27.09.2019

Religion of ancient Greece. ancient greek religion

History of Religion: Lecture Notes Daniil Anikin

2.5. Religion of ancient Greece

The ancient Greek religion differs markedly in its complexity from the ideas that the average reader has about it based on acquaintance with adapted versions of Greek myths. In its formation, the complex of religious ideas characteristic of the ancient Greeks went through several stages associated with a change in the social structure and the people themselves - the bearer of these ideas.

Minoan era(III-II millennium BC). The Greeks separated from the Indo-European root and occupied the territory now belonging to them only in the 2nd millennium BC. e., replacing another, more ancient and developed culture. The hieroglyphic writing that has survived from this era (which is commonly called Minoan) has not yet been fully deciphered, therefore, the religious ideas of the predecessors of the Greeks who lived in Crete and the Peloponnese can only be judged by the remnants preserved in the religion of the Greeks themselves. The gods of the inhabitants of Crete had a zoomorphic (animal-like) character: they were depicted in the form of animals and birds, which obviously resulted in the myth of the Minotaur - a creature that had a human body and a bull's head. Interestingly, most of the information that has come down to us refers to female deities, while male deities were either present in the Minoan religion in the background, or the rituals associated with them were shrouded in a veil of secrecy that did not allow unnecessary statements. Agricultural cults were also widespread - it was from local monasteries that the Greeks of a later era borrowed ideas about a dying and resurrecting deity, whose death and rebirth symbolized the restoration of nature after a period of drought.

Mycenaean era(XV-XIII centuries BC). It was this religion that was preserved in the oldest of the Greek epic poems that have come down to us - Homer's Iliad. Despite political fragmentation, the Greeks during this period managed to maintain cultural unity, dating back to common Indo-European roots, integrating into their existing religious performances individual elements of the religion of the local population. The main deity of the Greeks during this period, as far as can be judged from the surviving sources, was Poseidon, who performed not only the function of the ruler of the seas, which the Greeks of the classical era attributed to him, but also disposed of the land. The surviving sources also mention Zeus, whose very name is of Indo-European origin (Zeus = deus, that is, in the literal sense, this is not a name, but an epithet meaning belonging to a deity), but he clearly plays a subordinate role. Another significant deity of the Mycenaean era is Athena, but not in the form of the goddess of wisdom more familiar to us, but as a patron goddess, extending her patronage to individual aristocratic families or entire cities.

Regarding the cult component, we can say that sacrifices in Mycenaean Greece were a common attribute of any religious festival, but they sacrificed not captives, but livestock(most often bulls), and the number of animals sacrificed could be very significant. Special priests and priestesses carried out sacrifices, although the Mycenaean Greeks did not build special temples dedicated to individual gods. Sanctuaries were usually altars in sacred places or oracles, in which the will of God was proclaimed through the mouths of high priests falling into a mystical trance.

classical era(IX-IV centuries BC). Invasion of Greece in the 12th century BC e. Dorian tribes belonging to another branch of the Indo-European peoples, led to a cultural decline, which was called the "Dark Ages" in the research literature. The religion that resulted from another synthesis acquired a general Greek significance, taking shape in the form of an integral pantheon of gods headed by Zeus. All the gods revered in certain areas of Greece (Hera, Dionysus) or having a borrowed character (Apollo, Artemis) entered the divine pantheon as children or brothers of Zeus.

The work of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod (VIII century BC) "Theology" ("The Origin of the Gods") presents a holistic picture of the creation of the world. The world was not created from nothing, it turned out as a result of the ordering of the primordial Chaos and the emergence of several deities - Gaia (earth), Tartarus (the underworld) and Eros (life-giving force). Gaia, having given birth to Uranus (sky), enters into marriage with him and becomes the mother of the older generation of gods - the titans, headed by Kron. Kron overthrows his father and, trying to avoid a similar fate, devours his children, whom the same Gaia gives birth to him. The Greeks of the Hellenistic era, trying to rationally comprehend this myth, correlated the name of the god Kron with the word hronos - time, arguing that in allegorical form their ancestors tried to express the following idea: time is ruthless in relation to its own children - people. Krona, according to the prediction, overthrows his own son Zeus from the throne and sends to Tartarus, who becomes the ruler of the land, giving other spheres to his brothers: Poseidon - the sea, Hades - the underworld. In classical Greece, Zeus appears as supreme god, while retaining the function of the god of thunder, the lord of thunder and storms, inherent in him even among the Indo-Europeans. The functions of some other gods change: Hera from a warrior goddess becomes the wife of Zeus and the patroness of the family hearth; Apollo and Artemis, who are of Asia Minor origin, become the children of Zeus and the patrons, respectively, of art and hunting.

