1. Religions 3: Gods & Sanctuaries
Jean-Pierre Vernant or Walter Burkert?

2. Gods Theos = god, hence our words monotheism (monos + theos) etc.
Anthropomorphic (see Homer) > often place family before justice (e.g. story of Cyclops)
Amoral, supermen/women
Rise of city-state: questioning of role of gods (ca. 500 Xenophanes); Hippolytos by Euripides (428)
Heroes: Heracles, Prometheus, Theseus
What distinguished gods from heroes?
Distinctions fluid, but heroes usually covered smaller area of life (local), limited to tombs
Cult = ‘worship’, i.e. religious rituals and practices employed in worship (see Rives, p. 23)

3. Twelve Olympian gods = pantheon
Zeus
Hera
Athena
Apollo
Artemis
Poseidon
Demeter
Dionysos
Ares
Aphrodite
Hermes
Hephaistos
Hades and Hestia? > fluid system

5. Is there a system in the pantheon?
Pantheon = system of all the gods (in polytheistic religions)
Jean Pierre Vernant: structuralist approach: relations between gods as forces (do they oppose each other or not?). E.g. Athena vs. Poseidon = intelligence vs. brute force
Walter Burkert: gods are persons, e.g. relationship between Artemis and Apollo (brother and sister)

6. 1. Zeus weather god: mountain tops
Protects moral and social order, god of justice
General, so not much worshipped

8. 2. Hera
Wife of Zeus
Goddess of marriage
Ancient goddess

10. 3. Athena/Pallas Athena Daughter of Zeus (from Metis) Polis goddess
Many temples and festivals (Panathenaeic festival in Athens)
Goddess of women’s crafts
Goddess of protection, hence war
Goddess of wisdom
cleverness and civilization against brute force and nature

13. 4. Apollo With Artemis children of Zeus and Leto God of Delphi
The other polis god: very popular
Initiation god
god of seers and oracles
god of the Muses

15. 5. Artemis Sister of Apollo goddess of hunting (old goddess)
also connected with initiation rites
but Artemis is also out in the wild, and therefore explains her role in festivals as disorder goddess

16. Dogs attack Aktaion

17. 6. Poseidon Brother of Zeus ‘off centre’ god
god of sea, horses, earthquakes: god of chaos in nature and brute force of men and animals
against Athena battle over Athens

18. Bronze of Artemision

19. 7. Demeter Connection with Poseidon
goddess of fertility/agriculture (story of Persephone and Hades; Eleusinian Mysteries)
outside goddess
abnormal sacrificial animal: pig
goddess of Thesmophoria: exclusion of women from sex; reversal festival
Goddess of Eleusinian mystery cult

21. 8. Dionysos most eccentric god initiation from boy to man
god of reversal: Anthesteria festival slaves become masters
god of ecstasy and wine
dangerous god
followed by maenads and satyrs
Opposition with Apollo. Connected with Aphrodite (love) and Artemis (order/disorder).

23. 9. Ares
god of war
also in margins
armed (connection with Athena)

25. 10. Aphrodite goddess of love outside goddess
fertility goddess by origin

27. 11. Hermes
god of thieves (more in the sense of cleverness in robbing than to overstep laws), but also of merchants
he was messenger of gods
depicted with head cap and staff (caduceus); wings to his shoes

29. 12. Hephaistos
god of fire
not important; even jokes were made about him (crippled)
husband of Aphrodite
hard worker (connection with Athena)

31. Connections between gods (Vernant’s School), so relationship to social order important
But these relations not always there: much variation, local and temporal
‘power’ and ‘person’ two sides of same coin: better see them as in tension

33. Sanctuaries
Compare Greek temple with holy places in monotheistic religions: house of the god (naos), not place of congregation
From ca. 8th century on
Temenos: sacred land with altar (bomos)
Sanctuary: needed altar, not necessarily temple

35. Location
Location of temples not only dependent on landscape but also reflected the position of the god within social order/pantheon:
Temple of Zeus on agora and Athena on akropolis; also Apollo
Outside of polis: Poseidon (cape Sounion)
Ambivalent: Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Dionysos

36. The Cult statue
Earliest statues could be made of formless material, e.g. wood (e.g. Hera at Samos); in later times, statues were usually anthropomorphic
Could be made of wood or chryselephantine (gold + ivory)
Could be more than one statue in temple (e.g. Erechtheion in Athens) but usually there was at least one statue visible along the central axis of the temple

37. Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the World

38. Nashville Parthenon

40. Statue worship (idolatry)
Not simply perceived as art object, statue worship was an interactive way of devotion:
Individual prayer (not quiet personal prayer, but standard prayers spoken out loud) accompanied from gestures, kneeling or kissing statue
Oath taking (e.g. for bussiness, marriage)
Gods could come alive (cry, make noises, cf. Mary statues)
Statues adorned with ribbons and replacing its clothes (Athena at Athens); they could be bathed or fed
Daily rituals by priests
During festivals portable statue often taken out in procession
- Statue usually visible through open door while making sacrifice outside
Staging of divine appearances (epiphanies); sound and light show
Compare with Hinduism and Ancient Egyptian religion: which points are also practised in these polytheistic religions?

44. Rest of temple by no means ‘empty’/lifeless!
- In general, there was free access to the temple (if door was open)
Worshippers left votive offerings (to thank god and/or ask for favour): temples must have been full of them; these materials were often collected in a treasury (thesauros)
Sacrifice in front of temple
Other rituals on the temple platform

46. Other functions of temple
Economical function: Bank
Political function: laws in temples
Social function: dining
Temples as museums of art: picture gallery (pinakotheke), statues