number of reasons. One of these was some people found it hard as one of her attributes was the dark side of the moon however she carried a torch, this was problematic as she stood for darkness but she was depicted holding a torch. People may have been wary of worshipping Hecate as she was the goddess of magic and witchcraft and the Greek people would have been superstitious and supporting witchcraft would have given people the wrong idea about you. Worshipping Hecate could be seen as a form of protection from the witchcraft and magic. People would worship Hekate as a form of protection from the evil eye.

 

Bibliography 

Book

Hornblower, S and Spawforth, A. (1998). The oxford companion to classical civilization (oxford)

Website

http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/bacchan.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/dionysus.html

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html

Image

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/prec/www/course/mythology/0700/dionysus.htm

Olympian Vs Chthonian

This week we have looked at another scholarly way of grouping deities, we built upon the Olympian twelve grouping and added the Chthonian group. The concept of Olympian and Chthonian deities was the concept of Georg Friedrich Creuzer (1771-1851) and Karl Otfried Muller (1797- 1840). Muller described the contrast between the Olympian deities and the Chthonian deities.  

The Chthonian group is the group of deities living in and relating to the underworld or the dark side of the world. Some of the Chthonian Gods were Hades, Hecate, Persephone and more. The image depicts Hades and Hecate these deities were both in the Chthonian group as they were both linked to the underworld. Hades ruled the underworld and the underworld was also called Hades.

The Chthonian Gods were ruled by Hades and the Olympian Gods were ruled by Zeus in Olympus. The Chthonian Gods were seen to be the complete opposite of the Olympian ones. The Olympian gods were male dominant, patriarchal and rich whereas the Chthonian Gods were indigenous dominant, matriarchal and poor/localised Gods. The Olympian Gods were seen as the strong men rulers and the Chthonian Gods were seen as the weak female rulers. Also Muller describes the Chthonian Gods as Murky Gods that embraced all areas of life and death. Muller describes the Olympian Gods as simple and ‘of the bright upper world’.  This shows there was a binary to Ancient Greek religion Parker states that the issue is the shape of the divine world as seen by the Greeks. I take this to mean that the Ancient Greeks tried to group their Gods and show that nobody was as good or superior to the Olympian twelve they had to make the Chthonian Gods the opposite as they were to do with the underworld they had to be inferior to the Olympian Gods which caused conflict between the two groups as some of the Chthonian Gods such as Hades resented being the ‘inferior’ group.

Is the idea of Olympian and Chthonian deities a scholarly fantasy? Scholars such as Muller and Creuzer came up with this idea of grouping deities but they could not always stick to it. This would suggest that this way of grouping Gods was only a scholarly fantasy as they could not even stick to the grouping methods themselves so how can everyone else? There are always challenges when things/people are put into groups as some people may not agree about the grouping so there will always be arguments regarding this between scholars. I think it id difficult when looking at these two groups as yes most of the Gods fit ‘perfectly’ in the ideals of the groups but there are Gods like Persephone that would be in one group for one half of the year and the another group for the other half of the year, as Persephone only lived in the underworld (Hades) for six months at a time.

 

Bibliography

Book

R. Parker. (2011) On Greek Religion, Cornell University Press.

Website

http://www.theoi.com/greek-mythology/underworld-gods.html

Journals

Schlesier, R.1991.2. “Olympian versus Chthonian religion.” Scripta Classica Israelica 11: 38-51

Image

http://www.owlsdaughter.com/2012/09/goddess-sunday-the-last-day-of-the-month-belongs-to-hecate/ 

Zeus the thunderbolt?

This week our focus was on Zeus the King of the Gods and the ruler of Mount Olympus. We looked at many aspects of Zeus’ character and powers. Firstly we needed to consider whether Zeus was a tyrant (tyrannos) or king. Zeus could be considered as a tyrant as he killed and overthrew the previous king of the Gods (Cronus) however Zeus is also King by progression (basileus) as he succeeded his father that died. Some may argue that is makes Zeus a tyrant and a rightful king at the same time because of the way he came to power.

We also considered the powers Zeus has; one of these powers which are not always thought about is Zeus’ power to overthrow his own fate. The Greeks believed once your fate was decided there was no going back or being able to change it, so it would have been a big thing to be able to overcome your own fate.  Zeus managed to overthrow his fate of being eaten by his father/ being killed. He was eaten but managed to survive and overthrow his father fulfilling his father’s fate. Zeus’ fate like his father was to have one of his children over throw him and kill him but that never happened showing Zeus managed to overthrow his own fate and must have been superior or very powerful as no one else could overthrow their fate. Mortals such as King Laius from Oedipus try to overthrow their fate but do not succeed. Laius was told his son would grow up and kill him and marry his wife. To avoid this Laius exposed his son at birth however his son was passed on to people from a neighbouring city and he survived and overthrew his father. This shows Zeus was superior to Laius as he managed to overthrow his own fate. This could show that Zeus was the rightful king of the Gods as he had powers that no one else had so could arguably be superior to all the other Gods and mortals.

