Hellenistic Religion

There was no job or social need that was not connected to the worship of some god: from farming to education, from the fine arts to hunting, from military

Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane analyzes a wide variety of components that are found within various world religions. Eliade uses the history of religion to support his ideas as the the book itself is a brief introduction to religion as a whole, particulary the religions of primitive societies. Nonetheless, when looking to the past one can see that mankind’s desire to associate itself with the sacred has been occuring for thousands of years. From temples to passages of intiation, religious man is a unique microcosm that follows and repeats the structure of the religious macrocosm, the creation of the cosmos. One can conclude that Eliade views religion as the “paradigmatic solution for every existential crisis.” (p210) and

Within many known religions, the devotional practices has been known to acquire great importance. The essence of practicing what you preach has scolded many religious groups, introducing true beliefs, righteousness, and a wider connection to the supreme being . In the book entitled “ Living religions” by Mary Pat Fisher, clarified and firm descriptions were introduced about religious rituals. Surprisingly; the author utilized small parts of modern concepts, limiting the reader from a full comprehension of religious practices today, therefore; I will only discuss the basic and traditional rituals. To elaborate; in this paper, I will be providing an opinionated but also, comparative description of the major practices and rituals that undergo in both the Abrahamic and indigenous religions.

When exploring each of the specific elements that make up the Greek culture, one can see that their history of religion is vast. To understand the religious practices of the Ancient Greeks, we must first begin to examine the cultural practices. I will be describing Greek religion as it was practiced in the Archaic and Classical Period, which ranged around 800 B.C. to 323 B.C. When discussing the Classical Period we enter the realm of polytheism which has no attachment to church or body of dogma. Although the Greeks believed in multiple gods, there was no denying that the conduct of the gods was not all acceptable to Greek thought. The Greeks kept mythological stories of the gods at heart, but relied on having the ability to think rationally, or have ‘human reason.’ This was the Greek way and it was their idea of rational thinking. When it came to living, the primary aim of Greek life is health and goodness. In order to gain this, they had to have religious sacrifices. I would like to discuss these religious practices of Ancient Greek worship, sacrifice, holidays and burials because it is important to learn about and from one of the greatest cultures in history.

Ancient Greece has been a religion- centered culture since the earliest period of habitation in Greece, the Pre-Mycenaean/Mycenaean period. Also through to the Dark Ages to the Classical period. It is a religiously centered civilization, and did have significant changes in the how it was incorporated into people’s daily lives. Religion is important to know about the Ancient Greeks because through it we are able to understand how they lived their lives.

In western ancient world, there were kings who tried to bring the world come together ideologically, culturally and politically. This caused lots of cultural exchange between people and help them understand and respect each other’s ways of life. On the other hand, politically, it created a lot of major wars. It took a large amount of resources and decades to end these wars. As a result of these wars, most kingdoms suffered from both economical and political problems. Therefore, it is fair to say that Greek/Hellenistic civilization could be characterized as being a period of intellectual and cultural achievement but political failure.

Towering mountains. Bright blue seas. Glittering white temples dedicated to the gods. Though Ancient Greece was made up of many different regions and colonies, these 3 things were almost always in view. The ancient Greeks worshiped many different gods and goddesses that each controlled something in the mortal world. What was different about their gods and goddesses was that they were very human like. They looked like mortals, had thoughts like mortals, and they even quarreled with each other like we do. Ancient Greek religion is also known as Greek Mythology, Classical Religion, and Classical Mythology. Though whatever people call it, decisions made in Ancient Greece were heavily influenced by their religion.

