Ancient Greek religion (sources)

The ancient Greek Religion not existing as such, it is not possible to describe it starting from direct observations. It is thus necessary, to know it, be based on an important whole of sources, which are mainly of a literary nature, epigraphic and archaeological. Some rich person and interesting that they are, all these sources really relevant are only considered together.

Literary sources

The sources making it possible to apprehend the Greek religion are mainly of literary gasoline. The most notable point is the absence of any crowned text. None is of nature divine (or supposed such), is not monk, does not state a dogma nor does not describe in a normative way the rites. There is only business with a disparate whole of literary texts, in which are interfered scattered manner of the elements of religious nature (like descriptions of rites), Légende S, myths. Moreover, the Greek authors made a point of being characterized by their encyclopedic knowledge from the myths in question, going until quoting or inventing unknown facts of other sources. It is thus not always possible, when one meets the description of an isolated legend or a myth different from a more famous version, to slice: is this well a particular case of this legend or this myth suitable for a precise area, or an invention of the author enabling him to be distinguished from the others?

Homère

First of the Greek authors - one locates it at the neighborhoods of the eighth century BC - two works which the tradition allots to him (its existence even being prone to guarantee), Iliade and the Odyssey , are considered, until the end of the Greek Antiquité, like the first source of wisdom and training of the human values. At the time traditional still, are with 4th and 5th front centuries J. - C., the Greeks are recognized in these texts.

Those are rich of descriptions of rites (mainly of the prayers and the sacrifices), which one finds such as they are at the posterior times. Testimonys brought are thus relatively reliable. In the same way, they inform about the relationship between the men and the gods, which are seen in a very human way: they suffer (physically and psychologically), are delighted, been able to be wounded. This great proximity between the gods and the men is a traditional design of the divinity, which one frequently finds throughout Antiquity.

Example of description of a rite, with song XI, towards 23-43, of the Odyssey :

It is an invocation to dead whose stages are described by the menu: digging of a pit (deaths being located traditionally in the depths of the ground), drinkings, prayers and bloody sacrifice, the blood of the animal victims which can return to the hearts deaths enough of force as well as a certain form of conscience. This scene should not be regarded as an isolated folk element: this rite, indeed, is confirmed in this form by other documents, and testimonys are recut.

Hésiode

Author Béotie N of the end of the 8th century, two of its major works are rich in religious testimonys: most famous, the Théogonie , brings back how was created the world and gods. It is before a a whole mythological source. The second, Work and the Days , poem devoted to the agricultural world, described rites specific to the country world. It is, moreover, in this poem which one finds the Mythe of the races.

Homeric Anthems

These texts, written between the seventh century BC and 4th century a. J. - C., are not Homère, but written in its style. They form a collection of poems addressed to such or such divinity, without order nor unit of size. Their interest is especially mythological, each major god finding his biography there.

Antiquated lyric poets (7th-5th front centuries J. - C.)

There remain primarily only fragments of works of these poets. Two poets in particular are detached:

• Bacchylide (5th S.), of which several of the texts are complete; those are devoted to heroes, compared with such or such god;

• Pindare (v. 518 - v. 446), poet of court, writing to the order of tyrants (with the Greek direction of “monarch”) to celebrate sporting victories (épinicies) at the time of plays; its texts, them also, are comparisons, this time between the athletes with the gods. They offer sometimes ambiguous testimonys however. Its moral approach, indeed, makes him remove certain “awkward” passages of the divine episodes, which he acknowledges sometimes.

One can note a clear example of this particular report/ratio that the author maintains with the myths in the second part of the First Olympic . This one is devoted to the Atrides Tantale and Pélops, his/her son. The traditional mythological episode brings back how, having wanted to test the sagacity of the gods, Tantale invited them to a meal during which it served his own son in ragout to them. Déméter only ate a shoulder of it, without realizing of the ignominie of its act. This episode is problematic: it introduces gods cannibals in spite of them. Pindare cannot however, in an ode devoted to the horse-races, it to be unaware of, Pélops being indeed the mythical founder of the horse shows. The poet thus tells another version of the myth, specifying that the others are untrue and blasphématoires: Tantalum would have invited the gods with a meal of good behavior; Poséidon, however, fallen in love with the Pélops young person, would have removed it and, in front of the absence of the young man, a neighbor jealous of Tantalum would have calumniated it by saying that, precisely, if Pélops were untraceable, it is that his/her own father would have been used it for the gods. Pindare indicates here clearly that it rejects the previous versions with his: Ἐμοὶ δ' ἄπορα γαστρίμαργον μακάρων τιν' εἰπεῖν. Ἀφίσταμαι (“It is impossible for me to call “glouton” some immortal that it is. I refuse there”).