Another innovation of the classical era is the appearance of the cult of heroes, to which certain aristocratic families erected their origin, more precisely, such cults existed before, but now they are beginning to correlate with the divine pantheon. Heroes acquire the status of demigods, becoming the children of Zeus from ties with mortal women, and the greatest of them, no doubt, is Hercules, to whom the kings of Sparta, Macedonia and some other regions of Greece erected their family. A more frequent manifestation of this cult was the honors given to the winners of the Olympic Games in their hometowns: a statue was erected to the winning athlete at the expense of the townspeople and food was provided for life, and some of them after death became the patrons of their own city, acquiring a semi-divine status.

The era of Hellenism, which began with the victorious conquest of Persia and Egypt by Alexander the Great, introduced its own innovations into the Greek religion: cults of alien deities - Isis, Amun-Ra, Adonis - were established in the original Greek territory. The signs of reverence towards the king are colored with a religious feeling, in which one can also see the Eastern influence: the figure of the king is deified, which the Greeks of previous eras could hardly have imagined. In this modified form, ridiculed by writers (Lucian) and attacked by early Christian thinkers (Tertullian), Greek religion survived until the collapse of the Roman Empire, after which its traces are lost.

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Religion of Ancient Greece General essay. The oldest cults and deities Thanks to the preserved sources, the ancient Greek religion has been studied comprehensively. Numerous and well-studied archaeological sites - some temples, statues of gods, ritual vessels have been preserved

As regards the actual religions of ancient Greece, then (if you do not take into account the surprisingly vivid and carefully developed mythology) it did not contain anything original. The Greeks never had any holy books, no theology, no religious and moral precepts. The priests did not form a powerful corporation here and did not play a significant political role, as it was, for example, in Egypt.

If the Egyptian clergy were the environment in which theological thought, medicine, mathematics were cultivated, if the Israeli clergy fought for the moral education of the people, then the Greek priests were only performers of rituals, pronouncers of incantations and organizers of sacrifices. Therefore, many religious ideas were framed here not by theologians in the true sense of the word, but by poets - primarily by Homer and Hesiod.

Herodotus subsequently wrote that before Homer, the Greeks had no clear idea about the gods, their lives, relationships and areas of activity. One can thus speak of a peculiar phenomenon - "Homeric religion", for which the poems of the Ionian singer served as something like a sacred book.

Olympian Gods in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

Indeed, the Iliad and the Odyssey contain a lot of scenes depicting the life and relationships of the family clan of the Olympian gods. It was headed, as you know, by Zeus, who shared power with his two brothers - the lord of the sea Poseidon and the ruler of the underworld Hades. A large role along with them was played by the wife-sister of Zeus Hera, his children:

Apollo
Hermes
Hephaestus
Aphrodite
Artemis, as well as some other deities (for example, the fertility goddess Demeter)

Drawing the gods, Homer took people as a model for them. This was a huge step forward compared, for example, with the ancient Egyptian animal gods. But at the same time, such a view of the gods was fraught with great danger - guessing in the divine rational principle, the Greeks put into it all the variety of purely human limitations and purely human weaknesses.

By and large, the Homeric gods did not actually carry anything superhuman. First of all, they were not truly spiritual beings, since they had a body, albeit a special, gigantic one, but still a body. They needed sleep and rest, loved merry feasts and willingly indulged in love games.

In addition, the gods were greedy for offerings, envious, treacherous, jealous and petty. The only fundamental difference between the Olympians and people was their immortality, but even this was not inherent in their nature, but was supported by the adoption of the magic drink of nectar. A particularly sensitive shortcoming of the Zeus pantheon was the lack of clear ethical principles in it.

Since primitive antiquity, ethics has gone hand in hand with religion. The moral ideal of the Olympians was so shaky that after a few generations it caused protests and ridicule from the Greeks themselves.

In Homer we also find the prevailing idea of afterlife- it was gloomy and hopeless. Vivid description it is contained in the Odyssey. The poet endows the sleepy realm of Hades with the features of a nightmare. This is the abode of semi-conscious shadows wandering in black underground abysses, the entrance to which is shrouded in eternal night. In this mournful world, hellish rivers roar, in which naked dead trees and pale flowers are reflected. Monsters dwell here and criminal titans are executed.

Mythology of ancient Greece

In addition to Homer's poems, the religious ideas of the ancient Greeks were summarized in Hesiod's Theogony. The poet collected in it legends and myths concerning the origin of the gods and the world. We will not talk in detail about this creation of a conscientious mythographer - there are no special religious revelations in it.

Like many Eastern peoples, the Greeks did not know a single creative principle, standing at the origins of being. At the beginning of the universe, they saw only a blind, faceless mass, which they called chaos. The divine principle, dissolved in it, manifested itself only as a result of the act of birth. Therefore, Hesiod begins his story with chaos and the eternal Mother Earth.

Further, the sexual element plays a huge role in the structure of the universe - the gods enter into marriages with each other and give birth to other gods. So the Earth gave birth to her husband - Uranus, shining with stars, who overshadowed her. They were bound by the power of Eros - the eternal beginning of life-giving and fruitful love.

Then there is a story about the change of generations of the gods - how Uranus was castrated and overthrown by his children-titans, led by Kron, and those, in turn, after a hard battle, were defeated by the Olympian gods. Since then, Zeus began to rule the world.

