Ancient Greek Religion
Transcript of Ancient Greek Religion
Ancient Greek Religion
They held the same religious beliefs
Believing in the same pantheon of
gods
Each polis had several temples, believed to be the
Earthly home of the god it was built for.
A polis would use temples as storehouses
(so did some people) Who would dare steal from the home of a god?
People visited to pray and offer sacrifice to the god
by leaving food or wine at the alter
There was a lot of ceremony involved when
sacrificing an animal to the gods
It was seen not only as a sacred ritual, but a rare opportunity to eat meat
The people would often visit a temple to pray
before they did anything important
asking a specific god for help
To pray, people raised their hands to
the sky
In prayer, if a person touched the ground or knelt, it meant he was praying to Hades
Before battle, who would one pray to?
There is no one religious book for the Greeks. The
religion comes from many stories
Religious ideas were first passed down orally
Many myths included what happened when
one diedIncluding the Odyssey and the Tales of Heracles
As long as the deceased was given a proper
funeral and buried, the soul was released
And Hermes would take the soul to
Hades
Which is both the name of the god of
the dead and and the name of the Greek underworld
There, the soul would come to the River Styx,
and Cerberus
The three-headed dog that protects the entrance to the underworld
The soul would then pay Charon, the ferryman, to
cross the River Styx
Once the river was crossed, the soul was
judged by three judgesIt would either go to:
Tartarus A place of punishment for the truly wicked
The Asphodel Fields Where ordinary people wandered as shades. It was a joyless area, and any life was better than this.
or the Elysian Fields A place for the truly good and heroic
One could return to Earth, but if the Elysian Fields
was reached three times
They went to the Isle of the Blessed...and never had to leave
How do Greek beliefs compare to the beliefs of
the Mesopotamian afterlife?
How does they compare to Egyptian beliefs of the
afterlife?