Traditional literature (end of the 5th-4th front century J. - C.)

The traditional literature is rich in indirect religious testimonys. One finds there however only one alone text, the tragedy Bacchantes of Euripide ( circa 480-406), devoting oneself exclusively to a religious subject. In the Comedy, the divinities appear often, but most of the time in a parodic way. Acharniens , comedy of Aristophane (445-380), described a rural dionysy, ceremony in the honor of Dionysos. The authenticity of description is guaranteed by the humor of the author: this one, to make laugh its public, does not invent nor does not deform the dionysy; the evocation, indeed, is not burlesque in oneself; what is it, it is that a character only leads his dionysy for him.

Hellenistic period (323-30 av. J. - C.)

Didactic works

It is at that time that start to appear analyzes, descriptions and comments of the rites. The principal problem of these testimonys is due to the preoccupation with a rationalization, appeared following Plato, which could push the commentators to modify or transform their objects of study (rites, legends, myths) in order to make them in conformity with unquestionable a logical rigor, so that the modern reader is not ensured of the authenticity of descriptions. The importance of the evhemerism (of Evhémère, writer of third century BC) is also felt: it is the tendency to justify the legends and the myths by the supposed deformation of remote historical facts. The evhemerism, for example, explains why the major gods of the the Greek Pantheon were former kings whom the human memory divinisés. Lastly, these texts are especially of philosophical gasoline: it is not possible to know what the people himself thought of his religion. Among the notable authors, it is necessary to retain Diodore of Sicily (v. 90-v. 20) and its historical Library , as well as the Pseudo-Apollodore (front 1st or 2nd century J. - C.) and its Library , kind of compilation analytical of the myths.

Poetry

Hellenistic poetry offers also some testimonys, much less sure since their authors, once again, invent myths or use rare versions of them. At all events, to like the public, it was necessary that this one knew the described legends, which excludes a too great inventiveness. Indeed, one finds at Callimaque de Cyrène (v. 310-v. 243), in its Anthems (sometimes very close to the Homeric Anthems ; it could be besides the author of some of these texts), the mention of rare rites, however known by other very remote sources sometimes. In the same way, Apollonios of Rhodos (v. 295-v. 215), in its Argonautiques (telling the legend of the Argonautes), puts in scene a myth dating at least from the Homeric period, by decorating it of rites and gods little known who, however, existed well. There is thus business with truths testimonys.

Other literary sources

Two “unclassable” authors are to be retained:

• Plutarque (v. 46 - v. 120): having even assumed to him the load of priest of Apollo to Delphes, several of its writings are devoted to the religious phenomena;

• Pausanias (2nd century a. J. - C.): untiring geographer of a great scholarship, it counts in his Périégèse , meticulous description of noninsular Greece of his time written in the form of a tourist guide, all the sanctuaries in activity, the rites of his time and past, the places holy, religious statues, buildings and other “antiquities”. True mine of information for the archeologists, some of its descriptions are of an impressive precision. The problem that raise its testimony comes from its method of investigation: Pausanias clearly does not distinguish what one told him of what he saw and of what one could see in his past.

Epigraphic sources

The epigraphic sources, for the knowledge of the Greek religion, are richest and most reliable; they are not, indeed, arts persons: the style and the originality thus do not precede there, contrary to the concision and of the informative character. The epigraphy offers multiple testimonys:

• religious calendars;
• descriptions of ritual, festivals;
• management accounts of sanctuaries (many sacrifices, taxes…) ;
• payments of religious associations (methods of entry of the members, for example);
• dedications with gods (what sometimes makes it possible to know rarer aspects of them);
• questions put to the oracles (engraved on lead plates, for example);
• reports of oracles, etc

The principal interest of these testimonys is due to their statute of rough documents: they show the collective and individual aspect of the religion, without being deformed by the literary prism. Their major defect is of course their fragmented character and often isolated from any sufficient context.

Archaeological sources

The essence of these sources comes from excavations from Sanctuaire S, which offer mainly:

• of information on the religious architecture;
• of the statues of gods;
• of the religious decorations on:
• pediments of temples,
• ionic planks,
• métopes doric;
• of the representations of rites and mythological episodes on the vases;
• of the portraits of gods on the currencies (knowing that each city is protected by a precise god, one can thus recognize rarer attributes of them), etc

Conclusion

All these sources form a disparate unit, which it is sometimes difficult to apprehend with its right value; they however make it possible to draw the large features of what ancient Greek Religion was the .

See too

Related articles

• basic Concepts;

• Aspects of the worship;
• oracles;
• ancient Greece.