Hecate was considered a titan due to her parentage of Persaeus (Perses) and Asteria. When Zeus came to power he took all the powers away from all the titans accept Hecate as he held her in such high regard. Hecate was left with her powers and was held in high regards by the immortal Gods. This shows that even though Hecate was the Goddess of witchcraft and ‘dark’ attributes she was still honoured and respected by the other deities showing that she was considered a Goddess to keep on your good side as she could help you in the long run.

The image shows Zeus getting ready to throw a thunderbolt. The thunderbolt was one of Zeus’ attributes. The Greeks believed that Zeus’ true form could have been a thunderbolt as Gods could not appear to mortals in their true form as this would kill the mortals so they would not have known. There is an argument that is Zeus powerful because he has the thunderbolt or because he is the thunderbolt? This is a hard argument to answer as no one would know if Zeus was a thunderbolt or if he just held one. I think we would have to go back to the belief system of the Ancient Greeks and they would probably say Zeus’s true form was a thunderbolt as they believe that Olympia was the home of the Olympic games because Zeus came down from Mount Olympus and that is where he landed, others argue that Zeus threw a thunderbolt from mount Olympus and that Olympia is where it landed. So I don’t think it is possible for us to answer whether Zeus was a thunderbolt or whether he just held a thunderbolt.

Bibliography

Books

Hornblower, S and Spawforth, A. (1998). The oxford companion to classical civilization (oxford)

Website

http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html

Images

http://archaeologystudentsspeak.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/the-artemision-zeus-by-karissa-hurzeler/

Deities in disguise?

This week we looked at Anthropomorphism in Ancient Greek Religion. Anthropomorphism means looking at something that is not a human or personal thing as a human or personal thing. Many of the Greek deities have been depicted in a human form (anthropomorphic), animal form (zoomorphic), natural elements and their attributes. The Greeks would have given their gods ‘forms’ to make them easier to worship, make the god seem more like mortals, it gave the gods a personality, if the gods looked like humans it would enable the immoral actions from the stories and it was an easy way for mortals to comprehend the gods. The Greeks would depict their Gods as humans so that went they committed immoral actions it made them seem more like mortals and make them feel closer to the human people. The immoral actions were likely to be adultery or crimes etc. Making the Gods seem human while doing these actions meant two things. One that the Mortals could do it because the Gods did it and two that even the Gods made mistakes showing nobody was perfect.

Another way Greeks depicted their Gods or Goddesses were statues. This would normally be the God in human form; the statues would be used for decoration, shrines and worship. These statues could be found in many places such as temples, houses, shrines and on the road side. People would make offerings or sacrifices to these statues that were for the God the statue depicted. The image above is a roman copy of a statue of Hecate; it depicts the Goddess three times, this type of statues is called a triformis. Statues like this could be found at a cross roads and would be a shrine to the God or Goddess they depicted or used as decoration of pillars in temples or homes.
 
Some Greeks believed that deities did not have a form or image and they would just be suggested this is called aniconism. The Athena Polias statue was a piece of olive wood that was not carved or shaped in anyway but was dressed in a woven peplos in a special ceremony every four years; it was housed in the Erechtheion on the acropolis in Athens. It was believed that this piece of olive wood and fallen from the sky and so was a direct gift from the Gods in Mount Olympus. This would have meant the olive wood was sacred and if the Greeks believed that it had fallen from Mount Olympus it could be a direct link to the deities and that would be the reason the Greeks made offerings and sacrifice to the olive wood in hope to please the Gods.

Bibliography

Books

Cleland,L. and Stears,L.(ed.2004). Colour in the Ancient Mediterranean World, BAR International Series. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges.

Journals

Kroll, J. (1982) ‘Studies in Athenian Architecture, Sculpture and Topography’, Hesperia supplements 20: 65-76

Website

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aniconic

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropomorphism

Images

http://www.rmo.nl/english/collection/highlights/roman-collection/hekate-triformis

Too many Gods?

This week we have been looking at the idea of Polytheism in Ancient Greek religion. The definition of Polytheism is the belief that there is more than one God. The word ‘Polytheism’ originates from two Greek words these are Poly meaning man and theos meaning God. Other religions such as Christianity are seen as monotheism, this means one god religion. Across Ancient Greece different cities would worship different Gods due to certain cities had a Gods patron of their city such as Athena with Athens. This did not mean that Athens would only worship Athena it just means that Athena would be the main god they worshipped and dedicated offerings to.

