Polytheism

The Ancient Greeks had many different types of gods. Our definition of that type of religion is a polytheistic one. However, the ancient Greeks did not define themselves as polytheistic. The ancient Greeks view on religion was that the diversity of the gods was still a united religion and that all of the different individual gods were part of a whole idea of the divine. The gods were superior to the humans in many ways, they not only had overall super natural powers but each had their own individual powers, limitations and roles in the religion. The ancient Greeks formed cults for each of the gods and each cult devoted their lives to worshiping their specific deity. The duties of each cult included sacrifices, offerings and festivals repeated on a regular basis in order to gain favourability with the god. Another aspect of ancient Greek religion was Heroes. A Hero was a deceased mortal or demi god that was worshipped for their glorious deeds and their duty to a community. The worship of Heroes was a large part of the cults and the Heroes burial place was usually the point of worship. Certain Heroes were less famous and had smaller cult followings; some Heroes such as Theseus were internationally known which caused the festival of Theseus in Athens to be on the same level of greatness the spectacle of the festival in honour of the goddess Athena.

The twelve main gods that appear on the Parthanon frieze are Zeus, Posiedon, Demeter, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo, Athene, Hermes, Dionysus and Hephaistos. However the ancient Greeks invented separate hierarchies of divinities. The works of Geoges Dumeriul explain that we should concentrate on the structure of the Parthenon and not the isolated divinities. He basically said that in order to achieve greater understanding of the gods, we should study them in relation to each other. The god’s relationships are portrayed in Homer as often comprising of many mortal issues. At times the gods seem to act more like humans towards each other. One stark contrast between ancient Greek religion and todays religions are the moral teachings in society. The gods of Ancient Greece did not love humanity in general. They did therefore not impose the concept of morality on the ancient Greek public. The gods only did something for the humans if they did something for them and lived their lives helping their friends and harming their enemies. This aspect of Greek religion gives the feeling that the Ancient Greeks could relate more with their deities compared with today’s Christian relationship with God.