Ancient cult of Dionysius

Along with the Olympian religion of Homer and Hesiod, there were other religious cults in ancient Greece, only partly connected with it by later myths. Religion of ancient Greece often based on giving and works of art.

Quite special in its spirit and very ancient was the cult of Dionysus, which had a profound influence on the entire Hellenic consciousness. Its bright hallmark were Dionysia - unbridled female orgies.

On certain days, the venerable mothers of the family, women and girls went into the dense forests and here, intoxicated with wine, indulged in wild frenzied dances. It was believed that in those moments they entirely belonged to the deity of the productive forces of nature - Dionysus or Bacchus.

Surrendering to the power of Dionysus, a person shook off the fetters of everyday life, freeing himself from social norms and common sense. The guardianship of the mind disappeared, the Bacchante, as it were, merged with the flow of divine life and was included in the elemental rhythms of the universe. Later, the violent deity was introduced into the Olympian family - he was declared the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele.

In the classical era, when ancient primitive ideas ceased to satisfy the inquisitive Greek thought, new religious teachings appeared.

Orphic doctrine

The earliest of these was Orphism, named after its founder Orpheus, the legendary seer and musician who personified the harmony of the divine spirit.

According to myths, this prophet came from Thrace and lived in the Achaean era. His mother was considered the muse Calliope.

The game and singing of Orpheus were so perfect that even the elements obeyed them; when he traveled with the Argonauts, the waves and the wind humbled themselves, enchanted by his wondrous music.

The most famous myth about Orpheus tells how, trying to return his beloved wife Eurydice, who died from a snakebite, he descended into the Underworld. And even there, his lyre worked wonders: the monsters, having heard his marvelous music, closed their mouths, the evil Erinyes calmed down, the ruler of Hades himself was subdued by Orpheus.

He agreed to give him Eurydice, but on the condition that the singer walked ahead and did not look back at her. But Orpheus could not overcome his anxiety and turned around. Because of what, Eurydice was again carried away into the abyss - this time forever. The inconsolable singer after that for a long time wandered the earth, not finding peace Once in Thrace, he met a crowd of mad Bacchantes who, in a fit of frenzy, tore him to pieces.

Such, according to legend, was the fate of the founder of Orphism, who died in ancient times, even before the beginning of Trojan War. However, modern historians have every reason to believe that this doctrine appeared much later.

The main source for acquaintance with him are the so-called "Orphic hymns". It is believed that their records date back to the 5th c. BC, and finally they took shape no earlier than the 2nd century. BC The Greeks themselves were sure that Orpheus learned secret wisdom in Egypt.

According to the cosmogonic and theogonic positions of Orphism, the world order is based on two principles: the female maternal nature and the fertilizing power of Dionysus. But at the same time, in Orphism, there was an idea of a supreme unity, which consisted in a certain divine element, the eternal womb of the world. In some texts it was called Chronos, Time.

Chronos gave birth to the bright Ether of the sky and seething Chaos. A cosmic egg was born from them, which contained all the germs of the Universe:

Gods
titans
Of people

When the giant egg cracked, a shining Protogonos came out of it, that is, the Firstborn - a god embracing all natural diversity. In some respects the Orphic theogony followed Hesiod's poem. But that wasn't the point.

Orpheus taught that Zeus, having swallowed the Firstborn, became identical with him. Zeus in the religion of the Orphics is the only world deity who appears in many faces. There is one Power, one Divinity, a great Beginning for everything. But the story of the gods does not end there.

The Thunderer enters into an alliance with the Underworld and from her queen Persephone will give birth to a son - Dionysus-Zagreus. The appearance of this deity does not mean a rejection of faith in a single force that permeates the cosmos. Dionysus Zagreus for Orpheus was, as it were, the hypostasis of Zeus - his power, his strength. Thus, Dionysus is Zeus, and Zeus is none other than the Firstborn.

The most original part of the Orphic doctrine was the doctrine of man. The myth tells that once the titans took up arms against Dionysus, who, trying to elude them, took on various forms. When he turned into a bull, the enemies overtook him, tore to pieces and devoured him. Only the heart, the bearer of the Dionysian essence, remained intact.

Adopted in the bosom of Zeus, it was reborn in the new Dionysus, and the heavenly thunders burned the rebels. From the remaining ashes, in which the divine was mixed with the titanic, the human race arose. This means that man has a dual nature - divine and titanic. The latter leads people to bestiality, and it mercilessly plunges them into the dungeon of the body.

The soul in the teachings of Orpheus was considered the highest principle. Suppressed by the body and imprisoned in it as in a tomb, she is forced to drag out a miserable existence within its borders.

Orphic lifestyle

Even death does not bring liberation from the clutches of titanic nature. Orpheus taught that after death, the soul - this Dionysian spark - under the yoke of low nature returns to earth again and inhabits another body.

Target human life is to free the soul from the captivity of the material world - to get out of the endless chain of reincarnations and return to the deity again.

