Student No. 0945048

 

Local Patron Gods and how they are Worshipped

 

 

In April 2010 five students from Birmingham University’s Ancient History and Classics programmes will be going to Greece to take part in a study tour. The group aim and general theme of the tour will be to gain a better understanding of Greek religion through visual and written aids around Greece i.e. temples and inscriptions. We will be visiting nine cities in total throughout the two week period: Athens, Corinth, Epidaurus, Nafplion, Olympia, Bassae, Delphi, Mykonos and Delos. My individual reasons for visiting these particular cities are that certain gods are associated with some of these cities more than others. For example, Athena is most associated with Athens, Aphrodite and Poseidon with Corinth (Zaidman & Pantel 1995: 90), Asklepios with Epidaurus, Zeus with Olympia and Apollo with Delos, Bassae and Delphi. It is this that will form the basis of my individual theme; to see how the cities portrayed this favouring of gods, through temples and sanctuaries as well as festivals and written elements.  It is these favoured gods that are ultimately concerned with the identity and protection of the cities, and although other gods were worshipped too, it was those favoured deities who played a major part in the religion that was formed by the people in each city (Buxton 2000: 23).

 

When visiting Athens, my main aim will be to see how much of the ancient monuments and buildings are dedicated to Athena compared to other gods. To do this I will need to visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon particularly, as that particular sanctuary was built for and dedicated to Athena. I will also visit the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the south slope of the Acropolis, where there are sanctuaries built to other gods, to see if there is a difference between the status of Athena and other gods depicted within the city. During my time in Athens I will also visit many other sites and museums around the city such as Poseidon’s Temple, the Ancient Agora, the Olympieion, the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum to broaden my knowledge of the city and provide extra information on the ways in which ancient Athenians conducted their religion.

 

Corinth was an important naval city during ancient times due to its position on the Isthmus of Corinth (Hopper 1955: 2). For this reason the city’s patron god is regularly seen to be Poseidon, the god of the sea. However the city also houses temples to Apollo and Aphrodite (Weinberg & Weinberg 1946: 68-70). Therefore, during my time in Corinth I will go to the Archaeological Museum of Corinth to see if the archaeological findings from the area tell a different story. I will also visit the Temple of Apollo and the Temple of Aphrodite as well as the Asklepieion whilst in Corinth, so I am able to compare the three ruins and see if one suggests a greater importance than any other.

 

Asklepios, the god of healing, often has temples dedicated to him in many ancient Greek cities, but the sanctuary at Epidaurus is probably the most famous. Ancient Greeks travelled for miles to witness the healing powers that the sanctuary at the alleged birthplace of Asklepios held (Zaidman & Pantel 1995: 128-130). It seems that Epidaurus is one site where there is no argument as to who their patron god was, and Pausanias himself said that the land was especially sacred to Asklepios (Pausanias 2.26.3).  The Asklepieion should therefore reinforce this idea that Epidaurus was a cult centre for Asklepios and his healing powers and that there is limited evidence to show that other gods were worshipped here to such a great extent.

 

Zeus, the king of all gods was naturally worshipped alongside the patron deities in temples and sanctuaries all over Greece. However, it seems that the Temple of Zeus at Olympia was the main site where Greeks would travel to pay their respects and, every four years, watch the Olympic Games (Nilsson 1940: 99). The Altis is the sacred area of the sanctuary at Olympia, where it houses the Temple of Zeus and the Temple of Hera, and will be the main site I wish to visit during my time in Olympia. I would also like to visit the Olympia Museum, as well as the Altar of Zeus and the studio of Pheidias, where the great ivory and gold statue of Zeus was made.

 

The sanctuary temple of Pythian Apollo at Delphi was built for and dedicated to Apollo, being that the ancient city was allegedly the place where he killed the Python deity (Middleton 1888: 282). Aside from the great temple, the Pythian games were held in Delphi every four years in honour of Apollo and it was also the site of the Delphic Oracle, the most important of the oracles of Greece (Zaidman & Pantel 1995: 48). It is clear from my research that Delphi paid a lot of tribute to Apollo and the colonisation that he supposedly helped with, and the Greeks thanks is evident in the remains of the temple and other buildings at Delphi (Zaidman & Pantel 1995: 122). Whilst in Delphi I will also visit the Archaeological Museum and the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, so as to see whether there is a difference in the scale of dedication to the two gods.

 

Delos was also a site heavily dedicated to the god Apollo, as it is his supposed birthplace (Zaidman & Pantel 1995: 192). But it also has sanctuaries dedicated to Artemis and Dionysus too. However, Delos is not a community island; it is a sacred place specifically for the gods and those who wish to pay their respects (Adel 1983: 288-89). The whole island is now an archaeological site, and so during our visit to Delos we will take time to see the Sacred Lake, the Stoivadeion, the Temple of Hera and the House of Dionysus amongst other ancient ruins, to see if Apollo does hold a more important role than the other gods.

 

Many of the cities we will be visiting have multiple temples, dedicated to different gods. Whilst I am in Greece I want to see if there is an obvious favouritism for the patron gods above the other gods that have temples in the same area. I also want to see if certain gods are favoured by multiple cities, for example Apollo has temples dedicated to him in the majority of the cities I will be visiting, whereas Poseidon is only evident in Corinth. Hopefully the trip will produce some interesting finds that will help me to form a solid conclusion by the end of the study tour.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Adel, R.D. 1983. ‘Apollo’s Prophecies at Delos’, The Classical World 76, 288-290

Buxton, R. (eds) 2000. Oxford Readings in Greek Religion. Oxford.

Easterling, P.E. & Muir, J.V. (eds) 1985. Greek Reliogion and Society. Cambridge.

Farnell, L.R. 1896. The Cults of the Greek States: Volume 1. Oxford.

Guthrie, W.K.C. 1950. The Greeks and their Gods. Cambridge.

Hopper, R.J. 1955. ‘Ancient Corinth’, Greece and Rome 2, 2-15

Middleton, J.H. 1888. ‘The Temple of Apollo at Delphi’, The Journal of Hellenistic Studies 9, 282-322

Nilsson, M.P. 1940. Greek Popular Religion. New York.

Nilsson, M.P. 1949. A History of Greek Religion. New York.

Otto, W.F. 1954. The Homeric Gods. Michigan.

Pantel, P.S. & Zaidman, L.B. 1989. Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Trans, P. Cartledge. Cambridge.

Pausanias, Description of Greece, trans. W. H. S. Jones & H. A. Ormerod (Cambridge, MA 1918)

Price, S. 1999. Religions of the Ancient Greeks. Cambridge.

Weinberg, S.S. & Weinberg, G.R. 1946. ‘Corinth: The Ancient City Revealed’, The Classical Journal 42, 67-76