1. Religions 2: What is Greek Religion?
Recap of last class (questions)
Compare Greek religion with Christianity in the modern West (say, Canada); what are the differences? Are these differences found in other religions today?
Theory Chapter 1

2. Characteristics Greek religion
Not monolithic > dynamic, i.e. changes in place and time
Embeddedness in society
Polytheism
Gods interconnected
Here and now
Oral
Patriarchal
No important religious class

3. Ad 1: embeddeness - Returned in all segments of society
- No division between Church and state
- No division between ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’
Both private and public (most of it communal)
ERGO > no word for ‘religion’!
No word for ‘atheist’ (someone who does not believe in god): gods are everywhere, so irrelevant
5th century BCE: atheos = ‘lack of relations with the gods’/’distanced from the gods’

4. Words that cover the ‘sacred’
Hieros: everything that has to do with god and sanctuaries; e.g. hieron = temple; hiereus = priest
Hagnos: gods: awesome; men: ritually pure
Hosios: ‘permitted or pleasing to the gods’, could also have moral meaning: ‘morally permitted’
Hagios: not delimitating (like hieros): used for temples, rites and mysteries
E.g. hiera kai hosia ‘correct ritual behaviour and (moral) treatment of other people’

5. Ad 2: polytheism
Religious system in which each deity had its role: all gods needed to be revered
No worship of one god: e.g. Hippolytos
No conversion
Greek term for piety = eusebeia, ‘revere in a good way’; asebeia: breaking ancestral rites, e.g. temple robbery; killing; holding improper ideas (e.g. Socrates); closer to ‘impiety’
Ancient religions inclusive, but were not necessarily more tolerant than monotheistic ones!

6. Ad 3: interconnected
Gods always close by, so if you overstep boundaries you will be punished (e.g. Aktaion)
Overstepping of boundaries = pollution; e.g. incest (e.g. Oedipus), cannibalism; needs purification
Systematic thinking about life after death becomes only central among Christian theologians

7. Ad 4: here and now
‘underworld’ (Tartaros, Elysian Fields) existed from early on and philosophers speculated about death
Long development > II-III p. mystery cults promise ‘salvation’

8. Ad 5: oral No sacred book, no credo, commandments etc.
Traditions transmitted orally
Explains centrality of religious practices, ‘rituals’, which are accompanied by words

9. Ad 6: patriarchal Male dominated
Males had dominant position in religious realm (unless female priest); participation in festivals only under guidance of male

10. Ad 7: no religious class
No institution ‘Greek priesthood’ (only perhaps priests at major sanctuaries); priests attached to individual cults
Cf. imams, rabbis, Christian priests; no caste (Hinduism/Buddhism)
Religious specialists: priests, seers (divination), poets (divine inspiration)