The gods are a major part of the Polytheistic Greek religion. There were many different gods of Greece. The Olympian gods led by Zeus and there were also other gods in the epic poem known as the Iliad. The Gods were called upon a lot. The purpose for them was to have an advantage or to have a better way of completing task in the easiest way possible. Each god had his or her own distinct personality and domain. For example Ares the Ancient Greek god of war. The greek militia may sometimes if not always pray to him for extra help in a battle. Obviously because of his tag, god of war, this would help them to get advantages over the enemy and to lead them on the path to victory. These type of traits are bestowed upon most of the gods. Each for different reasons and ways of helping. Like already stated the Olympian Gods were the most important. These gods were Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes,Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hephaistos, and Dionysos. There are many Olympian gods but to just describe a few Athena, Poseidon, and Hera shall be the three to talk about. Athena i...
From the beginning, the gods emerged from “cosmic forces” and slowly defined their individual personalities and forms, “their functions articulated in relation to each other” (Clay 105). The authority of Zeus forces the rest of the gods to keep their powers balanced by filling certain niches. In the Eumenides, Pythia begins by singing a prayer to honor the gods. Although she first honors Gaia, Pythia spends a few lines talking about Apollo and his relation to Zeus. When she calls on Zeus, she calls him “the Fulfiller, the highest god” (Aeschylus, Eumenides, p. 112, 17-19). Her approval and reverence towards Zeus is made clear immediately. Even before that, Pythia acknowledges that Apollo was “Zeus inspired” and the “spokesman of Zeus,” thus making him higher up in her hierarchy of gods (Aeschylus, Eumenides, p. 112, 17-19). Zeus is known for his many godly offspring who were all “Zeus inspired”. Along with Apollo, god of music and arts, this list also includes Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Being made from the same cosmic forces, all of the gods developed their own strengths to fulfil certain niches (Clay 106) At the end of this individualization process, there is the “emergence of a stable, ordered, and harmonious cosmos” (Clay 106). As a result, new standards of conforming and being uniform became apparent through the
The religion of this culture group involved many gods. Unlike the present-day United States of America where the running of the country depends on the separation of church and state, religion, including the pleasing of the gods, heavily influenced the government of the ancient Greeks. Of all the gods they had, the most important gods of this religion emerged
One thing Ancient Greece was known for was its religion. In Greece the religion was based mostly on myths (“Religion”). There was a god or goddess that represented a different role in the everyday life of a Greek citizen (“Religion”). Each deity was believed to provide and protect for the people of Greece (“Religion”). “To receive benefits from the gods, they had to offer prayers, sacrifices, and gifts” (“Religion”). Each citizen had to respect the areas where the gods and goddesses were believed to have lived (“Religion”). “Each city had their own patron god or goddess” (“Religion”). Also, each city had temples and altars for their patron god or goddess (“Religion”). “Religious festivals were an important part of the social life of ancient Greek cities” (“Religion”). To worship their deity people held public and private ceremonies for them (“Religion”). They’re 12 major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Hestia (“Religion”). Even though they are the most worshipped deities, the Greeks worshipped Prometheus, the god of civilization and technology (“Technology”).
When we look at Greek Mythology we often run into the gods of that era. Sometimes they are merely backdrops to the human element of the story but in stories such as The Odyssey the gods play a prominent if not vital role to the central themes of the story.
For one, the Gods are worshipped for their ability to act because their power far exceeds the likes of mortals, but also for their achievements. For instance, Hector sends prayers to Zeus, hoping to rouse him into participating in the annihilation of Achaeans, as shown by the following passage:
In many ways, Greek gods are very much like human. They exhibit different emotions and act according to their own desires. According to Mike Webster from the Grand Valley State University, Greek gods “act capriciously, frivolously, and even immorally, that they are not particularly heroic, and that they lack the religious seriousness we might expect from a god”. These qualities that the Greek gods possess enable them to develop a deeper connection to the mortal world that gods from other religions usually do not and for the Greeks to relate to their gods more personally. In many myths, gods mingle in the world of mortals and interact directly with them. Zeus has many affairs with mortals; Athena fights with the mortals. In other texts, gods
The Nation of Israel, specifically Abraham, has been credited with the birth of the first monotheistic religion; however, monotheistic principles were present in other ancient civilizations before the creation of the chosen people of Israel, specifically with Zoroastrianism and ancient Egyptian religions.