To do this, a person must develop in himself the divine side of being - the Dionysian principle. This was served by the special mysteries of the Orphics and their whole way of life.

First of all, those embarking on the path of enlightenment were required to observe the precepts of goodness. Orphic was obliged to wage a relentless struggle against titanism in his heart. And his thoughts and deeds had to remain pure. There were other rules of conduct. So, Orpheus was attributed a ban on eating animals. Bloody sacrifices were rejected. The whole life of the Orphics took place in complex magical rites.

Separate ideas of Orphism were close to many Greeks. In the VI-V centuries. BC this creed, apparently, was widespread, but it never became truly popular.

Orphic communities - small closed circles - existed until the beginning of our era. Holistic religion of ancient greece never formed into flesh until the advent of Christianity.

The Greek religion was based on various traditions and traditions, often rooted in the deep past. Some deities (Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Hermes) were known in the Mycenaean era, others (Apollo, Ares, Dionysus) were borrowed from neighbors. In addition to the Olympian deities, revered by all Greeks, there were a huge number of gods and heroes who were worshiped only in a certain area. Peasant gods are also known, who were once idols of fertility or patrons of the boundaries of land. There were many different legends about the origin of various gods. At the turn of the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. the poet Hesiod collected these myths together in his poem Theogony. Around the same time, the main forms of worship and rituals that were practiced later developed.

Olympian religion

Dionysus and his retinue. Marble relief, 4th c. BC e. Louvre, Paris

The world of the gods in the representation of the Greeks is a reflection of the world of people. Zeus and other gods live in luxurious halls on Olympus and gather for a common feast, during which they consult and argue with each other. The gods are completely anthropomorphic, they are able to experience human passions, including the ability to love, suffer and hate. They are immortal, their power exceeds human; often intervene in the fate of people and endow them with happiness or misfortune, not so much by justice, but by personal whim. The gods are fickle, they can turn away from the one they just helped, but generous donations can win their hearts over to their side.

However, even the gods are not omnipotent. Their lives, just like the lives of people, are ruled by an impersonal destiny. (Ananka). In humans, it determines birth, lifespan and death, and even the gods cannot change it. It is in their power only to postpone for some time the fulfillment of what was destined. Due to political fragmentation and the absence of an influential priestly class, the Greeks did not have a unified system of religious dogmas. Instead, there was a parallel a large number of very close but not identical religious systems. All Greeks recognized the same gods, had general principles beliefs that concerned ideas about fate, the power of the gods over the world, the position of a person, his posthumous fate, etc. At the same time, there was no canon that would define the forms and content of the main traditions, as well as cult practices, which differed significantly in various areas .

The temple was considered the house of the god, and the statue installed in it was the body of the god. Access inside the temple was open only to priests and ministers. The main cult activities took place outside. Altars on which sacrifices were made were also erected outside the temple, often in front of its facade. Both the building itself and the site surrounding it (temenos) were considered sacred and enjoyed the right of inviolability.

Rituals and sacrifices did not require special training, anyone could do it. Each independently determined the nature and principles of his faith, provided that he did not deny the gods in general. This freedom was the most important prerequisite for the emergence of secular knowledge of the world, which Greek philosophers could develop without fear of incurring the wrath of political or religious authorities.

About the features of religion in Ancient Greece - briefly and from the point of view of a modern Greek historian in our review.

The illustration shows the main gods accepted in the religion of ancient Greece, known as the Olympian gods.

The illustration shows the main gods accepted in the religion of ancient Greece, known as the Olympian gods. Traditionally there are twelve, but Hades and Dionysus are also included. These twelve gods were worshiped both in the form of a general cult, and each god separately. Mount Olympus was the home of the Olympian gods, according to Greek mythology. highest peak Greece (the highest peak of the mountain is Mytikas peak - Mytikas - 2919 m), the name "Olympic gods" also comes from the name of the mountain. Poseidon and Hades, in the views of the ancient Greeks, were outside Mount Olympus - in their possessions - respectively, in the sea and in the underworld.

So, the twelve Olympian gods were:

1. Zeus (Zeus, or Dias) - the supreme god of the ancient Greek pantheon, the father of gods and people, the son of the titan Kronos (Kronos, all the titans - the children of Uranus and Gaia (the goddess of the earth) were twelve, like the Olympic gods, Zeus defeated his war father of Kronos, as the latter had previously defeated his father Uranus);

2. Hera (Hera, the Roman counterpart of Hera is the goddess Juno.) - the wife and sister of Zeus, the queen of the gods of Olympus, the goddess of marriage and family;

3. Poseidon (Poseidon) - the god of water and the seas, one of the three main gods, along with Zeus and Hades;

4. Hestia (Hestia, among the Romans Vesta) - the sister of Zeus and the goddess of the family hearth and sacrificial fire;

