Based on the class lectures, and using full sentences for each item
List 3 sons or daughters of a God or a Goddess in ancient Greek religion.
1.
2.
3.
List the 3 changes ancient Greek philosophy brought to the views of Greek religion.
4.
5.
6.
List 3 sons or daughters of a god or goddess in ancient Roman religion.
7.
8.
9.
The Greek cultural context of the New Testament
The New Testament writings were originally written in Greek.
There are many Greek ideas in the New Testament.
If Judaism is the cultural mother of Christianity,
Greece is the cultural father of Christianity
with the cultures of Egypt, Persia, and Mesopotamia as grandparents.
In the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great
spread Greek culture throughout the Ancient Near East
from Egypt to India.
Enduring Greek cultural influences on western culture include
art, architecture, language, literature, geometry, theater,
education, democracy, philosophy, science, and religion.
There will be 3 important philosophical movements in Greek culture
which will profoundly affect western religion and science.
1. The movement from polytheism (many gods) to monotheism (one god)
2. The concept of the three-level universe to a geocentric universe
3. The belief concerning the Afterlife, from a weak soul underground to
the immortal soul in the heavens.
We will first look at the Greek Worldview
from the 8th to the 5th century BCE
before these 3 changes.
Greek Cosmology: the world of the three-level universe
1. The heavens above
2. the earth between
3. the underworld below
Ancient people (not just Greeks) believed the world was shaped like an egg.
It had a hard dome above.
The Earth was a round flat disc in the middle of the egg.
The Underworld was below the disc.
Gods and goddesses lived among us.
Categories of Deities* (gods and goddesses) in Greece:
I. Upper deities
II. Lower deities
III. Veneration of Heroes (demi-gods)
IV. Deities of the Mystery Religions
*The word deities is a gender-neutral term which means gods and goddesses.
I. The Upper deities
There were 12 Olympic gods and goddesses on Mt. Olympus.
The deities teach the values of a culture.
1. Demeter
She is the oldest of all the Greek deities.
She dates back to the Stone Age, to 6000 BCE.
Her name means the Mother.
She is a Fertility goddess,
goddess of the grain.
People would thank her for their daily bread.
2. Hera
Queen Goddess
Protector of cities
Her temple dates to the 8th century BCE.
She predates Zeus in Greece.
The Aryans brought in Zeus to Greece and set up his statue in Heras temple.
She was then married to Zeus and became the goddess of marriage.
3. Zeus
He is considered the Father of gods and humans.
He is the god of justice and a sky god.
He was brought into Greece by the Aryans.
They placed his image in Heras temple in the 7th century BCE.
4. Poseidon
God of the Sea, helper of fishermen.
In 480 BCE, a storm damaged the Persian fleet near Thessaly
which had been attacking the Greeks.
A new temple was erected to Poseidon the Savior.
Notice the trident in his hand which is a tool of fisherman and whalers.
5. Athena
Goddess of the city of Athens,
goddess of wisdom, civilization, and war.
She is the spirit of invention:
she inspired the invention of the 1st ship,
the wooden horse at Troy, and the horse bridle.
She is the Goddess of closeness
and is portrayed as intelligent and caring.
Daughter of Zeus = daughter of god
6. Ares
God of savage war
bloodlust
7. Hephaistos
He is the blacksmith god, the god of fire.
He rides a donkey.
He is pictured with hammer and tongs,
the tools of the blacksmith.
8. Aphrodite
Goddess of love
Dove sacrifices were offered to her.
In the 4th century BCE, worship of her was divided into 2 spheres:
Aphrodite Pandemos and Aphrodite Ourania
sexual love
heavenly love
9. Apollo
Son of Zeus = son of god.
God of prophecy and music,
plague and healing.
His shrine was at Delphi.
Priestesses at this shrine would give prophecies of the future
which were respected by kings and statesmen.
10. Artemis
She is goddess of the hunt and helper of hunters.
Daughter of Zeus = daughter of god
In the symbolic story of Iphegenia (pronounced ip-ah-ja-ny-ah)
Artemis told king Agamemnon that he must
sacrifice his daughter Iphegenia because
he killed a sacred deer in her garden (it was a pet).
