* The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Olympians • Most accounts also list Aphrodite, goddess of love, among the Olympians although she is of an older generation. • She is often seen accompanied by her son, Eros (or lust), whom we call Cupid today. • The rest of the Olympians were children of Zeus. • Zeus married his sister, Hera, who bore him Ares (the god of war) and Hephaistos (god of the forge). • Zeus also slept with Leto, who bore him two children, Apollo and Artemis. • The domains of these two gods are slightly harder to pin down. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Olympians • Artemis was goddess of the hunt and of wild places, but also a goddess of virginity and of transitions (childbirth, weddings, rites of passage and the like.) • Apollo is even trickier to define. • He was god of the lyre, of art, of shepherds, of archery, of medicine and of disease. • Apollo's most important role was as a god of prophesy, who delivered cryptic oracles from his shrine at Delphi. • Zeus' other daughter, Athena, was born of less conventional means. • Zeus ate the Goddess Mentis (literally, a mind). This gave him a terrible headache. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Olympians • Desperate for relief, he asked Hephaistos to crack his head open with a hammer. • From the head of Zeus, sprung Athena. • Like her siblings, Athena wears many hats. • First and foremost, she is the patron goddess of wisdom. • She is also the goddess of crafts, of cities and the goddess of heroes. • Another son of Zeus was Hermes, who delights in mischief. • Hermes was the god of trickery, of travelers, of crossroads, of thieves, of athletes and of inventors. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Olympians • Hermes was the messenger of the gods and also played the important role of escorting the souls of the dead from the Earth above to the underworld below. • Zeus' final son, Dionysus, is one of the strangest deities of the Greek pantheon. • At his most basic, Dionysus is the god of wine, of the theatre and of dancing. • In this sense, Dionysus is the god of having a good time. • Yet there is more to Dionysus than just getting wasted and partying. • Dionysus is the god of everything animal in man. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Olympians • Compare this to Apollo, who provides a counterpoint by representing everything civilized in man. • Syncretism • Dionysus was probably a borrowed god, taken from the Egyptian cult of Isis and Osiris. • Like the Egyptians, the Greeks practiced syncretism, combining similar gods into one. • When they met a foreign god, they combined him with the closest match in their own pantheon. • They also practice syncretism with their own gods, so that Demeter, Rhea and Gaia are often interchangeable in Greek Myth. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Those are the main gods of the Greeks. • The Demigods • Yet, the Greeks did not limit their worship to gods. They also worshipped heroes, who were almost inevitably demigods - the children of a mortal and an immortal. • Each Greek hero exemplifies a virtue, which the Greeks called arete. • This arete allows them to overcome some trial, or pathos, and prove themselves. • Most of these heroes come from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Others have myths all their own. • Noble Theseus volunteered to be a sacrifice to the Minotaur, only to kill the monster and free Athens from oppressive Minoan rule. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Demigods • Clever Perseus slew Medusa by showing her, her own reflection. • Talented Orpheus traveled to the underworld to recover his lost love. • Beautiful Jason retrieved the Golden Fleece by wooing the sorceress Medea to his cause. • Yet, perhaps the most famous of these heroes is mighty Heracles. • His story bears closer inspection. • As a demigod, Heracles hopes for immortality. • Yet, as an illegitimate child of Zeus, he is hated by Zeus' wife, Hera. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • The Demigods • Hera makes Heracles go through a series of incredible trials to prove himself worthy to join the company of the gods. • After passing through these tests, Heracles is rewarded. • Instead of going to the underworld to suffer with everyone else, Heracles gets to go to a nice, wonderful place where his every desire will be met. • Thus, historically speaking, Heracles is the first person to go to heaven. • It was not until much later that mere mortals, without any divine pedigree, could hope to go anywhere but the bleak underworld. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Mortals and Their Gods • This attitude toward the average man is typical of Greek gods. • The gods care about their children and can be incredibly touchy about their particular domains, but for the most part, the Gods couldn't care less about human beings. • Compare this to the Christian god, who knows and loves every one of us. • To an ancient Greek, the thought of a god taking personal interest in you is more terrifying than comforting. • The Greek gods, especially the Olympians, can be very cruel to humans; raping them, killing them and turning them into animals. • Dionysus even arranged for a man to be ripped to shreds by his own mother. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Mortals and Their Gods • This hostile indifference characterizes most of Greek religion. • Gods only help their own children out of love. • The rest of us must bargain with the gods, offering gifts in exchange for their aid. • This can best been seen in the final story of this presentation, that of Prometheus. • Under the rule of Chronos, humanity had enjoyed a golden age. • Though they knew nothing of farming, they fed off the earth's bounty, which was freely given - much like in the Garden of Eden. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Mortals and Their Gods • With the rise of the Olympians, life became much harder for mortals. • The earth no longer produced fruit without labor. • Human beings were about to starve when Prometheus came to their rescue. • Prometheus was a friend to mortals, and so he taught them to farm, to store food and all the other crafts of civilization. • Men rejoiced in their mastery of the world. • The Olympians saw that man was getting too big for his britches and took fire away. • Enraged, the Olympians thought to wipe out humanity. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Mortals and Their Gods • Without fire, man was doomed. So, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it back to man. • Prometheus offered them an alternative. 'You let man use fire to cook his food, and man will give you a portion of the food he cooks.' • The gods found this acceptable, but Prometheus cared more for men than for the Olympians, so he tricked them. • He had the men wrap bones in fat and hide all the meat in the stomach of a bull. • When the gods were asked to choose their portion, they choose the large fatty portion, thinking this the better cut and left man the stomach full of meat. • Bound by their agreement, the Gods could no longer wipe man off the face of the earth and had to be satisfied with sacrifices of bone and fat. • This made the gods even angrier. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Mortals and Their Gods • To punish man, they created woman (the Greeks had a less than admirable view of women). • To punish Prometheus, they bind him to a stone at the edge of the world and set an eagle to tear out his liver every day. • Thus Prometheus is the first example of a Christ, a figure who dies for the sins of man. • Yet Prometheus is also the first Lucifer. • In fact, the name Lucifer means bringer of light. • He defies the will of Zeus to give humanity a secret knowledge. • For his transgression, he is doomed to eternal punishment. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • Role in Christianity • Greek myth (and later Greek philosophy) would play a huge role in the formation of Christianity as early Christians attempted to appeal to a larger audience and to distinguish their religion from Judaism. • Greek religious festivals became holy days, Greek heroes turned into Christian saints and Greek virtues found places of honor alongside their Christian counterparts. • Even Christian rituals are distinctly Greek. • The Greeks were drinking wine to commemorate Dionysus - the son of a god who died and returned from the grave - long before Jesus was ever born. • Thus, we have seen a rough outline of Greek myth and religion. • Greek religion was decentralized and unique to specific locations, yet all based on a common pantheon of anthropomorphic gods. * The Dark Age of Greece (1150-800 B.C.) • Greek Religion and Myth • These gods were all too human and could be terribly cruel. • The Greeks dealt with their gods by offering them gifts and trying not to do anything that might anger them. .