The religion of ancient Greece continues to influence modern society. The myths of ancient Greece are preserved through art and literature. Archaeological evidence gives information about these myths, but also how their religion was practiced. Religious temples still stand today, many of them being popular tourist destinations. Buildings, such as the Parthenon, were converted into multiple different religious buildings, depending on who occupied Greece. There were times when Christians saw the ancient religions as evil and banned people from worshipping their gods. Most people see ancient religions as extremely different to the practice of today. The gods of ancient Greece were not the being that should be worshipped in the minds of the Christians. …show more content…
One similarity is each creation myth, but each groups reaction and interpretation varies slightly. In Greek mythology, man is created in the image of the gods. Prometheus decides to give man fire, which angers Zeus, so he creates Pandora and gives her a box, telling her she is not allowed to open it. Pandora’s curiosity gets the better of her and she opens it, releasing horrible things, like plagues, envy, greed, etc. In Christian beliefs, Adam is created in God’s image and Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs. God tells them they are not allowed to eat any apples from the from a specific tree. Eve’s curiosity gets the better of her and she eats an apple, creating sin. These stories are similar explanations as to why there is evil in the world. However, Christians believe that Jesus died so humans can be forgiven for this, while Greeks saw sin as a force that tempts them and if they appease the gods, they will be safe. Each group has different interpretations on how they should react the …show more content…
The religion of ancient Greece was heavily incorporated into the government and everyday lives of the people. Every polis had a religious association (Snodgrass, 33). For example, many of the cities were related to a specific god or goddess, like Athens and Athena. The cities had central sanctuaries for their god, like the Parthenon. (Snodgrass, 33). Religion was the largest factor in political and economic life (Snodgrass, 118). Religion was brought into politics, like if a politician wanted something done, they could persuade others with threats of the gods (Snodgrass, 116). Many parties would claim that the gods were helping them with what they wanted to accomplish or that the gods were against their enemies, therefore the general public should be too for fear of the gods’
The ancient Greeks did not contribute in religion so much as the Hebrews did, their contributions were more towards writings and art, great epic poems, and democracy. Some of the greatest philosophers came from Greece, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Homer, also Greek, wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of the greatest works of all time, and also some of the more accurate records we have of life in that period of time. The government of Athens became the basis for many of the governments of society today. Their idea of a government run by the people was revolutionary and quite effective; their democracy was unique in its time. The Greeks also gave us the Phoenician writing system; they also had a polytheistic religion, sacrificing things to different Gods to gain the favor, respect or merely to please that particular God. The main contribution of the Greeks was their writings, and their philosophy to modern times. The Greeks also were responsible for building a library to hold some of their greatest works in Egypt, one of the first of its kind.
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
How the Greeks revered their gods. In ancient times, the Greeks had absolute and undeniable respect for their gods. They demonstrated their admiration by putting in place many rituals and celebrations to reverence the gods that they loved and feared in order to ensure harmony with them. In particular, the focus will be on the religious beliefs of the Greeks, including prayer and sacrifice, as well as on festivals and the arts, such as the ancient Olympic games and theatre.
Greek religion influenced greatly on the people’s daily lives.
Mythology was very important to the men and women of ancient Greece. They worshipped the gods and goddesses, wrote poems about them, and based a great deal of art work off of them. The people of Greece looked to the gods and goddesses for help in all aspects of their lives; including health, agriculture, and war. Reading about Greek mythology can inform people about the society of Greece because the Greek gods were created by the people of Greece. Three main goddesses who were worshipped by the Greeks were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
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.
Greek mythology “died” out around 2000 years ago in Greece, about the same time that Christianity began to flourish. Both Christianity and Greek mythology were spread by mouth in the beginning. Then later on, Christianity was written down in a book called the Bible that contains all of the stories, prophecies, and other works of literature. Greek mythology never had an official book with common beliefs like Christianity. This could have been one of the major causes for the fall of Greek mythology and its lack of a strong main structure. When a story is told to a large number of people without something to go by, there will be different versions. Just like the childhood game of telephone, where people whisper a phrase to one person and they say it to another, is used to explain gossip also is true for mythology. It is not wrong to go and spread the stories, in fact it can help the religion become stronger if the same story is told every time. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus says,“ Therefore go and make disciples among the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (True Images).
Slezak, P. "Gods of the State: Atheism, Enlightenment and Barbarity." Politics and Religion in the New Century: Philosophical Reflections (2009): 20. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
The similarities begin with the creation stories, although these similarities are very minimal. In both the Christian creation story, Genesis, and in many accounts of the
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...
...eir lives. Not only did the Greek gods and goddesses hold a major impact on the lives of the Greek people, but so did the spreading of the religion through architecture, poets and writings. Greek philosophers also comprised many ideologies that helped shape Greek thinking and the way people throughout ancient Greece would treat each other and their situations in life. All these religious beliefs and ideologies helped form the culture of the Greek people and explain things that wouldn't be able to be explained. The religion brought people together and helped spread tradition throughout the world. In ancient Greece, religion and ideologies were everything. They shaped culture, tradition, lifestyles, behavior, and decisions that people made in their daily lives. The religions helped for Greece to become unified and prosper throught their age of civilization.
The ancient Greek and Roman worlds made significant contributions to both the religion and ways of thinking. Greek and Roman religion was polytheistic, and they worshiped many gods and goddesses. Members of both groups strongly believed the gods influenced all natural wonders. Each Greek polis, had its own set of essential gods and goddesses, and their own meticulous way to honor and worship them. Eventually, most Greeks identified a pantheon of twelve major deities.
In the Bible and Greek Mythology both were the believe of us to God(s). In biblical stories, christians believe that the lord God created the world; he created birds, animals, and humans. Similarly, in Greek mythology, Zeus and his forces established the mount olympus to be there Eden, and he ordered to create all alive things in earth, even though he doesn’t want mortals, but the mortals still appears. Therefore, Biblical stories and Greek mythology have many similarities, both have the stories of the creation of human. In particular, the three examples that have the closest similarities are The Creation of woman, How god's punish those who don’t worship them and reward those who worship them. and The Kingdom of God.
Throughout history, religion has played an important role in the development of ancient empires. Every culture had their own religion. Some cultures had one god while others had many gods and goddesses. Religion was used in some cultures as a way of showing who had the power over all the other people. Religion spread quickly to different places and was passed down to the next generations.
For thousands of years, religion has exerted a great influence over economic and political life. Even today religion is called upon to support rulers, contacts and other legal procedures.