Greek Polytheism

Ancient Greek religious practice was a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology. It was both a popular religion and the focus of dedicated cults. Most ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major Olympian gods and goddessesL: Zeus (sky and thunder god who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus), Hera (queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Hera is the goddess of marriage, women, childbirth, and family), Poseidon (god the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses and protector of seafarers), Demeter (goddess of the harvest and agriculture), Athena (goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft), Ares (god of war and courage), Aphrodite (goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation), Apollo (god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, as well as other human endeavors), Artemis (goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity), Hephaestus (god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes), Hermes (the herald of the gods and protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators), and either Hestia (virgin goddess of the hearth and the home) or Dionysus (god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theater).The worship of these deities and others, with some regional variations, was widespread in the Greek world. Early Italian religions such as that of the Etruscans were influenced by Greek religion and subsequently influenced ancient Roman religion. Local deities often became absorbed into the Greek pantheon. Philosophies like Stoicism, and some forms of Platonism, can be interpreted as advocating a single, transcendent deity. Although they were immortal, the gods of Greece were certainly not omnipotent or exclusively beneficial for humanity. They were constrained by fate, which override their divine wills and powers. The gods behaved like humans and interacted with humans (sometimes reproducing with them) and displayed human vices. At times, the wills of certain gods would be opposed to that of other Gods. Many gods and goddesses were the focus of dedicated cults. Ancient sources describe cult practices, but seldom note their doctrines. The Greeks, in general, regarded what one believed to be much less important than what one did. The Greeks believed in an underworld inhabited by the spirits of the dead. One of the largest regions of the underworld was ruled by Hades, a brother of Zeus, and is named for him. Other realms are Tartarus, a place of torment for the damned, and Elysium, a place of pleasure for the virtuous. A few Greek heros such as Achilles were beleived to have been granted immortality in a physical form. Deified mortals could live forever in either Elysium, the Islands of the Blessed, heaven, the ocean, or beneath the ground. This belief is recorded in ancient Greek sources such as the poetry of Homer and Hesiod and persisted into the Christian era. Most Greeks, however, beleived that the afterlife offered nothing beyond continued existence as a disembodied soul. The philosophers Pythagoras and Plato embraced the idea of reincarnation, but this was not the popular view. Epicurus taught that the soul was composed of atoms which dissolved at death, whereupon people ceased to exist. An important moral concept was the avoidance of hubris. Hubris was a crime in Athens, and included offenses such as rape or the desecration of a corpse. Although pride and vanity were not regarded as sins, the Greeks emphasized moderation in all things. Pride only became hubris when it exceeded the bounds of decency. Worship in Greece typically consisted of ritual sacrifices of domestic animals at an altar, accompanied by hymns and prayers.