But at the last minute, a doe is sacrificed instead.
This story is similar to the story of God asking Abraham
to sacrifice Isaac in the Old Testament, and at the last minute
a ram appears and is sacrificed.
11. Hermes
Messenger of the gods.
He is a god of boundary crossing.
The most important boundary that he crosses
is between the living and the dead.
He kindly guides souls to afterlife.
12. Dionysus: son of Zeus = son of god
Worship of Dionysus was imported from Turkey to Greece.
He was God of wine and ecstasy
and was known for turning water into wine.
Worshippers were infused with the power of the god
and there was ecstatic worship, one was filled with the spirit of the god.
Although these are the 12 Olympic deities
there were many, many other gods and goddesses.
For example, the Greek view was that the whole world was birthed
into existence by the Goddess Chaos.
The Greek word chaos means swirling energy before any thing yet exists.
Chaos birthed the sea and dry land, and all that exists.
The entire world is made of divine substance.
The rivers, trees, mountains, moon, stars, etc. are all divine.
II. Deities of the Underworld
1. Hades
God of the underworld.
Brother to Zeus and Poseidon.
At death, one is said to go to the House of Hades.
The Greek underworld
is pictured simply as dark and dreary.
There are no demons or devil in Greek religion, no burning fires.
(These elements come from the religion of Persian Zoroastrianism.)
2. The Furies
Avenging Spirits in the Underworld
They haunt people who have harmed others.
III. Another category of gods worshipped was Heroes
Honors were bestowed on a deceased hero.
Hero is a Greek word.
The Greeks defined a hero as
a person of courage and noble character,
who sacrifices himself for the good of the people,
a role model to follow.
Heroes
were usually pulled into a situation by the gods
to right an injustice because they had the right skills.
Veneration of Heroes: Honors bestowed on a deceased hero
who sacrificed himself for the good of the people.
1. Honors were given at their funeral.
2. The heros presence was felt at the gravesite.
3. The hero was prayed to for help after death.
4. Blessings were received by the people: protected, guided, healed
5. Temples would be erected near their gravesite.
6. Heroes were remembered annually with a celebration.
Stories were told about the hero.
The stories would grow with each retelling.
Stories of heroes included the following elements:
1) The heroes were witnessed to resurrect and ascend (rather than go down to Hades)
2) The Hero was said to be a son or daughter of a God or Goddess.
3) They were believed to be conceived through a virgin birth.
4) Heavenly signs were said to be witnessed at the heros birth.
5) Miracles were received by the people and attributed to the hero.
Heroes received a blessed afterlife.
They did not go down to Hades like the average person
instead they went to the Island of the Blessed or the Elysian Fields.
Examples of Greek Heroes:
Heracles (Hercules)
Asclepius
King Agamemnon
King Menelaus
Helen of Troy
Heroes of the Trojan War
Hercules
The most widely worshipped hero in ancient Greece.
It was said he ascended into heaven.
He made many appearances after death to help people.
He was said to be a son of Zeus = son of god.
Asclepius
He was a very popular hero-god from the 4th century BCE to the 4th century CE.
He was a doctor in life, a healer.
After death, he was prayed to for healing.
People came to his temples, slept, and dreamed of a healing cure.
There were many miraculous healings.
He was said to be gentle and kind, most loving of humanity.
He was known as Asclepius the Savior.
IV. Greek Mystery Religions
included the religions of a) Demeter and Kore, b) Dionysus, c) Isis
Elements of Mystery Religions:
Mysteries revealed and kept from outsiders
Purification rites
Salvation in the afterlife
Miracles
Egalitarian societies
Communal meal
(We may be familiar with these items in todays religion, but this was not the
case in ancient times. They were specific to the Greek mystery religions.)
The Mystery Religion of Demeter and Kore
This is the Religion of the Mother Goddess and her Daughter.
Demeter is the goddess of the ripe grain.