5. Demeter (Demeter, among the Romans Ceres) - the sister of Zeus and the goddess of fertility and agriculture;

6. Athena (Athena, among the Romans Minerva) - the daughter of Zeus and Metis (otherwise Mitis, who was considered an aunt or cousin of Zeus. Metis is also considered an oceanid, i.e. the daughter of the Titan of the Ocean). Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war, thunderstorms, weather events, harvest and arts;

7. Ares (Ares, among the Romans Mars) - the god of war, the son of Zeus and Hera, the husband of Aphrodite;

8. Aphrodite (Aphrodite, among the Romans Venus) - the daughter of Zeus (according to another version, the daughter of Uranus, the grandfather of Zeus) and an unknown mother (possibly the daughter of a titanide (the titanides are the daughters or sisters of the titans), or the oceanides of Dione. Aphrodite is a goddess love and beauty;

9. Hephaestus (Hephaestus) - the son of Zeus and Hera and the chief master of the gods and the god of fire and blacksmithing;

10. Apollo (Apollo) - the son of Zeus and the titanides Leto, the twin brother of Artemis and the god of light, divination and arts;

11. Artemis (Artemis, among the Romans Diana) - the daughter of Zeus and the Titanides Leto, the sister of Apollo and the goddess of the hunt, the protector of nature and newborn animals;

12. Hermes (Hermes, among the Romans Mercury) - the son of Zeus and one Pleiades (the Pleiades are the seven daughters of the titan Atlanta) Maya, and the most inventive of the gods, who is also their herald in relation to people, as well as the god of trade and travelers;

Also among the twelve Olympian gods are:

1. Hades (Hades, also Pluto) - the god of the dead and the underworld, the son of Kronos and Rhea and the brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter and Hestia;

2. Dionysus (Dionysus, also Bacchus and Bacchus, among the Romans Liber) - the god of viticulture and winemaking, the son of Zeus and Semele, the daughter of the king of the Greek city of Thebes.

The above description of the twelve Olympian gods is given according to the publication "Greek Mythology", released in Greece in 2012 by the Athenian publishing house Papadimas Ekdotiki (English, Russian and other languages) and some other sources.

Do you know that:

The gods in the minds of the ancient Greeks did not create the world by one act of their will, but rather were its rulers;

The gods of ancient Greece did not promise immortality to man, the religious principles of the ancient Greeks were clearly endocosmic, i.e., religion was clearly oriented towards earthly life;

According to the religion of ancient Greece, the gods were capable of good and bad deeds, just like humans;

The religion of ancient Greece did not create a single set of beliefs that would require their mandatory observance;

Greek priests played no role spiritual guide;

The cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, brought to Greece from the north of the Balkans, spread separately from the main cult of the twelve gods of the Olympian gods, over time became more and more mystical and turned into an almost monotheistic religion, making a significant contribution to the creation of Christian theology.

And we will further develop these theses by talking about the features of religion in Ancient Greece according to the recently published and noteworthy book “Ancient Greece - reflected in modern world”, published in 2015 by the Cretan publishing house Mediterraneo Editions (published in Greek, English and Russian).

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Konstatinos Skalidis writes:

“It is difficult today to understand the polytheism of the ancient Greeks to people brought up in a monotheistic religious culture such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism.

For the Greeks of antiquity, we mean the vast majority of those who followed the official religion of the worship of the Twelve Olympian gods, there was no incomprehensible mystery (in the sense of a religious mystery), (despite the fact that the ancient Greeks) did not even have such a term "religion".

In other words, the official ancient Greek religion was very different from all types of modern religious experience (but there was another direction of the cult of Dionysus, which will be discussed later). In no case could it have occurred to any of the Greeks of antiquity that questions of religion (except for the basic elements that provided people with confidence that they all belonged to their city) represent a special sphere of public life. Theological thinking for them was a normal result or completion of the ontology of nature (ontology - the doctrine of being Approx..

From the point of view of the ancient Greeks, the gods did not create the world in one act - this would be a declaration of the perfect transcendence (i.e. superiority Note site) of the Divine in relation to nature, the existence of which in this case occurred and would completely depend on the Divine: the gods, meant (at the time of Ancient Greece) in this sense as forces, and not as individuals, are born together with the world and live inseparably from the world, inside it.

In addition, the gods (like people), in the view of the ancient Greeks, were subject to two higher laws: justice / righteousness (“dike”, a concept that is difficult to understand today: it means respect for observing certain restrictions and in no case violating them) and necessity /needs ("anangi").

According to another version that existed in ancient Greece, the Olympian gods conquer the world that already existed, transform it and become its rulers and protectors.

Thus the world is filled with gods, heroes, demons, and so on. forces that the fantasy of the ancient Greek personifies and endows with human images. Anthropocentrism (i.e., the idea that man is the center of the Universe Note site) has characterized the art of the Aegean region since the Neolithic era ... The inhabitants of this region, who at some point called themselves Hellenes - Greeks, comprehended the concept of "god" first in in human form, something that continues today; it is enough to visit any Greek church to be convinced that this perception has not changed to this day. According to the ancient Greeks, the gods live on Olympus (a mountain peak in Greece Note .. They can object to him, like a group of aristocrats to their leader, they are capable of good and bad deeds, like people.

