Our Sea

Part 3 - The Immortals

Greek mythology enormously influenced modern culture from religious beliefs and customs to theatre and popular literature and movies.  Most modern super-heroes and many books, such as the Harry Potter series, included aspects of the richly detailed stories told by the Greeks.

Bronze age Greeks believed in several creation myths, in one of which the first god, Chaos, gave birth to other primordial gods, such as Gaia, Tartarus, Eros and the Titans who then gave birth to the first Olympian gods and goddesses The most important of these were Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Hera, Hephaestus, Hermes, Demeter, and either Dionysus or Hestia.

Zeus, the king of the gods, was also the sky-god responsible for thunder and lightning. Poseidon ruled over the seas and earthquakes while Hades controlled death and the Underworld and Helios controlled the sun. Other gods ruled abstract concepts like love (Aphrodite). All significant deities were thought to appear in human in form although able to transform themselves into animals or natural phenomena. (The original super heroes).

There were thousands of lesser deities including Pan, Bacchus and Nemesis, the goddess who brought retribution to anyone who committed hubris (foolish pride or arrogance) before the gods. She was also the mother of Helen of Troy.

Although immortal, the gods were not omnipotent. They had human vices and could even breed with humans. They were often opposed to each other. In the Trojan war, according to the Iliad. while Hera, Athena and Poseidon support the Greeks; Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo support the Trojans.

They had to obey fate (Moirai) which overrode any of their divine powers. For example, the gods could not stop Odysseus from returning home after the Trojan War, as this was his fate; they could only make his journey more difficult.

Some gods were associated with particular cities; Athena with Athens, Apollo with Delphi, Delos and Zeus with Olympia and Aphrodite with Corinth. But other gods were also worshipped in these cities. Some gods were associated with different countries; Poseidon with Ethiopia and Troy and Ares with Thrace. Other gods had another identity in different places; Artemis was a many-breasted fertility goddess at Ephesus but a virgin hunter in Sparta.

Most Greeks believed the spirits of the dead went to an underworld ruled by a brother of Zeus, Hades, or to either Tartarus, a place of torment for the damned, or Elysium, a place of pleasures for the virtuous. This belief remained strong even into the Christian era but most people believed there was only a continued existence as a disembodied soul (ghosts?).   A few, like the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, preferred the idea of reincarnation while Epicurus taught that the soul simply dissolved at death and a person ceased to exist at the moment of death.

Greek developed a rich and complex mythology describing how the gods interacted with humans. Many stories and myths typically involved heroes such as Heracles and his twelve labors, Odysseus and his voyage home, Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece and Theseus and the Minotaur.

Many mythical creatures included the centaurs (half-man, half-horse), dryads (tree nymphs), Nereids (sea nymphs), the satyrs (half-man, half-goat), Cyclopes (the one-eyed giant), Scylla (the sea beast), Charybdis (the whirlpool), Minotaur (the half-man, half-bull) and Gorgons (fiends with hair of poisonous snakes).

Worship generally took place at a sanctuary or temple dedicated to one deity and was organized by local priests or magistrates. An animal was sacrificed and food, drink and valuable objects were left at the altar. At large festivals, hundreds of cattle might be sacrificed and the meat fed to thousands of worshippers. Also, in everyday life, libations of wine were offered to the gods.

There were many religious festivals throughout the year. The city of Athens had religious festivals on about140 days. Special events, like the Olympic Games, held at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, were also religious festivals.

Greeks who believed in divine inspiration were provided with oracles at sanctuaries like the famous Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The more prosperous temples contained beautiful statues of a deity some made with gold and ivory. The most of these include the colossal statues of Zeus at Olympia and Athena at the Parthenon in Athens.

Greek religion was not without detractors. The philosopher Xenophanes, criticized the human vices of the gods and Plato wrote that there was one supreme god, the emanation of perfection in the universe. Plato's disciple, Aristotle, could find no empirical evidence for polytheistic deities. He believed in a Prime Mover who had set creation moving but was no longer interested in the universe.

Greeks dissatisfied with traditional worship were often attracted to mystery religions. Some of these were ancient, like the mysteries of Eleusis, Samothrace and the Egyptian Osiris, but during the Roman empire some of them, included the new religions of Mithras and Christianity that spread throughout the empire.

After the Roman conquest of 146 BCE, the Romans adopted much of Greek culture and religion. Greek gods were equated with the Roman deities; Zeus with Jupiter, Hera with Juno, Poseidon with Neptune, Aphrodite with Venus, Ares with Mars, Artemis with Diana, Athena with Minerva, Hermes with Mercury, Hephaestus with Vulcan, Hestia with Vesta, Demeter with Ceres, Hades with Pluto, Tyche with Fortuna, and Pan with Faunus. Some of the gods, such as Apollo and Bacchus, had earlier been adopted by the Romans. There were also many deities, that existed in the Roman religion before its interaction with Greece and were not associated with a Greek deity, including Janus and Quirinus.