Persephone (also known as Kore) is daughter of Demeter
and goddess of the newly planted grain.
This is a religion of new birth and salvation in the afterlife.
The Sacred Story of Demeter and Kore (Persephone)
Demeters daughter Kore was kidnapped one day by Hades. He took her down
to the Underworld to be his bride. Demeter had heard her scream but could
not find her. She searched for days looking for her. In her grief, she wandered
around in old clothes so no one recognized her and did not make the grain grow
like usual. She was kindly taken in by the Queen and King of Eleusis who had
pity on this poor old woman, not knowing who she was. Finally, Demeter found
out from the Sun god Helios what had happened to Kore because he had seen
what had happened from his vantage point in the sky. Demeter worked out a
deal with Hades that Kore would stay part of the year above ground with her
and part of the year underground with him. This is symbolic that grain seed is
underground part of the year and grows above ground the other part of the
year. Demeter was so thankful to Eleusis for taking care of her in her grief that
she gave them her secret rituals to achieve salvation in the afterlife.
The practice of the Mystery Religion of Demeter and Kore
1. The people would walk from Athens to Eleusis.
This is symbolic of sharing in the experience of the goddess.
2. At Eleusis, there is a purification ritual. They would bathe in the river.
3. After this, they would put on new clothes, which symbolizes a new clean life.
4. They would share a meal.
5. Then there was a fast, prayer, and an all-night vigil.
6. They would then attend a secret ritual ceremony & behold the light of Demeter.
7. They experienced transformation of old self into new self.
8. They would receive salvation in the afterlife with the light of the goddess.
The Mystery Religion of Dionysus
was imported from Anatolia (Turkey).
The God Dionysus is god of wine and ecstasy.
The god indwells worshippers.
In this religion,
they would share a meal
and were said to eat the flesh and drink the blood/wine of the god
and were filled with the spirit of the god.
While this sounds like a strange idea,
several hundred years later
Jesus will say a similar thing in the gospel of John (6.53)
The saying is symbolic.
It is about taking in the words and spirit of the god.
Analysis:
This is a religion that focused on the indwelling god.
It appealed to women who had little power in society.
It gave them a feeling of power.
They shared poetry, dance, a communal meal, wine, fellowship.
Miracles were experienced.
Orphic Dionysus (a branch of Dionysian mystery religion)
The Sacred Story of this religion:
Zeus asked the Titan gods to babysit baby Dionysus.
When he returned, he found them eating baby Dionysus.
So he blasted them with his thunderbolt.
Out of the ashes, he made humans.
This describes symbolically that humans are half (Titanic) flesh
and half (a Dionysian/divine) soul.
Beliefs of Orphic Dionysus:
Body and soul dualism
Reincarnation
Purification of the soul
Good afterlife in the Elysian fields
The Egyptian mystery religion of Isis was exported to Greece.
Isis is the mother goddess of Egypt.
Engraved on a monument in Memphis, Egypt about Isis:
it states that she is Queen of the thunderbolt.
She sets free those in bonds.
She is the lawgiver.
She helps you overcome your fate (karma).
The mystery religion of Isis
is about transformation of the individual
and being born again
as illustrated in the next story.
The Transformations of Lucius
(a.k.a The Golden Ass)
This is a book from the 1st century by Apuleius
which describes how Isis brought new life to Lucius.
It is a story of a young man
who hung out with the wrong crowd,
got involved in magic,
and mistakenly is turned into a donkey.
Lucius has many adventures as a donkey
at first fun, then humiliating, then painful.
It is an allegory about going down the wrong path in life
and becoming . . . an ass.
Eventually, he prays to the goddess Isis . . .
On the beach, Lucius prays to Isis.
Coming up out of the ocean, in all her splendor and beauty
she appears to him.
She gives him instructions to become a man again.
He follows her instructions, becomes a man, and then becomes a priest.
She is his savior.
He lives a life of purity after this.
The story of Lucius is about rebirth
through the saving help of the Goddess Isis.
Summary: Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes
The gods and goddesses lived among us.
Some were sons or daughters of a god or goddess
and so were the heroes.
