Impact of Religion

Question 1

Why is religion important to study in the fifth cent G world?

Answer 1

it overlaps with important events to a significant degree

Question 2

With respect to religion, what is continuous in athens from the tyrant period to the reign of democracy?

Answer 2

temple building as a show of piety and civic spirit

Question 3

As part of the coming of democracy, what figures were elevated to a divine status by the Athenians? Evidence of? Why?

Answer 3

Harmodius and Aristogeiton
first mortals to be displayed in the agora
reputedly removed the old tyrannical order to allow the emergence of the new democratic constitution

Question 4

What were the religious aspects of Ath assembly meetings?

Answer 4

-sacrifice, purification, and prayers were done to start any meeting
-sacred matters (hiera) were heard first and foremost
-any recorded decrees agreed upon were opened with an address to the gods

Question 5

What power did the assembly and council have in democ athens that shows political signif of religion?

Answer 5

Religious authority meaning they could decide what would be important for the state with respect to relig e.g. omens and prophecies received by priests

Question 6

What cult is attested as having state regulation in a decree from the 2nd quart of 5th cent? What regulations were introd? Significance?

Answer 6

Cult of Eleusis
‘sacred truce’ and initiates’ entrance fees
Unlikely that this cult had had no state interference previously but this form was more intrusive than before

Question 7

What taxes were put towards religious funds in Athens? Paid by whom?

Answer 7

landing-taxes
ship owners and merchants who were generally foreign (taxes often put on foreigners in Greek world)

Question 8

What is the priesthood that we first know to have become elected by lot from ALL citizens, rather than the elite? When?

Answer 8

Priestess of Athena Nike
440s

Question 9

What positions in Ath religion were democratized and which were not?

Answer 9

new cults introd under democracy had positions elected by lot but the traditional ones, e.g. priestess of athena polias, remained in hands of aristocracy

Question 10

What religious things could be patronised by liturgists?

Answer 10

festivals, feasts, buildings (shrines, temples), processions

Question 11

At the peak of Athens’ power and wealth in the 5th cent BCE, what happened to the system of liturgy?

Answer 11

became somewhat defunct with the state monopolising the opportunities with its immense wealth

Question 12

What does Thucydidean Pericles outline as the benefit of relig festivals? Reference?

Answer 12

‘relief from labour’
2.38

Question 13

What high up magistracy dealt with religion? When was this opened up to ALL citizens by vote?

Answer 13

basileus (pretty much head of relig)
487

Question 14

Alongside the reverence of the gods in 5th cent Athens, what became almost cult like in its worship?

Answer 14

the reverence and admiration citizens showed/were expected to show towards the state

Question 15

What were the religious elements of the state funeral in Athens? (2)

Answer 15

dedications to those who have died
games and competitions in music, athletics, and horse-racing

Question 16

What is the theorised link between changes in ancestral and democratic funerary behaviour c500 BCE?

Answer 16

ban on ostentatious funerary display and the emergence of public funerals to honour the war dead

Question 17

What appears to have been a belief about the war-dead and their status?

Answer 17

likely on par with semi divine heroes or at least held in higher regard than usual by the Gods

Question 18

What was the main function of the Funerary Oration in terms of religious nature/worship etc?

Answer 18

build up a state/civic mythology and reverance

Question 19

What myth is used by Athenians to confirm their preminence among the Gods?

Answer 19

conflict between Poseidon and Athena over patronship of the city

Question 20

What did the Panathenaea become as Ath Empire reached its peak?

Answer 20

an IMPERIAL festival that showed the displays of imperialism and subjection of the G world

Question 21

What religious duties did Athens enforce upon its allies?

Answer 21

-sending their first crops of corn and barley to Eleusis, 420s
-sending a phallos to City Dionysia
-sending sacrificial cow and panoply to Panathenaia

Question 22

What proportion of the Athenian tribute revenue was set aside to be paid almost literally to Athena?

Answer 22

1/60th

Question 23

What is the religious aspect of the imperially important Ionian identity?

Answer 23

Ion was a mythical hero, an illegitimate son of Apollo who was rejected by his mother and father, and then brought up by Delphic priestess. Later, said to have founded Ionian tribe

Question 24

What island, due to its sacred importance was particularly important to Athens in its imperial phase? What did Athens do in an intense period of interference and when?