The official religion of the ancient Greeks does not contain any kind of apocalyptic revelation., instead, there is an attachment to the oral tradition, which was supported by everyday life: language, way of life, customs, behavior of people. The religious cult of Ancient Greece did not need any other justification for its existence, except for the tradition that certifies it ...

The religion of ancient Greece did not create a single set of beliefs that would require their mandatory observance. so that they are considered generally valid. This happened later with Christianity.

In the Archaic era of Ancient Greece, temples did not yet exist - i.e. buildings for worship. Then cult rites took place in the open air in sacred places, the selection criterion of which was usually natural beauty: these were places with beautiful trees and flowers, which were looked after by priests or priestesses, depending on whether the deity worshiped was male or female. At the same time, believers did not gather in a place where seriousness would be required - but they simply came to a beautiful place where priests or priestesses organized ceremonies, often including animal sacrifices - ceremonies that were similar to today's picnics, barbecues, and where participants drank, ate, sang and danced.

Let's imagine such ceremonies as they are described by (the ancient Greek poetess from the island of Lesvos) Sappho ( Sappho, years of life: c.630-570 BC) around 600 BC:

“Come to our temple.

Now, in the apple blossoms,

When the aroma of burning incense

Ascends to heaven...

Cool water of the stream

flowing under the apple tree.

A carpet of roses in her shadow"

Sappho I 5.6

and elsewhere:

"the women danced... gracefully around the beautiful altar, stepping on the soft carpet of flowers"

A similar festive atmosphere is described by another Lesbos (Lesbos is an island in the Aegean Sea, note site) poet Alkey ( Alcaeus of Mytilene, Alcaeus of Mytilene (through the city in Lesbos), years of life: ca. 620-580 AD BC.):

“And yet, the road led me here to the temple.

Happy people. I found a new home

And enjoy the holiday now.

Grief left before the entrance to the sanctuary.

The slender maidens of Lesvos

Their robes swirl and flutter,

On this holy day"

The guardian of the religious heritage of Ancient Greece was the poetic tradition, always leaving the door open for interpretation... Gods, heroes and demons were an integral part of legends, mythologies that differed from region to region, from era to era of ancient Greek history. More and more aristocratic families of ancient Greece traced their origins to the union of one of the gods and, at least, a hero, with one of the mortals.

In ancient Greece, the Olympian gods are not interested in a person, they do not concern themselves with him as long as he worships the gods properly, does not insult them and does not harm them. But if he goes beyond the boundaries of human nature, then by this he insults them, for which he is punished.

On the other hand, the gods of Ancient Greece did not promise immortality to man, the religious beginnings of the ancient Greeks were clearly endocosmic, i.e., religion was clearly focused on earthly life.

In Greek antiquity there were no sacred books, no dogma, no professional priests. Ancient Greek priests are not at all like modern, professional Christian priests. These were citizens who were entrusted with taking care of the practical part of the service, usually for a year. They did not play any role of the spiritual mentor of the community or the parish. Allowing ordinary people to ask any questions, Greek theology encouraged believers to look for all sorts of reasons for the observed phenomena of life.

The opinion of a Greek of the Classical era of the 5th century BC is recorded: “we believe ... that gods and people follow the law of nature”(Fuk. 5.105.2).

Even earlier, some Xenophanes of Asia Minor origin, who lived for many years in southern Italy, noticed that people tend to represent the gods in their own image and likeness and stated that: “the Ethiopians make their gods black with flattened noses, the Thracians theirs with blue eyes and blond hair. And if oxen, lions and horses had hands and could draw, then horses would make gods like horses, oxen like oxen, and each animal would worship its own image. (Xenophanes of Colophon, years of life 570-475 BC - ancient Greek poet and philosopher. Approx. site).

Xenophanes was not an atheist in today's sense of the term, he had a broader view of the divine and believed that "the gods did not reveal everything to mortals - with painstaking work, the latter themselves seek and find the best."

This thought, characteristic of many Greeks since the 6th century BC, marks the first important step in the emergence of philosophy, especially that side of it that we today call scientific thought. A little later, in the 5th century BC. the famous sophist Protagoras will express the opinion that« about the gods I cannot know anything, whether they even exist or not, nor what form they may have; many things hinder this knowledge, the uncertainty of the question on the one hand, the brevity of human life on the other..

Cover of the Russian edition of the book "Ancient Greece - Reflection in the Modern World" cited here, published in 2015 by the Cretan publishing house Mediterraneo Editions (published in Greek, English and Russian).

The other side of religiosity in the Greek space, which was mentioned above, was expressed in the worship of Dionysus, a god outside the Olympian twelfth gods, his cult was introduced to Greece from the north of the Balkans around the end of the second - the beginning of the first millennium BC. , the exact time has not been determined. This god, known today as the god of winemaking, intoxication and the theater, was originally a spirit of fertility, he was worshiped, mainly by farmers who depended on the fertility of the earth and called him Bacchus. His cult was combined with a raw food diet, the god was "embodied" in an animal that believers tore apart and ate raw meat, and the wine was blood that caused intoxication, divine madness.

The cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, was at first wild, orgiastic, and in many ways repulsive. It spread widely in ancient Greek space as a longing for the good old, primitive and instinctive passionate way of life ...

Over time, this cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, became more spiritual, spiritual intoxication replaced intoxication with wine, believers sought to delight, i. to union with God, the cult was enriched by the belief in reincarnation and connected with the ascetic way of life in order to prepare for eternal bliss during their earthly life. The reform of the Bacchic cult is attributed to Orpheus, a mythical figure, the believers are called "Orphics". They founded communities reminiscent of the modern church, in which everyone was admitted only after a certain initiation procedure. The resulting coexistence of two tendencies in the religious life of the Greeks, rationalism and mysticism, marks the first emergence of the conflict that still dominates the spiritual evolution of Western culture—the conflict between rationalism and mysticism.

Over the centuries the cult of Dionysus or Bacchus became increasingly mystical and had a strong influence on many great philosophers and contributed significantly to the creation of Christian theology. Thanks to his influence, an understanding of philosophy as a way of life arose. During the life of Jesus, the cult of Dionysus developed into an almost monotheistic religion, from which Christianity derived much of its ritual,” notes Konstatinos Skalidis’ book “Ancient Greece Reflected in the Modern World” (published in Greek Crete in 2015).

This review was prepared by the site on the basis of the following contemporary Greek publications: Ancient Greece Reflected in the Modern World, published in 2015 by the Cretan publishing house Mediterraneo Editions (published in Greek, English and Russian). Author: Greek historian and guide Konstatinos Skalidis and the publication "Greek Mythology", published in Greece in 2012 by the Athens publishing house Papadimas Ekdotiki (English, Russian and other languages).

Religion was an organic part of Greek culture and had a big influence. Like other peoples of antiquity, the Greek religion determined the foundations of the worldview, morality, forms and direction of artistic creativity, its different manifestations in literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, even philosophy and science. rich Greek mythology, which developed back in the archaic period, numerous legends about the relationship of gods, heroes between themselves and people created a rich arsenal of images that became the starting point for the development of artistic types of strong people who opposed the blind forces of nature, against the powerful gods themselves, served as the basis for creating a wonderful Greek literature 5th–4th centuries BC e.

The special veneration of the Greeks in ancient era used by mother earth. This reflected both the influence of the matriarchy left in the past, and the importance of agriculture as the main branch of the economy of the people. The earth goddess Gaia was considered the mother of all living things. Later, the cult of the earth also included the veneration of Rhea, Demeter, Perse backgrounds and many others. smaller deities associated with tillage, sowing and harvesting. The gods seemed to the Greeks busy with this or that work: Hermes and Pan - watching the herds, Athena - growing an olive tree, etc. Therefore, in order for a person to successfully perform k.-l. business, it was considered necessary to appease this or that deity by sacrificing fruits, young animals, etc. to him. The Greeks did not have a hierarchy among the gods in ancient times, which testified to the fragmentation of the Greek. tribes.

Temple of Athena at Paestum. Photo: Greenshed

In the religion the beliefs of the Greeks preserved remnants primitive religions- remnants of fetishism (for example, the veneration of stones, especially the so-called Delphic omphalos), totemism (an eagle, an owl, a cow, etc. animals were constant attributes of the gods, and the gods themselves were often depicted as taking the form of animals), magic. Great value in D.-g. R. had a cult of ancestors and the dead in general (see Ancestral cult), in connection with the Crimea, there was also a cult of heroes - half-humans, half-gods. In a later, "classical" era, the cult of the dead developed an idea of the life of the souls of the righteous on the Champs Elysees (see Elysium).

With the establishment of the dominance of the tribal nobility in Greece, small local deities were pushed aside in the minds of the people by the "Olympic gods", the seat of which was considered to be the city of Olympus. These gods - Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes and others - have already been considered as a kind of family that has both "elder" and its supreme head - "father people and gods "Zeus, embodied in religion. the form of the features of a patriarchal ruler. That. a hierarchy of gods arose, reflecting the strengthened hierarchy of the emerging class society. The Olympic gods acted in the minds of the ancient Greeks as patrons of the nobility and defenders of its power. This idea left a clear imprint on the Homeric poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey", where a broad picture of life, customs and religions is given. beliefs of that era. The palace of Zeus on Olympus depicted in the poems, sparkling with walls and floors of gold, the luxurious robes of the goddesses, as well as the constant strife and intrigue among the gods, were of their own kind. reflection of the life and ideals of the Greek. tribal aristocracy. The lower strata of the people, opposed to the aristocracy, often preferred to worship not the Olympic, but their old agricultural gods.

