This document covers half of the content for the Greek religion module on the OCR specification. It covers Places of worship, Rituals and Priests, and Religion and Philosophy. Exactly 50 pages long, these notes detail all the knowledge required in the specification and more, in an easily understand...
Y13 Greek Religion
Contents
Places of Worship Pg
Rituals and Priests Pg
Religion and philosophy Pg
,Places of Worship
Sanctuaries vs temples
What is a sanctuary?
An area set aside specifically for religious activity, they were required to allow religion to
function.
Rituals could include:
- Processions
- Sport Examples are Olympia / Delphi /
- Music / Drama the Acropolis
Emerson argues that participating in religious rituals may not be a spiritual choice.
Why they may visit:
1. Civic identity
2. Religious reasons
a. To cleanse oneself
b. Ask for something / show thanks
3. Athletic competitions
a. Happened under divine supervision
b. Proving one’s excellence – worthy of the heroes of the past
i. Often gave thanks to Zeus
ii. Societal value
c. Role of the audience as well as pts
4. Cultural & artistic appreciation
a. E.g. Pausanias
b. Expression of the community – e.g., Parthenon elevates the Athenian status
Panhellenic sanctuaries complicate this – identification of a Greek / potentially more personal
(motivated by need to see particular heroes)
Many Olympians were from Sicily and Delphi had far-reaching effects, people wanted to link
themselves to the culture of Greece.
Elements of a sanctuary
Temenos were numinous – mountains / caves / grottos and springs all possessed this quality.
In the Phaedrus, Socrates states that a place “seems to be sacred to the Nymphs and to
Achelous” because it is so beautiful – it is a field by a stream.
A boundary / peribolos would show where the sanctuary extended to. This may have been an
actual wall but was more likely to have used horoi.
For grander sanctuaries, the entrance was marked by a ceremonial gateway (propylaia) to
enhance the feeling of transition – link between tragedy and religion.
A Sacred Way may also be a feature.
,Two essential features:
- Peribolos
- Altar
o Centre of ritual - required for the ritual act
o Placed at right angles to the façade (front)
Pts could form circle / semi-circle – reminiscent of
theatre stages, amphitheatre
o Sacrifice done away from the temple, ritual carried out
without reference to the temple building
o Would normally be a flat rock / metal tablet for fire
Traditional Greek worship wasn’t restricted to initiates and so had to accommodate many
people – not appropriate to use an enclosed building. Therefore, temples were not essential.
The open space was where worshippers congregated to observe and participate in the ritual
The distinction between the secular and the spiritual was exaggerated for spiritual immersion
Rules:
1. Cannot give birth, make love or die
2. Worshippers purified self before entry
3. Idea of asylum of grave importance (*)
(*) assassinating someone who had taken refuge in the sanctuary resulted in scourge (plague)
as punishment
The Propylaia
It is not dedicated to any deity, it was a purely secular building – led visitors up to and onto
the acropolis.
- Built during the restoration of the acropolis after the Persian wars
- Made of white Pentellic marble
o Also used by the Parthenon – one large overarching plan
o Meant to mirror the architectural style
- Mnesikles = architect
- Ionic and Doric columns used
- 5 entrances
o 4 for pedestrians
o 1 for wheeled traffic
- Roof made of slabs of marble, much longer than normal
o Interior of roof was gold stars on blue background
o Metal as structural aid (only 1 other known use)
o Decorative coffers used
- Entered through an inclining ramp
- It was unfinished
- Opens to the temple of Athena Nike
- Interior chambers
o East = Pinakotheke
, Paintings from mythologivcal scenes
The temple
There are arguments that the temple has no real relevance to the discussion of Greek religion
(Zaidman and Pantel) or that the ostentatious nature of it was because it was a way to honour
the gods (Renshaw)
The temple was normally closed to worshippers. It’s function was to protect the cult statue
and the god’s property, and therefore acted as a treasury.
Some were more significant because they contained more holy sites (e.g. the Erectheion and
the temple of Apollo at Delphi):
- Erectheion
o Altars to various gods and heroes
o Marks on the ground from Athena’s competition w Poseidon
o Shrine to the wooden cult statue of Athena Polias
- Apollo, Delphi
o Omphalos, navel of the world
o Wooden statue of Apollo
o Tomb of Dionysus
o Oracular items – sacred laurel, tripod and oracular chasm
o Hera’s eternal flame
o Altar of Poseidon
The temple was often of a simple and predictable design
The showy nature of the Acropolis temples were an exception to the norm – temples were
often right in the city and did not dominate their surrounding area.
There is debate about this, some say only good temples surivived and this is misleading
(Zaidman) whilst others say that temples were meant to demonstrate the architectural prowess
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