Student No. 927257

 

The role of religion in Pan-Hellenism in Classical Greece

 

 

 

Before leaving to spend two weeks studying in Greece, I had a number of pre-conceived ideas as to how religion impacted on Pan-Hellenism in Classical Greece. I had believed that to have a significant effect on Pan-Hellenism religious activity would have to be very major, and it would be limited to Olympia, Athens, Delphi and Delos. The two week experience in Greece certainly enriched my knowledge on the subject, and supported as well as refuted a number of the ideas I had concerning religion and Pan-Hellenism.

 

I felt that religion was enormously important to Pan-Hellenism, and that only the Greek language could compare in importance. However I was quite blinkered in my view that only sites of extreme religious significance could bring the Greek world together. I had felt that only great festivals such as the Olympic Games or the Great Dionysia could bring Greeks together to such an extend to aid Pan-Hellenism. It is clear after examining a number of the perhaps less significant sites that this is untrue, and the role of religion in Pan-Hellenism can be found in Ancient Corinth, as well as Ancient Epidavros as well as at the more famous sites of Delphi, Olympia and Athens.

 

The sites of Ancient Corinth and Epidavros showed that in many cases a shared religious belief was sufficient to bring the Greek world together. At the Archaeological museum at Ancient Corinth there were carvings from the ancient theatre that showed the gigantomachy. The gigantomachy, Centauromachy, Amazonomachy and the fall of troy are all portrayed in classical Greek architecture to represent the Greek peoples uniting to defeat a foreign power. After the defeat of the Persians at Marathon, Salamis and Plataea Persians characteristics began to seep into these depictions showing how these scenes are used to represent Pan-Hellenism (Hall 1993: 114). Although I expected to see these scenes at Olympia and in Athens, I did not expect to see them at Corinth I did not think that the use of religion in Pan-Hellenism would be so widespread. Although it could be said that these are quite common images and are found all across Greece so would not have been significant to the Ancient Greeks. I look at it a different way, I believe that these images are so widespread because they represent Greek strength in the face of barbarian oppression and that mythology is the best way to put this message across. The preponderance of these images across Greece merely supports just how important religion was to Greek identity and Pan-Hellenism.

 

The Ancient site of Epidavros also showed how religion can impact Pan-Hellenism outside of the “big name” festivals. Hellenes came from across the Greek world to sit in the Ancient theatre, and to be healed by the devotees of Asklepios. At the centre of the orchestra in the Ancient Theatre was an altar to Dionysus showing just how important religion was in the theatre, this is something that was echoed in Athens during the Great Dionysia. As one of the largest theatres in Classical Greece, people would come from across Greece to watch and listen to the plays. The Asklepieion was even more significant, as it was at Epidavros where the cult of Asklepios was based, and it was there that people would flock to from across the Greek world to be healed by the miracle cures of the disciples of Asklepios. The archaeological museum at Epidavros displays a tablet which records the miracle cures, and the names of the patients show just how geographically diverse the patients were, and therefore how essential religion was to Pan-Hellenism.

 

As I expected before I travelled to Greece, the key religious sites of Olympia and Delphi contained the bulk of the evidence that supports my theory that religion was essential to Pan-Hellenism. As I have expressed in my previous essay, Harris believed that the religious aspect to the Olympic Games had been overplayed and that, it was more of a sporting event than anything else (Harris 1972: 16). However my experience gave plenty of evidence to the contrary as the bulk of the material in the museum were offerings to Zeus. These offerings came from as far afield as Magna Graeca and Ionia, supporting the view that the Olympic Games brought together Hellenes from across the entirety of the Greek speaking world, not just from mainland Greece. The archaeological museum at Olympia also displays some even more significant finds, for example there are Persian helmets that have been dedicated to Zeus after the victory at Marathon. Even more important, there is a helmet that bears the inscription “Miltiades offered to Zeus”, after the battle of Marathon, the Athenian general Miltiades offered his helmet to Zeus at Olympia. The fact one of the more important generals in Greek history would offer his victory over the Persians to Zeus at Olympia shows just how important the site of Olympia was. As I have made clear earlier in this essay the Persian were enormously significant in terms of Pan-Hellenism and the victories over the Persians had already been linked to myth in the Amazonomachy. For Miltiades to dedicate his victory to Zeus at Olympia personally reinforces this point that religion and Pan-Hellenism go hand in hand.

 

Delphi and Athens also supplied strong evidence that religion was closely tied to Pan-Hellenism, as there were multiple dedications to Apollo at Delphi from across the Greek world showing that the oracle had the capability of bringing Hellenes together from hundreds of miles apart. It is also clear due to the size and the archaeology surrounding the theatre of Dionysus, that it also had a similar capability. However I have covered this in my previous essay, and Athens and Delphi only confirmed my previous assumptions about Pan-Hellenism and religion. Although I would have loved to visit Delos as I feel it would have offered a fascinating insight into the role of Pan-Hellenism in religion, we were unfortunately unable to go due to traffic disruption in Athens.

 

Despite the fact that we did not visit Delos it is clear from the sites that we visited that religion had an enormous impact on the Classical Greek work and that although the festivals and practices carried from Polis to Polis, there were still striking similarities between them all. To be Greek was to practice the Greek religion and it is clear that religious festivals as well as general iconography gave the Greeks a sense of a common Hellenic identity.

 

Word Count: 1086

 

Bibliography

 

 

Hall, E. 1989. Inventing the Barbarian. Oxford.

Harris, H. 1972. Sport in Greece and Rome, Cornell