Personal Experience Of The Devine

Question 1

An example of a mystery cult

Answer 1

Eleusinian Mysteries

Question 2

An example of a healing cult

Answer 2

Cult of Asclepius

Question 3

An example of an oracular cult

Answer 3

Cult at Dodona

Question 4

What does the word ‘mystery’ relate to?

Answer 4

The Greek word for initiate ‘mystes’

Question 5

Word meaning the revelation of the secret

Answer 5

Epopteia

Question 6

What was the benefit an eleusinian member would receive after death?

Answer 6

Granted eternal life in the Eleusinian Fields

Question 7

What are the Eleusinian Fields?

Answer 7

A type of paradise initially reserved for gods, heroes and mortals related to them

Question 8

Where is Eleusis? (2)

Answer 8

15 miles west of Athens, over looking the island of Salamis

Question 9

What is the site most famous for?

Answer 9

Hosting the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone

Question 10

What evidence provides the myth of Persephone’s abduction?

Answer 10

Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Question 11

What piece of literature recounts the tale of the destruction of the Herms and the revelation of the mystery’s secret?

Answer 11

Thucydides: Rhetoric and History

Question 12

Who is the Athenian general that Thucydides blames?

Answer 12

Alcibiades

Question 13

What play takes a humours approach to the mystery’s and who wrote it?

Answer 13

Aristophanes’s Frogs

Question 14

What information does the play Frogs give on mystery’s? (6)

Answer 14

Holding torches- Night
Singing dancing and drinking 
Feasting and sacrifices 
Travel along the sacred way
Wore wreath leaves
Led by Iacchus- God assimilated with Dionysus

Question 15

PRESCRIBED SOURCE: Ninnion Tablet

What are the two alternative interpretations? (2)

Answer 15

OCR: Shows the climax of the procession

Kevin Clifton: shows the beginning and the end of the procession with Demeter and Persephone reunited

Question 16

PRESCRIBED SOURCE: Ninnion Tablet
Who gave the tablet?
Where was it found?
What date is the tablet? (3)

Answer 16

A woman named Ninnion
Attica- Within the temple complex
400-300 BC

Question 17

Who could join the Eleusinian mystery?

Answer 17

Anyone- as long as they hadn’t committed murder and spoke Greek

(This was unique for a Greek festival)

Question 18

How long did the events of the Eleusinia take place?

What time of year?

Answer 18

9 days

Autumn

Question 19

Approximately how many gathered in the agora on the first day?

Answer 19

3,000

Question 20

What is a mystagog?

Answer 20

An initiated member

Question 21

What is a mystes?

Answer 21

Uninitiated member

Question 22

What was the role of the Archon Basileus?

Answer 22

Looked after religious affairs within the state

Question 23

What is a hierophant?

Answer 23

A head priest

Question 24

What was normally sacrificed on day 7?

Answer 24

Piglets

Question 25

What was the name of the special brew drank on the last day?

Answer 25

Kykeōn

Question 26

How could others be excluded for the Eleusinian cult? (2)

Answer 26

The initiates had to pay a fee as well as being able to pay for an animal sacrifice

Question 27

Why was secrecy so important to the Eleusinian mystery?

Answer 27

To keep the cult exclusive and to keep the fear factor when simulating death

Question 28

What did Plutarch say concerning the Eleusinian mystery?

Answer 28

“The soul at death has the same experience as those initiated into the mysteries”

Question 29

What was offered at the Mysteries that might be lacking in other cults? (3)

Answer 29

Revelation of death Deals with the issue of the afterlife A way to elevate status

Question 30

Which statue may of been an initiate of the mysteries or Persephone?

Answer 30

Berlin Standing Goddess (570-560)

Question 31

What defines Asclepius as a hero?

Answer 31

Trained by Chiron in the Iliad and heals wounded soldiers in the battle of Troy

Question 32

What defines Asclepius as a God

Answer 32

Son of Apollo, ascended to Olympus after his death Has the same epithet of Apollo ‘Paean’ (the healer)

Question 33

Children of Asclepius

Answer 33

Hygieia-goddess of sanitation Iaso- goddess of recuperation Aceso-the goddess of healing Aegle-the goddess of the glow of good health

Question 34

Where were the two biggest sanctuaries to Asclepius

Answer 34

Epidauros and Kos

Question 35

Why would Greeks visit the healing sanctuaries?

Answer 35

Some came to thank the gods for cures received while others came seeking a cure at the sanctuary

Question 36

Why and when did the Athenians erect a new Asclepieon?

Answer 36

420 BC- a few years after a plague devastated the city of Athens

Question 37

What was incubation

Answer 37

Sleeping in the stoa of the sanctuary or under the open sky until the individual had the required dream and was healed

Question 38

Extra credit tablet: Asclepius

Answer 38

The Healing of Archinus at Oropos 370 BC Asclepius healing Archinus A man participating in incubation

Question 39

How else could people be healed at the healing sanctuaries?

Answer 39

They could be operated on by the temple physicians or through prescribed medicine The snakes of the gods venom were also considered healing

Question 40

PRESCRIBED SOURCE: Tyche | 4

Answer 40

Anatomical votive offering (leg) Given by Tyche Inscribed to Asclepius and Hygeia Found on a shrine to Asclepius on the island of Melos

Question 41

What did the Greeks blame when the healing failed? (2)

Answer 41

Human error | That they hadn’t prayed or given enough sacrifice/libations to the gods

Question 42

Examples of healing inscriptions found in sanctuaries to Asclepius (2)

Answer 42

Cleo- pregnant for 5 years healed by incubation Aristagora of Troezen- tapeworm/beheaded then healed by Asclepius in a dream

Question 43

What might be the historical truth behind Cleo’s 5 year pregnancy?

Answer 43

A phantom pregnancy

Question 44

Why were tablets displayed at sanctuaries?

Answer 44

To show others entering the sanctuary that the incubation treatment works?

Question 45

What is an Oracle? (3)

Answer 45

The institution of an oracle A person/item that gives a prophecy The ocular vision

Question 46

Which piece of epic text refers to the sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona

Answer 46

The Odyssey- Odysseus claimed to have gone to Dodona in order to hear Zeus will from the lofty oak

Question 47

How did priestess at Dodona interpret the words of Zeus?

Answer 47

Through the rustling of leaves and | doves

Question 48

What was an alternative method to receiving a prophecy through the priestesses?

Answer 48

Divination by lot

Question 49

What were the most common questions asked by people at Dodona?

Answer 49

Travelling, family and which gods to pray to

Question 50

What kind of people were more likely to go to Dodona and why?

Answer 50

Individuals- larger sanctities such as the one at Delphi were often meant for city states/kings (Delphi open 9 days a year)

Question 51

Give examples examples of tablets found at Dodona (3)

Answer 51

Ariston- whether to sail to the colony of Syracuse at a later time Paramenides- whether he’ll fare better at home Kleanor- how many offspring he will have with his wife Gonthe

Question 52

Who could go to Dodona?

Answer 52

Anyone- including women and slaves

Question 53

How many tablets were found at Dodona?

Answer 53

Approximately 4,000