The Greeks represented gods and heroes in the images of beautiful people; this became the starting point for the development of a sculptural image of a heroized citizen, a full member of the polis team. According to the Greeks, a beautiful divine being lives in a beautiful dwelling, and Greek architects directed their efforts to develop the temple building as the most perfect architectural structure and made it one of the initial foundations for the development of all Greek architecture.

To create a system of spiritual values of the ancient Greeks, a peculiar understanding of the nature of the deity was of paramount importance. The Greeks perceived their gods, even the highest ones, as powerful, but not omnipotent, obeying the power of higher necessity, which prevails over the gods as well as over people. The well-known limitation of the omnipotence of the deity, a certain proximity of the world of the gods to man through a kind of mediation of demigods - heroes, through the relationship of gods with people, in principle, exalted man, developed his abilities and opened great prospects for creating artistic images heroized, strong people, and for philosophical reflection on the essence of man, the power of his forces and mind.

An indispensable part of the religious cult in the V-IV centuries. BC e. veneration of the main deity of this policy began in the form of solemn processions of citizens with a statue of a deity and festive events after a sacrifice was made in his honor in front of the main temple. Among the festive events, a feast was obligatory (only the entrails of animals were usually sacrificed, most of the carcass was used as a treat), competitions of young athletes, playing scenes from the life of gods or townspeople. Participation in the solemn procession, sacrifice, competitions and theatrical scenes of the bulk of the citizens gave the festival a national character, made it an important social event.

In the 5th century BC e. in most Greek policies (this was especially pronounced in Athens), the celebration in honor of the main deity - the patron of the policy began to be regarded as a demonstration of the strength and wealth of the policy, a review of its achievements and successes, as a manifestation of the unity of the entire policy team. The religious beginnings of such festivities are somewhat obscured, and the socio-political and ideological aspects are manifested more clearly and fully. Increasing attention is paid to gymnastic competitions and theatrical performances, the preparation for them, which is carried out by the whole city, becomes a strong creative impulse. Such festivities as the Panathenaic in Athens in honor of the patron goddess of the city of Athens, Dionysia in honor of the god of vegetation, viticulture, wine and fun Dionysus, the Olympic festivities in honor of the supreme god of the sky, thunder and lightning Zeus, the Pythian in Delphi in honor of the god Apollo, the Isthmian in honor of the god of the seas and sea moisture Poseidon in Corinth, turn into major public events not only of local, but also of all-Greek significance.

The most famous of these were the Olympic festivities, or the Olympic Games, held every four years. The Olympic Games were originally a traditional part of the cult in honor of Zeus, in which, as in other similar religious ceremonies, athletic competitions and theatrical entertainment only complemented the cult activities. However, already in the VI century. BC e. religious ceremonies began to be perceived as a kind of introductory part to sports competitions, acquired the character of pan-Greek ones, and even theatrical performances were relegated to the background. In other festivities, for example, at the Pythian Games, it was not sports, but musical competitions of kyfareds and avlets (that is, performers playing citharas and flutes) that came to the fore. In Athens, during the celebration of Panathenaia and Dionysius in the 5th century. BC e. the role of theatrical performances gradually increases (tragedies and comedies were staged), from which the wonderful Greek theater grew, which played a huge role in public life, education and the entire culture of the ancient Greeks.

The formation of city-states (polises) in Greece and the further development of the slave-owning society changed the character of the Greek. religion. Cults of patron gods of crafts and trade arose and spread. So, Hephaestus became the god of blacksmiths, Hermes became the god of trade. There was a shift in ideas about the functions of the gods: the patrons of crafts in each city were usually declared gods, who were also considered the guardians of the city itself: for example, in Athens - Athena, in Corinth - Poseidon, in Delphi - Apollo. In the VIII-VII centuries. Don. e. in honor of the gods, the first temples began to be erected. The heyday of temple construction in Athens dates back to the 5th-4th centuries. BC e. Worship as a whole was under the control of the state. Priest corporations in Greek state wah as a rule did not exist. Chosen by lot officials performed the duties of priests.

In recognition of the common Greek the gods and the shrines associated with them partly found a manifestation of the consciousness of the unity of the Greek. people not united in one state. So, great fame throughout the Greek. world received a sanctuary in Olympia and the Delphic oracle. All Greeks could participate in games and competitions, which were held periodically at such sanctuaries. The Olympic Games (Olympiads) became the basis of other Greek. chronology.

Along with cults intended for the entire population, secret religions arose early in Greece. societies and cults, in which only initiates (mysts) were allowed to participate. The best known are the sacraments in honor of Demeter (Eleusinian mysteries) and in honor of Dionysus (Dionysia). Initiate into the mysteries of the Elevin mysteries, on certain conditions, was promised salvation and bliss after death. A member of the Dionysius, as they believed, was attached to the deity - by eating the raw meat of an animal torn to pieces. Mystery cults in the Late Antiquity period were, to a certain extent, an expression of dissatisfaction with the conditions of life and captured, therefore, part of the lower strata of other Greek. society.

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