Greek Religionand

The Tradition of Myth

Religion

• Religion • An institutionalized system of rituals.• An institution is a “system of ideas whose object is to explain

the world” (Durkheim, 1965: 476).• Spiritualism

• A belief in forces that exist outside of space and time but that can act within those domains

Culture and Belief

• “Religion is sociologically interesting not because, as vulgar positivism would have it, it describes the social order...but because... it shapes it” (Geertz 1973, 119).

• “The social function of myth is to bind together social groups as wholes or, in other words, to establish a social consensus” (Halpern 1961, 137).

Mythos

• Archaic Greek: a story, speech, utterance.• Essentially declarative in nature

• Classical Greek: An unsubstantiated claim• Mythographos• Logographos• Logopoios

Modern Definitions

• “…Myth is defined as a complex of traditional tales in which significant human situations are united in fantastic combinations to form a polyvalent semiotic system which is used in multifarious ways to illuminate reality…”

• (Burkert 1985: 120).

• “A traditional story with collective importance” • (Powell, 2009: 2)

Logos

• An argument• A statement or story based on comparative evaluation or

collection of data• The result of a process• A study

• Bio-logy, Socio-logy, mytho-logy

• Powell: • logos is defined by authorship, it has a known origin, • mythos is anonymous, it exists in a social milieu undefined by

its origin

Truth and Falsehood

• “The poet and the historian differ not by writing in verse or in prose… The true difference is that one relates what has happened, the other what may happen. Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular.”

• (Aristotle Poetics 1451a. 35 – b.5)• The ‘truth’ about the past did not matter. “Acceptance

and belief where what counted” (Finley, 1965: 299).

Greekness

• Greek:• Is a cultural definition• Language• Custom• Religious practices• Direct connection to the myth cycle

• The only reason to preserve community memory beyond the stories of three or four generations is for the explanation or justification of religious and socio-political orders. Oral tradition is a tool for the maintenance of the status quo (Finley, 1965: 297-8).

A myth is…

• A myth is any communally ratified narrative that serves to define or legitimate membership in the community, but which is not, and must not be, subject to examination. Indeed, any expression of doubt or skepticism identifies the miscreant as an alien.

(just my thoughts…)

Tradition

• Orally transmitted through bards:• Aiodos

• Ode• Mythode• Rhapsode• Stories are handed down generation to generation

essentially intact…• But they are subject to change

Olympian Gods

• Zeus• Poseidon• Apollo• Ares• Hermes• Hephaestus

• Hera• Hestia• Demeter• Athena• Aphrodite• Artemis

Zeus• Indo-European Sky Father?

• Dewos PIE• Zeus, Dios : Greek• Daiva: Old Persian• Deva: Sanksrit• Tues: Germanic• Diespiter: Old Latin

• (Dies Pater: God the Father)• Jupiter Latin

HesiodCa. 750 BC

Legacy

• Works and Days:– Socio-economic treatise– Prometheus and Pandora

• Theogony:– Origins of the world from Chaos– Origins of the gods

• Homeric Hymns:– Songs of praise to individual gods

Theogony

• From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing…• Hesiod Theogony 1.

• And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon,

• Hesiod Theogony 25.

The Muses’ Claim

‘Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to speak true things.'

Hesiod Theogony 26 – 28

• Myth and religion are not ‘true.’ They are paradigms of the truth; representations.

• Myth is a cultural charter:• It is not content that matters…• It is the knowing

Theogony

• From the void emerged:– Chaos– Gaia (Earth)– Eros (Love)– Tartarus (A place beneath Hades)

• It takes nine days to fall from Earth to Tartarus (Theog.721-23).

TheogonyCreation from the Void:

Chaos

Aether (Atmosphere) Hemere (Day)

ErebusA dark place between Earth and Hades

Nux (Night)

TheogonyCreation from the Void:

Gaia (Earth)

Uranus (Heaven) Pontus (Sea)

CronusOceanus Coeus Cruis Hyperion

IapetusTheia Rhea Themis

Mnemosune Phoebe Tethys

The First Struggle

• Heaven was hated by his children• Cronus castrated Heaven and the blood of Heaven produced:

ErinyesGiantsNymphs

Aphrodite = Eros

Desire

Cronus then became King of the gods and trapped his brothers inside Earth

Titans and Gods

• Cronus, fearing his children, swallowed the first five.• Rhea appealed to Heaven and Earth and they protected Zeus

and hid him on Crete

Cronus = Rhea

Heaven = Earth

Hestia HadesHera Demeter Poseidon Zeus

Zeus

• Defeated Cronus• Freed his own siblings• Freed the Titans, brothers of Cronus

• As a reward, they gave Zeus the thunder and lightning• Zeus divided the spheres amongst his brothers:• Zeus, Heaven: • Hades, Underworld: • Poseidon, the Sea.

Titans and Mortals

• Zeus defeated the Titans• Titanomachy• Imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus

• Zeus created a fourth race:• “righteous god-like race”• Some died at Thebes• Some died at Troy• The rest live on the Islands of the Blessed ruled by

Cronus

The Greek Mind

• Humans exist outside of the natural and divine matrix

• Events are predetermined by Fate• There is no free will because fate cannot be changed• It is God’s will.• Is that not an abrogation of responsibility?

• In the Iliad; the gods made me miss, the gods broke my spear, the gods made me run away…

The Three Maxims

ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝΜΗ∆ΕΝ ΑΓΑΝ

ΕΓΓΥΑ ΠΑΡΑ ∆ ΑΤΑ• Know yourself• Nothing in Excess• An oath sworn will be your ruin

The Tragic Trilogy

• Hubris• Pride, entitlement, a sense of superiority.

• Ate• Foolishness, recklessness

• Nemesis• Divine retribution

Homer

Legacy

• Iliad:– Story of the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles – “Sing to me oh Muses the wrath of Achilles…”

• Odyssey:– Story of Odysseus’ ten year voyage home from Troy.

Legacy

• Defined “Greekness”– Hesiod and Homer gave the Greeks their conception of the

gods (Hdt. ii.53)• Foundational texts of Greek culture• Similar to the Bible:

– Basis for cultural and religious instruction– Common reference

• Earliest epics in Western world– Still regarded amongst the greatest works of literature

Who Was Homer?

• Lived ca 1050- ca 850 BC• Nineteen birthplaces• Most Likely:

– Lived ca 850 BC– From Ionia (Chios)– Composed (collected) the works as songs – A single epithet representing a number of unknowable

sources