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