Riligious Expression In Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek and Roman Religious Expression 1

Ancient Greek and Roman Religious Expression

John Lloyd

HUM/100

Ancient Greek and Roman Religious Expression 1

Ancient Greek and Roman society, has overcome many changes throughout history. When looking into the Greek and Roman society, there are questions that come up like, what did they do, and whom did they worshipped? One thing the Greeks and Romans were known for is their Gods and Goddesses. The Gods and Goddesses all have stories about them that have captivated us all. These stories give and explanation to how things were created. In this paper, I will try to explain the religious expression of the ancient Greek and Roman society.

The ancient Greek and Roman society had a deeply rooted religious background and all the people were profoundly religious. These people worshipped numerous Gods and Goddesses which they assumed could take on the form of humans. They also believed that these Gods and Goddesses were given super human strength with extreme beauty. These Gods and Goddesses were worshiped in each of the Greek cities, although one God or Goddess would normally be the protector of that city. The people would pay special attention to this deity, for example, in the city of Athens; the Goddess Athena would receive the most attention because she is the protector of that city.

The worship of Gods and Goddesses was a practiced ritual in Greece during this period; becoming and impact these rituals were immeasurable in regards to the process of building the Greek and Roman culture. This worship became an extraordinary and liberating experience. Reading about the variety of practices and rituals for the Gods and Goddesses of the Greek and Roman Society, I

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began to see the significance of the worship in relation to the people of that period. The citizen of the ancient Greek and Rome were defined by their position in the society. By looking at the worshiping of the God and Goddesses, we see that there are precise functions for these Godly beings as well as the freedom that it allowed during worship time.

Here are few examples of the Gods and Goddesses: Athena was the goddess of war and wisdom, Demeter was the Goddess of agriculture and was sometimes thought of as the calming power of the Greek and Roman Society. Hara was the wife of Zeus and was very much linked with matrimony, which offered a feminine side to a male dominated era. Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, and was linked to the mannish traits and shunned womanly traits. Hesia was acknowledged in Rome as Vesta, she was the goddess of the hearth. Aphrodite was recognized as the goddess of love and Hectate was the goddess of the witches or commonly know as the goddess of the crossroads. Hectate was linked with death, and the hounds of hell. Finally, the last one I wish to list is a God, his name was Dionysos, and he was noted for being the god of nature. Dionysos inspired a following largely of women.

In the Greece and Roman society, it was the rituals and religious practices that was done in the worship of Gods and Goddesses that took on an significant meaning. These celebrations held a vital role in the lives of the citizens of Greece and Rome which had an affect on such things like social and political

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roles. Most of the people in this society only had worship and very little rights other than worship. By the use of worship and the rituals involved with earth, love, death, supernatural, and agricultural, the citizens were allowed to escape their cage of authority.

Therefore, this was a necessity for the people everyday life. It was with Athena that came with a heroic representation of war and wisdom. Hara confirmed the authority of matrimony, and Demeter gave the people the themes of agriculture and civilization; Hestia gave woman a higher dignity and a position on a family and social level. Each of these spiritualities and more made it possible for the people of the ancient Greece and Rome to worship and use rituals to revealing paths of escape, power and fulfillment to a class of people kept in demoralizing roles. It is through the religious and ritual demonstration that the people could show the significance of the eternal nature of the God and Goddesses.

Ancient Greeks would look to be honored by the gods, so they would make sacrifices in the hopes that when trouble came the Gods and Goddesses would help them. They would sacrifices things like animals and precious items that were held dear to them. The ancient Greeks also liked to dance. The dancing was a significant part of worship to Greece and the Romans. It was believed that to dance would help with both emotional health and physical. Of the many dances that these people had, they were performed for certain reason such as war, athletes' religious worship, weddings, funerals, and celebrations. These

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dances incorporate some form of religion and were completed with music played on instruments such as the lyre, flute, cymbals, and the tambourines. The music was used in many cases to scare away the evil spirits. There was also education; the education was used for the purpose of reproducing citizens that would be filled with knowledge in the arts which would organize the people for peace or war. As in all things, religion played a big part in this. Since the arts relayed the religious messages that the society wanted the young people to follow.

So far, it seems as if all the citizens were 100% for the Gods and Goddesses, but in truth there were many that criticized the spite of the Gods and Goddesses that was portrayed through the stories all the way back to the Homeric times. Even though this criticism was going on, it did not affect the people worship. The Greeks continued to build temples to worship their Gods and Goddesses, in fact, all the cities had many temples, and this was because there was a temple for each God or Goddess. The most significant temples and statues of the Gods and Goddesses were made well after Xenophanes. Xenophanes was a critic against the gods of Greece. The people of Greece practice their worship of these