WEEK 6: GREEK RELIGION AND RATIONALISM (2/22)

Greek Civic Religion

polytheistic and anthropomorphic

pervasiveness: the polis as a religious association (every polis had its god), involvement of all

commonalty

specialized knowledge rarely required for access to god (exception: oracles)

Goals

practical: here and now

do ut des ("I give so that you may give")

exceptions: mystery religions (see below)

ritual and reciprocity: piety expressed in behavior

violation of sacred space and laws: miasma, Curse of the Alcmaeonidae

Temples and Altars

temenos, "sanctuary"

Peisistratid altar, Artemis Orthia

typical temple layout and organization

the Greek temple: the Parthenon

at center of city, physically and spiritually: the Acropolis...

...OR in a rural setting of natural beauty: Bassae, Demeter on Naxos

cult statues: Athena Parthenos, Zeus at Olympia

Festivals

Athens: e. g., Panathenaea, Dionysia, Lenaea, Brauronia -- half the calendar days were festivals (not all communal)

Sparta: e. g., Hyacinthia, Carneia

Mystery Religions

The Promise of Life after Death: the Eleusinian Mysteries

Greek views of death: Hades, Elysian Fields, River Styx, underworld

site of Eleusis

story of Demeter and Persephone

symbolism of the story and the rite

The Liberation of Dionysus

Theban royal family and Euripides' Bacchae

mystery religion from the East

ecstatic in nature

few temples or fixed places of worship

especially attractive to women (maenads or bacchantes)

parallels of Dionysus and Demeter

Oracles

Delphi and the purposes of god

question of access to the god

many other oracles: Dodona, Triphonius - nature and oracles

Ionian Rationalism and Greek Science

Ionia (esp. Miletus): "Natural Philosophers"

also southern Italy and Sicily, e.g., Pythagoras (theorem a2 + b2 = c2), originally from Samos; Xenophanes, originally from Ionia

myth vs. religion

nomos (law, custom) vs. physis (nature) = "Nature vs. Nurture"

theories about the composition of the universe: what is the prime element?

other theories of science and mathematics

medicine: Asclepius, Hippocrates, Epidaurus

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Updated 2/16/08, bolmarcich[at]mail.utexas.edu