They were saviors, healers, listened to prayers and helped.
Through the gods and goddesses, people experienced
salvation in this life and in the afterlife in mystery religions.
Heroes also lived on after death, ascended, and had a good afterlife.
The Greek cultural context continues in the next Lecture on Greek philosophy.
Lecture by Prof. J. Corey, Ph.D., Victor Valley College
The Greek cultural background to the New Testament (continued)
Greek Philosophy
The 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE
Philosophers in this period include Thales, Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Socrates,
Plato, Aristotle, Middle Platonism, and Gnosticism.
Greek Philosophy (6th century BCE)
Advances in math and astronomy in Babylon in the 7th century BCE
caused a paradigm shift throughout the Ancient Near East and Greece.
Babylonian priests discovered that there was a
mathematical pattern to the movement of the stars and constellations.
It took the Greeks to figure out the significance of this.
If the movements of the planets reveal a mathematical pattern,
then there is a Divine Intelligence behind the universe.
The ancient philosophers realized
were going to need a Bigger God!
The little anthropomorphic gods and goddesses were not
a big enough concept to incorporate the new findings in Astronomy.
The first Greek philosopher was Thales (624-546 BCE)
He said, The many come from the One,
– the many things of existence, come from one Source.
There is One Divine Source to all that exists.
He said the divine source is Divine Water.
The next Greek philosopher was Anaximander.
He agreed that the many come from the One, but
the One is not divine water, rather
the divine source is the Indeterminate Boundless Realm,
like a Quantum Field.
Smaller things build up to become larger things.
Humanity evolves.
All will return to the Divine Source at death.
The next Greek philosopher was Anaximenes (585-523 BCE).
He said that the Divine Source, the Divine One, was Air (spirit).
This is also the substance of the soul.
Things arise through a process of condensing.
The philosopher Pythagoras, who was also a famous mathematician
said, the Source of all is the Monad, the Divine One.
The word monad in Greek means the one.
The fiery center of the Monad, draws in the Dyad, the indeterminate.
From this, first points are formed.
Points build up to form lines.
Lines form plane figures.
Plane figures form into solid figures.
Solid figures form into sensible bodies,
comprised of earth, air, water, fire formed from the points.
From all this buildup there emerges a Cosmos
which is animate, intelligent, and spherical.
The word cosmos means order.
Pythagoras was the first to use cosmos
to refer to the universe.
He was the first to envision the earth as a sphere.
He said the earth revolves around a fixed point.
At the center of the cosmos is the fiery Divine Source, the Monad, the One.
The planets revolve around this center.
He said, the soul is an extension of the Monad
and like the cosmos, the soul is mathematical in essence.
To purify the soul
study mathematics!
And be a vegetarian.
If purified, after death the soul will return to its Divine Source.
This is salvation. We return to our Divine home.
The soul
can be reincarnated into other forms.
It can live other lives because it is made of (eternal) divine substance.
The Greek philosopher Xenaphanes (6th c. BCE) (pronounced Zee-naw-fa-knees)
He said that the Divine One guides everything through Mind.
The One is not anthropomorphic in shape, for
If horses could paint, they would paint the gods like horses
men have made gods in their own image.
He is saying that the Deity has no form and is Mind.
The philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (500 BCE)
He said, In the beginning was the Logos.
The Logos is a divine, intelligent, fiery Source of all that is.
The Logos becomes all that is.
600 years after Heraclitus,
The gospel of John in the New Testament begins with the words:
In the beginning was the Logos
(Logos is translated word in English)
However, what John was really saying was:
In the beginning was the Divine fiery (energy) Source of all that is.
Like Heraclius, John was also from Ephesus.
The Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399 BCE)
defines the soul more clearly.
Soul (is not just air, not just breath of the divine)
it is our capacity for intelligence and character.
Socrates
Socrates said that the activity of the soul is to learn and to do.
Ones greatest concern should be the proper care of the soul.
Socrates advocated for Education of morality:
Learn what is good and then do the good.
