Group Essay - After

 

 

In an attempt to deepen our knowledge of Ancient Greek religion during the classical period we flew to Greece in order to experience first hand the ancient sites. We also took the opportunity to visit a number of archaeological museums both at and outside of the Ancient sites which enabled us to further understand the lifestyle of the Ancient Greeks. As we expected, during the Classical period and beyond religion was essential to the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks and that religious worship varied from ancient site to ancient site. As was made clear in the original group essay each student had an individual aspect of Greek religion which they would be examining and each site gave the students a chance to test their pre-conceived opinions on their aspect of Ancient Greek religion.

 

The first site that we visited was the site of Ancient Corinth, in order to look at the Archaeological museum of Corinth and the temple of Apollo. The museum contained a number of surprising finds that we did not expect to find that offered a more thorough view of the role of religion in Pan-Hellenism. The ancient theatre was decorated with scenes of the mythological Gigantomachy, which are generally used in Greek architecture to demonstrate Greek unity against barbarians and other non-Hellenes. This evidence of the use of the Gigantomachy in Ancient Corinth shows that mythology and Pan-Hellenism was not simply restricted to sites of extreme religious significance like Olympia or Delos. The role of the temple of Aphrodite was discussed in the archaeological museum and the use of the temple as a brothel is debateable. It is difficult to determine the original role of the temple as it was converted into a church and a mosque, and there both Christian and Muslim archaeology has been found there. The Asklepieion was not at the actual archaeological site so although we could see the votive offerings and other finds from the Asklepieion in the museum, we were not able to see the Asklepieion ruins and so were not able to compare to the Asklepieion at Epidavros. However we were able to see that many of the artefacts and statues uncovered at the ancient site of Corinth were dedicated to Asklepios and therefore showed a preference to this one god.

 

The next site we visited was Epidavros, where we saw testament to the cult centre of Asklepios. The size of the ruins of the Asklepieion in Epidavros compared to the size of the other ruins showed us that the cult of Asklepios played a fundamental role in this ancient site. The stone theatre at Epidavros, which seated 15,000 spectators, was impeccably preserved to give us a clear idea of what it would have been like to view theatre in the Ancient Greek period. The acoustics of the theatre demonstrated how advanced the Greeks had become, that wherever you sat in the theatre, the words of the actor on the stage were clearly audible. Although we did not know about the stadium at Epidavros before we left, we discovered that games were regularly held to honour the god showing once again the role of worship in the bringing together of Hellenic peoples. The museum also offered another example of the use of mythology and religion in architecture, as the east and west pediments of the temple displayed the conquest of Troy and the Amazonomachy reinforcing the idea of Hellenes united against non-Hellenes. Although Epidavros was the smallest site that we visited, it was also one of the most impressive as both the theatre and the Asklepieion were spectacular compared to the size of the Polis. This shows the significance of religion to the Ancient Greeks, as the citizens of Epidavros were able to construct such magnificent structures to worship their patron god.

 

Next we travelled to Olympia. The ancient site there was especially enlightening for those of us studying cult centres in Greece. The temple of Zeus and the temple of Hera both showed that the site was the primary location for dedications and votive offerings to the leader of the gods. There were offerings to Zeus in many of the other ancient sites we visited, but none compared to those found at Olympia. The museum displayed a number of different offerings, a number of which were dedicated to the oracle. Who was said to have specialised in military divinations, the importance placed on the oracle shows the strength of the role of women in religious and military matters. In terms of the role of religion in Pan-Hellenism, the site of Ancient Olympia is a excellent example of Greek cooperation and the fact that the worship of Zeus at Olympia was the greatest factor in bringing the Hellenes together. The museum displayed a number of offerings constructed in workshops from across ancient Greece showing that there was a great deal of cooperation between poleis at Olympia. There were statuettes from Argive, Corinthian, Italian, Eleian and even Laconian workshops showing the great diversity of the Greeks who went to the Olympic Games to compete and to worship the God. More significantly there is overlap between the classically Pan-Hellenic event of the defeat of the Persians and the archaeology of the Ancient site. The museum features a Persian helmet inscribed with the inscription: “The Athenians dedicated to Zeus this booty which they took from the Medes”, showing how important the conquest over the Persians to the Classical Greek psyche. Around the same time the Athenian general Miltiades dedicated his helmet to Zeus after his victory over the Persians at Marathon. These offerings are nicely complimented by the magnificent west pediment of the temple of Zeus, which displays the Centauromachy once again reinforcing the importance of the role of religion in Pan-Hellenism against the Barbarian. We were also surprised at the extent of influence of Hellenes from outside mainland Greece at Olympia, the museum contains evidence of dedications from Ionia, Magna Graeca and from Illyria, showing just how significant the Olympic games was to Hellenes during the Classical Period. The worship of Zeus clearly managed to reach out to all in the Greek world whether they lived in mainland Greece or beyond.

