Levels: Household Religious Participation Flashcards
What are the four levels of religious participation?
Household, deme, polis and Panhellenic
Where did household religious participation take place ?
In the oikos which was the household or the home of the family
Who was the head of the household ?
The eldest male figure typically the father with religious authority being possessed by this individual
- perhaps this is in mirroring of the pantheon structure with Zeus being king of the gods
How did the head of the household act in rituals ?
As a priest and overseer of ritual, everyday he would make offerings to the three main household gods
What are the names and responsibilities of the three main household gods?
- Zeus Ktesios: protector of property and wealth with the father praying to him for wealth and good property
- Zeus Herkeios : Zeus father of the fence protected the enclosure of the house and his statue stood in the courtyard
- Apollo Agyeios : protected the house from outside the main door to the house
What are the two other main religious areas connected to the house ?
- The Hearth: every household had a central hearth dedicated to Hestia. New members of the family such as slaves or babies have a ceremony of walking around the fire showered by dried fruits and nuts
- The Herm: rectangular pillar with bearded head of Hermes at the top with an erect phallus at the appropriate position further down. Stood as a halfway market on roads and as a protective symbol outside houses
What other responsibilities did the father of the house have ?
- tending to the household cults
- responsible for tending to the family tombs in both physical appearance and the rituals that accompanied the honours given to the dead
- Offerings of Garland and libations of milk and honey offered once a year at the gravesite in the name of the deceased
- welcomed the son into the brother hood
What does mitropoulos describe as unexpected ?
- women had a complete exclusion from household cults which is strange considering they were tied to the household and the domestic
How are women invoked in religious participation and observance ?
Priestesses for stage cults or in communal civic cults
- young girls could be in a series of cults with Aristophanes comedy Lysistrata describing the journey through these cults
What were the main cults for girls ?
- Arrephoros: secret ritual performed in mah associated with the temple of Athena Polias, Two maidens took a basket from the temple of Athena on the Acropolis to the sanctuary of Aphrodite
- Grinder: girls ground the meal for cakes offered to Athena at her altar at various occasions such as the Panathenaic festival
- Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron: 32km SW of Athens girls dressed as bears in a ritual required for all girls before they married
- basket bearer: carrying sacrificial implements at occasions such as the Panathenaic procession
How could women be involved in religion after marriage ?
The Thesmophoria female only festival in honour of Demeter and Kore or the Eleusinian Mysteries
What was the role of women in funerals ?
Appropriate rites such as tending to the corpse of the deceased
According to Parker, where the cults for girls required ?
Back this up with an example
No it was not a required transition and not all young people participated
- Oschophoria only two youths dressed as maidens