Plato writes of the story of Socrates last days
Socrates was condemned to death by the State for corrupting the youth for
his teaching that they did not have to worship the gods, but rather should
learn what is good and then do good.
The method of execution was that he had to drink poison.
His friends were crying but he was calm, he did not fear death.
He knew his soul would return to the Divine
(like in the movie The Green Mile).
The Greek philosopher Plato (Socrates student)
said that there are 3 eternal principles to the Cosmos:
1. The heavenly realm is a realm of eternal Ideas
(or Forms) The Good is the highest Form
2. A creator god (the demiurge) is one of the immortal gods
3. The demiurge makes the things of creation the earth and humans
The Soul is divine.
It has prior existence and descends into a body.
Humans are made up of 3 parts (not just 2)
mind, soul, body.
The mind directs the soul upwards to the eternal realm.
The body directs the soul downwards.
In the New Testament, St. Paul will use this idea.
We are in darkness and ignorance, sleepwalking.
Plato calls us to wake up to the heavens above.
and look for the Logos in nature (the divine mathematical essence).
This will draw you to the Eternal Realm of Intelligent ideas
(to the Mind of God, so to speak)
and purify your soul.
The purified soul will return to the Divine realm after death.
The home of the soul
is sometimes pictured up in the Divine realm.
In other writings it is described as a paradise-like Elysian Fields.
Either way,
there is salvation for the soul in the afterlife in Platos writings
Aristotle (Platos student)
Pictured a Geocentric model of the Cosmos
Earth in the middle
5 (known) planets plus sun and moon circle the earth in concentric spheres
7 total concentric spheres
Beyond that is the realm of the fixed stars
Beyond that is the Divine Unmoved Mover (what we would call God)
Aristotle
The Divine is the cause of movement in the Cosmos
The outermost realm gazes on Divine Beauty and starts to move
This triggers mechanical motion of spheres which causes movement on earth.
This view was adopted by Science.
Philosophical movements from the 4th century BCE to 1st century CE
Middle Platonism and Gnosticism
Middle Platonic philosophers and Gnostics added more and more spheres
separating the Divine Realm and Earth.
The Gnostics
pictured a Spiritual Divine Realm of Light Above
and a dark material world below.
Above is the Divine Monad who is both male and female
We are trapped in the Dark World below
but have a divine spark of light within the soul.
We need to wake up to the Spiritual Realm above.
Summary: From the influence of Babylonian Astronomy,
Greek philosophers brought about three important changes.
1. A much larger idea of God
rather than the polytheistic anthropomorphic gods.
Their idea of deity is the Monad, the One divine Source:
a. With Aristotle and the Gnostics, a great divide develops
between Heaven and Earth.
b. In the trajectory of thought stemming from Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Plato,
there is the divine Monad. The earth and all that stem from it,
is divine because it flows out of the One Divine Source.
2nd change is from the 3-level universe to a geocentric universe
This view will last until the 16th century.
The 3rd change
is from the concept of a weak soul that languished underground
in dark Hades to an immortal soul in the heavens above.
There is salvation in the afterlife according to the Greek philosophers.
The New Testament writers adopted the Greek worldview and
applied many Greek ideas to Jesus and Christianity.
This is a world where gods walk among us
And increasingly, it is a world where there is a great divide
between us and the One God.
They have the idea of heroes as sons and daughters of God
that God is a god of justice and love, and gods spirit dwells within.
In the beginning was the Logos (the Divine intelligent principle) that becomes the world.
To save your soul, purify it, and focus on the Divine.
Lecture by Prof. J. Corey, Ph.D., Victor Valley College
Ancient
Roman Religion
Deities of ancient Rome
The gods and goddesses of Rome
were primarily based on the Greek gods and goddesses.
Each of the gods and goddesses had temples.
A statue of the deity was in each temple.
Offerings (sacrificed animals) were made at the altar.
This meat was eaten at a lively banquet at the temple.
The people would share the meal with the priests and priestesses.
It was like a potluck.