Many people would blatantly state that the importance of the gods in Greek society derives from the fact that Gods in any society are usually used to explain phenomenon that people cannot logically comprehend, but in ancient Greece gods were actually entities that took part in the workings of society itself. Even simple aspects of day-to-day life such as sex and disputes between mortals were supposedly influenced by godly workings. Unlike modern religions such as Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, where an omnipotent force supposedly controls the workings of the world, a hierarchy of Gods characterized religion in ancient Greece. Working as one big family, which they actually were, each one of the Greek gods governed a certain aspect of the world in a way that usually reflected their own humanlike personalities. These unique personalities also contained many human flaws such as envy and greed, and were where the Greek God’s importance lay. Greek religion was more concentrated on the way an individual dealt with situations that popped up in the world around him than on understanding the world itself. In other words the Greeks were more interested in the workings of the mind than in the workings of the environment around them.
Ancient Greek Religion There are many topics to be explored in Ancient Greek mythology. This unique polytheistic religion was based upon myths about anthropomorphic gods and goddesses. It impacted every facet of Grecian life, from law and ritual to culture and art. The individual as well as society both influenced the characteristics of the religion and were influenced by the religion itself. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece explains a variety of ways in which the Greeks were influenced by their religion.
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
All the gods and goddesses within the ancient greek religion were heavily worshipped by the Spartans, in particular Artemis Orthia, Poseidon and Apollo. The gods convey the society’s values and ethics. Artemis Orthia, was the combination of two deities, who
The ancient Greeks practiced a religion that was in effect, a building block to many ensuing pagan religions. This religion revolved around their reverence to the gods. Essentially, the Greeks worshipped numerous gods, making their religion polytheistic. They believed that exercising the opportunity to choose between a wide array of gods to worship offered them a great sense of freedom that they treasured. After all, the Greeks were known for their intellectual distinction of which their means of worship played a huge part. Each city-state, or polis, thus had an affiliated god who protected and guided its residents. Within a given polis, the belief in common gods unified the people. Ultimately, the Greeks yearned for this unity and order in the universe, which is a characteristic that is not unlike that of people today. It might seem contradictory that they believed in many gods and sought organization at the same time, for larger numbers are inherently unstable. But, to the god-fearing Greeks, each god represented a different facet of life that together upheld an organized universe if each of these gods was properly appeased. To satisfy these gods, the Greeks participated in activities such as prayer and sacrifice and erected divine temples and centers for oracles in honor of specific gods. There is evidence of this institutionalization early on in the reign of the Olympian gods, thus forming the Olympian religion.
The concepts of the gods and fate were created to explain things. In Ancient Greece there was a lot that was not understood; science was in its infancy and everything that happened could be explained by the will of the gods or fate. The gods were the height of power; they supposedly existed since the beginning of time. They were immortal, omnipresent and omnipotent. However, the different gods had different personalities. In this sense they were anthropomorphic. Having such mastery of the world would enable them to control man's behavior, as is shown in King Oedipus.
...es to Hera, before and after the games. Athena is the god of wisdom and reason. She sprung fully grown and armored from Zeus’s head. The city Athens is named after her. Apollo is the god of properly. Apollo is also known as the god of the sun. Apollo was known for his looks and skill for archery. Apollo was a very tough god the gods were frightened from him. But he also had a soft side to him. He played the lyre that would provide beautiful music to mount Olympus Aphrodite is the goddess of love and war.
Hundreds of years ago people did not have the technology to explain different forces of nature. They created gods, each with separate powers, to rule their domains. Some of the gods were merciful, some were wicked, and others were merely servants of more powerful gods. Looking at the gods, it is easy to tell what the civilization most valued. I am going to look at the Greek and the Norse gods to compare what was most important to their societies.