2.2 Religion and Philosophy
Greek and Roman Pantheon of Gods
Video from Crash Course URL: https://youtu.be/XNCQ9w59I7M?si=H3EZ-nO3b5WWu38d
Sanctuaries: Art in Service of Gods and State.
Greek religion was polytheistic and firmly embedded in the polis system. Temples were often paid for by the government, and statues of and dedications to the gods were regularly made in civic buildings. Religious festivals were the major holidays in a city’s calendar, and it was expected that all citizens, both male and female, participated in public religious events. Temples served as houses for the gods, with cult statues placed inside which the spirits of the gods could inhabit. In most temples, there was not room for large congregational gatherings inside. Most religious rituals happened outside of the temple. Major festivals would involve public prayers, music, and ritualized movement in processions. The culminating event of the rituals was the sacrifice of animals, which took place on altars, usually placed in front of the entrance of the temple. As the gods received the fat and the bones through burnt offerings on the altars, the meat was left for the worshippers, and feasting would follow sacrifices.
Temples were usually the largest buildings in a city, made of stone—many domestic and civic structures were made of mud brick or timber—and frequently decorated with sculpture and colorful paint. The temples usually followed similar plans and were built using similar designs on their exteriors, like the temples at Paestum.
In addition to civic temples, Greeks also worshiped at sites known as panhellenic sanctuaries. These sanctuaries did not belong to a single polis but to all Greeks (the term “panhellenic” means all Greeks), and provided spaces for Greeks to interact with other Greeks in neutral territory. One such sanctuary was that of Apollo at Delphi. The sanctuary was oracular and people from across the Greek world came to Delphi to ask questions of the priests and priestess (known as the pythia) at the oracle who interpreted the infallible prophecies of Apollo.
In addition to the oracle, there were regular festivals that worshiped Apollo and involved prayers, feasting, and athletic games. Athletes who won at Delphi, like the patron of the Charioteer, dedicated statues in the sanctuary to advertise their win to all future visitors to the sanctuary.
This spirit of competition spread beyond the athletic games, and both individuals and poleis used the sanctuaries to their advertise civic wealth and status to other poleis through dedications of art and architecture. One such example at Delphi is the elaborate Siphnian Treasury, which housed the dedications from the island of Siphnos to Apollo. Panhellenic sanctuaries subsequently became one of the most important spaces for the displays of art and centers for artistic production.
Copyright: Dr. Amanda Herring, “Pottery, the body, and the gods in ancient Greece, c. 800–490 B.C.E.,” in Reframing Art History, Sma