“For one who is about to take any serious step, whether in speech or action, I assume that the proper course is to take his beginning from the gods” (Dem, 1.1)

Demosthenes states that before any Ancient Greek person they would have to look at the Gods for guidance or help. This shows that not one particular God was worshipped or seen to give guidance to people who were about to take an important step. This shows that the Gods as a whole were very important to the people of Ancient Greece and that they confided in and trusted the Gods to help them when they needed it.

 Due to there being so many deities in Greek religion they were put in categories though it was not always clear which categories some fit in. The main category would be the Olympian twelve, even these were not fully clear. The Olympian twelve included Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and more. Hades is sometimes included in the Olympian twelve replacing Hestia or Dionysus; this brings it in to whether you class Hades as an Olympian god because he lives in and rules the underworld (Hades). The drawing above is a depiction of mount Olympus and the twelve main Olympian Gods these Gods can be identified by items they are holding to do with their attributes, such as Zeus who is sitting on a throne with a crown on as he is the king of the Gods he is also holding a thunderbolt which was his main attribute.

In Greek literature Greek divine beings (heroes and gods) were given epithets which are classed as ancient adjectives that describe their characteristics, attributes or patronage. Some examples of Hecate’s epithets are night wandering, Queen of those below and Delicate/Tender. Epithets give the reader more insight in to the divine being and can make the reader realise the characteristics of the divine being that is being displayed in the scene. Epithets also make a God or Goddess Polytheistic on their own; this means that the epithets make the divine being into several different Gods by themselves making the Greek religion even more complicated and even more polytheistic.

The fact that in Ancient Greek Religion there were so many deities it has made me wonder were there to many gods? There were so many Gods that the Ancient Greeks would worship it makes more wonder whether they could worship them all. Look from a Christianity point of view, which is a monotheistic religion (one God religion) I think that about how they would be able to worship all of these Gods. I know Ancient Greek people would normally have a particular deity that they would class as their favourite and would worship and pray to in particular. Though they would have their favourite deities they would still have to honour the other deities which would have been a challenge as there were so many. I think that the fact there were so many Gods could have been to do with Ancient Greeks belief that each God had an attribute and they wanted a God for everything to do with their daily lives. The Greeks loved the idea of Gods and there were so many for this reason.

 

Bibliography

Hornblower, S and Spawforth, A. (1998). The oxford companion to classical civilization (oxford)

.

Website

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polytheism

http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Dem.%20Ep.%201.1

http://www.theoi.com/Cult/HekateCult.html#Poetic

Images

http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/0062-greek-religion.php

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog that will go alongside my study for the module Ancient Greek Religion, which I am studying in my third year of Classical Civilization at Roehampton University. I will discuss and build upon my learning and discoveries during the module in this blog and hope to bring across my own views and opinions on scholarly debates as well as build upon and develop my own views that I already had before starting the module regarding Ancient Greek Religion.

For these blog posts we have been told to pick a particular figure or aspect of Ancient Greek Religion to focus on. I have decided I want to focus on a figure from Greek religion as this will make it easier to focus on the aspects of the module to do with a figure and go into more detail than it would be focus on an aspect. I have been trying to think about which figure I could choose to focus on. I do not want to focus my blog on a figure I have already studied in detail or know a lot about. This means I will not be able to choose Aphrodite as I looked at her for the Myth project module in year two. I also would not like to do one of the 'obvious' gods such as Zeus, Hera and Athena as I already know a great amount about these deities and would not have been learning a lot from this module and I want to take the most I can from this module as otherwise there would not have been much point in doing the module. So which figure from Greek Religion do I choose to focus this blog on?

I have decided to focus my blog on Hecate (Hekate) as she is a deity that I know nearly nothing about. Hecate is the Goddess of witchcraft, night and the dark side of the moon, magic and necromancy. Hecate is depicted above in a cartoon form from the Disney animated series of Hercules. In Hercules, Hecate tries to steal Hades ‘Godhood’ and tries to take over the underworld; she also kidnaps the major Greek heroes and steals their powers to give them to a monster. The willow tree was seen as sacred to Hecate and if it was found in a garden, it would mean that the garden was dedicated to her (McIntosh 2005:3). This shows that even though she was considered a minor deity she was still held in high regard.

Greek Name	Transliteration	Latin spelling	Translation
Ἑκατη	Hekatê	Hecate	Worker from a far (Hekatos)
Ἑκατα	Hekata	Hecata

The above table from www.theoi.com shows the Greek names, the transliteration, Latin spelling and the translation of the name. I have included this as I believe it creates a better understanding of how the Greeks saw Hecate. The translation from Greek to English of Hecate is 'worker from a far' this is where her patronage of witchcraft and magic comes in. Worker from a far I take to mean someone that makes things happen at a distance so she performs magic to make things happen at a distance or in the background.

Bibliography

McIntosh, C. (2005) Gardens of the Gods: Myth, Magic and Meaning. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. London

Website

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html

Images

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Hecate