This document includes the key information for the 6th topic of your Greek Religion module, 'Religion and Philosophy'. I have provided key words and key information for the topic that is necessary to help you exemplify your factual knowledge to a high level. I have also provided scholarship sources...
6.1: The rise of philosophical thinking and how this was viewed within the Greek society
including the extent to which these ideas were truly ‘new’
6.2: The critique of the ‘gods of Homer’ and their anthropomorphism, as voiced by Xenophanes
6.3: Socrates and accusations of impiety
6.31: Socrates’ ideas on the divine, justice and why he may have disagreed with
Homeric/Hesiodic ideas of the gods
6.32: the extent to which his ideas were radical or controversial
Topic 6 | Religion and Philosophy
,DEFINITIONS
Pre-Socratic philosophers
Philosophers that happened before Socrates- e.g. Xenophanes and Heraclitus (late 6 th century)
Henotheism
Believe in more than one god but an all-powerful great one
Isomorphism
Attribute your characteristics onto the gods
Sophists
Charge people money to learn about the art of rhetoric e.g. Protagoras (late to mid 5 th century)
Socratic Method
Rigorous questioning and dialogue
Daimonian
Inner personal voice that prevents Socrates from doing stuff
Indictment
Charge/legal accusation- e.g. Socrates was charged of creating new gods, not believing in the
gods and corruption the youth (asabeia)
2
, PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS
People Discussed:
- The nature of the gods.
- Traditional conceptions of the gods.
- The rituals that the worship of the Olympian gods entailed.
- Popular beliefs.
- Little evidence that people questioned the existence of the divine.
Examples:
- The dead are nastier than dung (Heraclitus)
- Men pray to statues of the daimones although they cannot hear (Heraclitus)
- Sophists taught customers to argue persuasively on both sides of a proposition, enabling people
to challenge accepted practices.
- Protagoras (a sophist) claims that he cannot discover whether the gods exist or not.
- In some tragedies, the gods are presented as so excessively vengeful and cruel that their
existence is tacitly called into question (Dionysus, Agave).
- The plague of 430 caused people to disregard the gods and the rule of law (Thucydides).
- Aristophanes pokes fun at the gods (e.g. the Birds. Birds were the original gods supplanted by
Olympians. Construction of Cloud-cuckoo Land. Olympians starve because they no longer
receive sacrifice. Peisthetaerus outwits a delegation from Zeus and is named king of the gods).
How Was Philosophical Thinking Viewed?
- Could be dangerous or see as impious (due to our knowledge of Socrates)
- Profanation of the mysteries
- If the state is weak then it could be threatened, however, it generally didn’t affect the general
population- we do not know whether non-intellectuals were even aware of their work
- We cannot be certain because there was a variety of opinion
- The Olympians were worshipped for a millennium after the Presocratics- little impact
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