The Council of 12 Roman deities:
1. Jupiter
He was the father god
God of the Sky
Similar to Zeus from Greece
2. Juno
The goddess Juno was wife to Jupiter
Goddess of Light
Goddess of the moon
The month of June is named after her
3. Neptune
God of the Sea
Similar to the Greek god Poseidon
4. Minerva
Similar to the Greek goddess Athena
Minerva was goddess of healing and wisdom
Goddess of education, commerce, and industry
Daughter of the god Jupiter
5. Mars
Similar to the Greek god Ares,
he was the son of the goddess Juno.
Mars was the God of war.
Roman generals would pray to him before and after battles.
He was said to be the father of the human twin boys Romulus and Remus.
So they are sons of god.
Romulus and Remus were the founders of the city of Rome.
6. Venus
Similar to the Greek goddess Aphrodite,
Venus was goddess of Love.
She is the mother of the human warrior Aenaes a hero of the Trojan war.
The star is named after her.
7. Apollo
This is the same deity as in Greek culture.
Apollo is god of healing, plague, music, and prophecy.
The priestess of Apollo was called the Sibyl.
8. Diana
Goddess of the hunt
Similar to Artemis for the Greeks.
She was also protector of women during childbirth.
9. Vulcan
Similar to the Greek god Hephaistos.
Vulcan is god of fire.
He is the blacksmith god.
10. Vesta
Goddess of the hearth (the fireplace in each home).
Priestesses of Vesta were known as the Vestal Virgins.
11. Mercury
The messenger of the gods
Similar to the Greek god Hermes
12. Ceres
Goddess of the grain
Goddess of Agriculture
Protector of children
In Greece, Demeter was goddess of grain.
There were other Roman deities
not just those listed above,
such as Janus, the god of wisdom.
He had two faces and could see the past and the future.
There were spirits or gods and goddesses of nature,
such as trees, rivers, mountains, etc.
The Roman god Bacchus
was a combination of the Greek god Dionysus
and the early Roman god Liber Patri, who was also a wine god.
(Rome had many vineyards.)
Bacchus was God of wine.
Intoxicating festivals were held annually on March 17th
The Romans banned this religion in 186 BCE
because it was getting too wild.
Pluto
God of the Underworld
Similar to the Greek god Hades.
Pictured here with a three-headed dog.
The planet is named after him.
Just before the first century CE
a Triad (Trinity) of deities developed consisting of:
the father god Jupiter
the mother goddess Juno
the daughter of god, Minerva
(Notice that the trinities that we have seen so far are of a couple and their child.)
Each home had an altar and a shrine
where the families prayed to personal household gods.
These god and goddesses were the progenitors or ancestors of each family.
The Roman imperial cult:
Emperor Caesar Augustus was deemed a son of a god
by the Roman Senate after his death.
Other Roman emperors after this were considered to be sons of the god
after their deaths.
Occasionally some Roman emperors claimed that they were gods
while still living. These included:
Emperor Caligula (37-41 CE)
Emperor Nero (54-68 CE)
Emperor Domitian (81-96 CE)
It was these last two emperors who persecuted Christians in the 1st century.
Roman Organization
The Romans used a Hierarchical model for structuring society.
Structure of Roman Society (shaped like a triangle)
1. Emperor was at the top
2. Wealthy Landowners which consisted of two levels:
A. Patricians the nobility who were Politicians
B. Equestrians business owners
3. Plebians (divided into several groups) – the working class
such as craftsmen, artisans, bakers
4. Slaves
The hierarchical model would eventually be adopted by the Church,
gradually emerging over the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Summary of ancient Roman Religion
There were many sons of gods and daughters of gods,
sons of goddesses and daughters of goddesses.
Both gods and some special humans were considered to have a divine parent.
The people in ancient Rome were very religious.
There was no separation of religion and politics (in our time, we would say, no separation of Church and State.)
They had shrines in their households.
In general, Romans were tolerant.
One could worship whichever god or goddess that they wanted.
Problems however would emerge with the imperial cult.
Some emperors saw themselves as gods and expected prayers and offerings.
Lecture by Prof. J. Corey, Ph.D., Victor Valley College