 

When visiting Delphi, it was clear to see the impact the oracle had in Delphi. The large amount of archaeological evidence suggests that the reason Delphi became such a powerful city was because of the large amount of pilgrims visiting the oracle. This would imply that women did have a large role in religion as the oracle was a woman and the fact that women were allowed such a significant role suggests that women were treated equally in religion. The influence of the oracle was also clearly seen in the dedications to Apollo in his role as the god of oracles. There was a great amount of votive offerings to Apollo that could be found in the museum at Delphi, which helped to reinforce the idea of Apollo as the patron god of Delphi. The theatre at Delphi, sat at the top of the site, seated 5,000 spectators and gave them a fantastic view of the valley below and the temple of Apollo. It is interesting that a theatre was included in the site of Delphi, which shows the importance of theatre to the everyday life of the Ancient Greeks. It is also noted that Dionysos as well as Apollo was considered to have prophetic qualities. We have archaeological evidence of this tie, on the west pediment of the Temple of Apollo which depicts the god Dionysus, holding a type of lyre called a cithara in his left hand. The fact that both gods are depicted on opposing pediments of the temple links the two deities together in religion. Like Ancient Olympia, the site of Ancient Delphi showed a great deal of Pan-Hellenism and mythology in its archaeology. Also like Ancient Olympia the religious significance of the site was such that it drew Hellenes from all corners of the Greek world. The museum featured Corinthian helmets, bronze Cypriot stands for cauldrons, Cretan shields, as well as fabulous gifts dedicated to Apollo by wealthy rulers in Asia Minor. Most of these offerings seem to have come from Miletus, Ephesus and Samos showing the power of religion to draw such magnificent gifts from throughout the Greek world. The most obvious examples of Pan-Hellenism in Delphi are the offerings, and the statues dedicated to Apollo by cities from throughput Greece, two of the most famous statues from the Classical period: the twins of Argos Cleobis and Biton were found at Delphi. They had been dedicated by the Argives because it was thought that the greatest honour that could be given was to have statues at Delphi dedicated to them because of the enormous religious significance of the place. The presence of treasuries from very important Greek poleis also shows the faith which these city states placed in the sanctuary of the site, as the Athenians and the Boeotians both had very sizable treasuries at Delphi.   

 

When visiting Athens, we were able to gain a greater understanding of the impact of religion on what has consistently been a major Greek city. However, those of us studying patron gods were slightly disappointed that there were not an abundant amount of dedications to Athena in comparison to the offerings to other gods there. In comparison to Apollo in Delphi and Asklepios in Epidavros and Corinth, the votive offerings dedicated to Athena did not signify that Athens showed much of a preference to her as their patron god. The Parthenon museum was particularly interesting which had a huge amount of architecture and artefacts considering the small size of the Acropolis.  Many of the exhibits depicted mythology, among other topics.  In Athens we were able to visit the site of the Theatre of Dionysus. This was a very important theatre in the religion of the Ancient Greeks as this theatre was end-point for the procession which took place during the religious festival, The Great Dionysia. Here theatrical competitions took place between many famous playwrights, whose work still survives today including Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles. Although much of the seating in the theatre has been lost, a visitor to the site is still able to distinguish many of the rows, walkways and groups of seating which would have been able to seat 17,000 people. The idea of competition was obviously a key element when the theatre was designed as the priest’s throne depicts cocks being urged to fight by winged boys. Although we were unable to visit Delos due to travel disruption, the archaeological museum of Athens displayed a number of finds from Delos which enabled us to get an idea of the finds which we would have encountered at Delos. Both the finds from Delos and the theatre of Dionysus are good evidence of the role of religion in Pan-Hellenism as it was the sanctuary of Delos and the worship of Dionysus that brought the Greeks together.

 

Our trip to Ancient Greece was very enlightening and it offered us an excellent opportunity to better understand the Ancient Greek civilisation their way of life. More than anything this trip this trip showed us that religion was critical to the Ancient Greek sense of identity and self-definition. Visits to the archaeological museums and the Ancient sites allowed us to examine our separate aspects in more detail, and our knowledge of Ancient Greek religion has been significantly expanded due to this experience.