Answer 24

Delos
All graves dug up with no birth or death being allowed there again
revived the Delia festival, likely an exclusively Ionian religious celebration to stand in for Panhellenic one during Pelo war
expulsion of inhabitants then restoration a year later
420s, the last being in 422

Question 25

How does Thucydides explain the interference of Athens in Delos? Diodorus? Scholarly suggestions?

Answer 25

Religiously motivated
indications of negotiations with the Spartans
desire to have complete control over a culturally and politically important sacred place

Question 26

What are three specific examples of Thuc seemingly supressing the religious elements in his history?

Answer 26

escaping Plateans had right foot bare which Thuc suggests was practical but rather there was a local tradition influencing it
absence of pelo Attica invasion due to earthquake in 426 is not specified by Thuc as religious or not
Thuc provides no reason from Ath’s purification of Delos (poss motivated by appealing to Apollo post-plague)

Question 27

How does Aristophanes suggest Thuc may have ommitted religion in Sp’s decision to not invade attica post-earthquake?

Answer 27

Archanians: Dikaiopolis calls upon ‘Poseidon, Earthshaker’ to punish Sps for destroying their land.

Question 28

What is politically important abt myth of Erechtheus?

Answer 28

demonstrates Athenian origins from the very soil on whihc they live, rather than being settlers etc

Question 29

What were politically/culturally important events of a religious nature that followed the P wars?

Answer 29

-sacred olive tree grew back after persian sack of acrop
-‘oath of plataea’ (poss not hist accurate but indicative of attitudes) that meant athenians refused to rebuild temples after P invasion as symbol of persian hubris

Question 30

Why was a state cult for Pan introd in Athens in after 490?

Answer 30

messenger that ran from athens to sparta to tell them of Ps at Marathon said he was visited by the god
THUS he was associated w this great athenian event

Question 31

Why was Theseus seen as a democratic hero? Evidence of his worship in Athens?

Answer 31

he undertook civilising missions e.g. killed outlaws on road to Athens and slayed Minotaur that plagued Crete
-story of Cimon bringing bones to the city
-images of his involvement at marathon in teh painted stoa
-cycle cups
-literature attesting to not yet found Theseion
-drama and hymns abt him

Question 32

What was Theseus’ involvement in P wars?

Answer 32

said to have appeared at Marathon in the ranks w Greeks

Question 33

What attests to hero cult around Harm and Arist?

Answer 33

war archon would make yearly offering to their tombs

Question 34

How does Boedeker interpret the yearly sacrifices, memorial, and funerary speeches for the ear dead at Athens through the 5th cent?

Answer 34

a ‘cult of the dead’ in which those who died in battle were elevated to a higher status than mere mortal

Question 35

Motives for Periklean building programme?

Answer 35

-gratitude to gods and continued hope for support
-recalled role of athens in P wars
-demonstration of athenian and Athena’s powe

Question 36

What made Eleusis a panhellenic sancturary?

Answer 36

yearly opening up to wider Greeks for celebration of rites

Question 37

What were the democratic features of the City Dionysia?

Answer 37

-inclusivity
-freedoms of speech
-contribution to idea of being athenian (m patriotic but relevant to ath democracy)

Question 38

What evidence is there of athenians having beliefs in magic?

Answer 38

curse tablets from late 5th cent - ceramic fragments onto which usually merely a subject and object of the curse/enfatuation was inscribed; later, gods would be evoked

Question 39

What occurred in whole affair of the mutilation of the herms? Signif?

Answer 39

415 perpetrator defaced public herms around Athens just prior to sic exped; seen as a bad omen and plot against democ itself; political enemies of Alcibiades start to blame him so he is sent for; he was found guilty and exiled at which point he sided w the Sps
demonstrates the importance of religion to the community and backlash one could face for the failure to respect this

Question 40

What reason does Thuc provide for Athens’ purification of Delos?

Answer 40

he says it was ‘supposedly in response to an oracle’ - lack of detail
also provides context of Peisistratus’ partial purification

Question 41

Signif of Delian festival?

Answer 41

traditionally, it was celebrated by Ionians w games, a dramatic festival, and typical rituals (ev from Homer)
Athens added chariot racing in its new iteration
the reason its had stopped being celebrated is put down to the troubles the Ionians had been through earlier in the century etc