As civilization has progressed through the ages, many religions have arisen and taken hold around the world, two if the most interesting, being the religious beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamian and the Greeks. These two religions were practiced in different areas and at different times and, therefore, show that religion has played a critical role in every society and civilization. No matter how it is organized or what type of god is worshiped, a society would be nothing without some kind of deity to organize it. In comparing the religious beliefs of the Mesopotamian and the Ancient Greeks religious components highlighted including the style of worship, the temples

The purpose of the work is to inform the audience of Greek religion and all that it entitles. In the article Cartwright describes the deities as well as the rituals for worship and celebrations. It also describes how people made a living out of the beliefs such as oracles and mystics. The work is written for anyone interested in learning more about ancient Greece. It has great significance to my topic because it depicts the important aspects of the religion. The strengths are how descriptive it is and how it touches on the most important topics. It's weaknesses are how short each section is.

The greek people are so unaware of what is about to happen and it truly heartbreaking that this is is the twilight of the hole greek civilization. Nevertheless this period is so fascinating and interesting this is the Hellenistic Age. The Hellenistic age begun after the death of Alexander the grate. Like I said earlier he left no new successor so this caused in fighting and the empire was divided up against the wars generals they .There were three empires would form there would dynasts from Alexander's empire; there was Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece, the Seleucids in Perissa and the ptolemies in Egypt. The people did not go back to their way of life because they were ruled by greeks and macedonians, so the local

One of the earliest evidences of the belief in a higher power comes from deep within the “Lascaux Labyrinth”, a deep cave “decorated by our Paleolithic ancestors in the stone age, seventeen thousand years ago”(Armstrong 2). The great numbers and locations of art within the Lascaux and surrounding region gives evidence that these were sacred places for the purpose of rituals, and some have compared these dwellings to temples (Armstrong 3). Whether art within cave dwellings dating back to the Paleolithic era, to magnificent churches rising to great heights around the world, the wondrous temples of the Mayans, a mountain that appears to seamlessly morph into the city of Machu Picchu, to trailers, tents and fortified compounds, belief in a power higher than one’s self has been deeply ingrained throughout centuries and a multitude of cultures. These different places are what many refer to as a church, a place to record and follow the rituals specific to their belief and to worship. Through the generations of the development of the human psyche, belief in a higher power is taught young and ingrained for many, yet meaningless for some. Furthermore, throughout the evolution of many centuries, it is inevitable that branches of these religions will follow a different path, create new churches to better practice their views of religion, and for some, belief in a higher power can be contorted to the preaching’s and worship of hate. There is a fine line between preaching scriptures and

PAPER #1 The six dimensions of religion include ethical, ritual, emotional, institutional, cognitive and aesthetic. The six dimensions can be applied to any and all religions that exist or did exist at some point. A good example of a religion from the past that the dimensions can be applied too is the Ancient Greek religion. Being polytheistic religion in which many gods ruled many different domains of the earth, the six dimensions can be applied to the Ancient Greek religion but some dimensions are more influential than others because of the way the Ancient Greek religion is structured.

Gods are inevitably sacred entities, so would this entail that societies are also sacred? In this paper, I will argue that society does hold sacred elements in the sense that it obtains an abundant amount of respect and reliance from its members and has the power to influence their lives. I will explain that for something to be sacred depends on the views of people and relate it to the aspect of society.

The architecture of both the Christian and Greek religion have deep roots in their respective religions. Greek temples were usually rectangular in shape, and consisted of columns on the exterior sides of the structure. Some noteworthy exception to this rule was the unique Erechtheion of Athens with its somewhat different Caryatid columns and the temples of the Cyclades which only had columns on the front side of the structure. Christian churches were originally based off of a number of features taken from the Ancient Roman period. Early Christian communities used one specific feature for most of their original churches, the Atrium. An atrium is a courtyard surrounded by a large colonnade.

The Hellenic and Hellenistic shift was a turning point for Greek culture. The Hellenic are those who lived in ancient Greece before Alexander the Great. The Hellenistics are those who lived in the period after Alexander the Great’s conquest. Alexander the Great was a mighty and strong leader of the Greek people. The people that were under his following respected him greatly. We can tell the drastic changes that occurred after Alexander Great was leader by the art, philosophies, and religion. The Hellenistic Changes that occurred showed us that the Hellenistic priorities transformed drastically from what the Hellenic ways were like.