Women in Religion (Greece) Flashcards
What is a pantheon?
a group of gods and goddesses
What is a hiereia?
hiereus (masculine)
a greek priestess
what is a sanctuary?
- an area of sacred land set apart from the rest of the city
What is religious pollution?
- state of uncleaniness acquired in a number of ways
- eg. coming into contact with a dead person, having sex, killing outside of war
- offended the gods
- prevented participation in religious festivals
- removed by ritual cleansing
Who did priestesses serve?
- goddesses in general
- dionysus + apollo were exceptions
Where did the priests and priestesses work?
- a particular temple within a particular sanctuary in honour of a particular god
How were priestesses and priests selected?
- drawn by lottery
- inherited from parents
- served for a year
- no need for studying theology or go through extensive training
What was the main role of a priestess?
- looking after the sanctuary and buildings inside it
- supervising the work of temple attendants as they washed and clothed the statue of the god
- presiding at sacrifices and certain public festivals
What were the benefits of being a priestess?
- salaried positions (some pay very well)
- kept legs and skins of sacrificed animals -> could be sold for profit
- considerable influence + high respect throughout Greek society
What was an example of a priestess demonstrating her power?
- Cleomenes, a Spartan king had to turn back form Acropolis (Athens’ most important sancutuary)
- Priestess of Athena refused entry
- power over “ordinary” men, even if he was a king
Documented by Herodotus
What are the different types of sacrifice?
- votives = small figurines/ valuable objects left on altar
- libations = liquid offerings poured on ground
- food offerings left on altar
- animal sacrifices (domestic animal)
- ritually killed and burnt as an offering
- done when asking for a favour/ thanking for granted favour
What was the role of priestesses during a sacrifice?
- kills animal at altar outside of temple
- pray + direct attendants to carve meat
- burning some for god + cooking the rest
What were the role of attendants during a sacrifice?
- moment of death of animal, female attendants shout “ololyge”
- high pitched ritual cry - marks transition from life to death
- all celebrants eat meat of sacrificed animal, enjoy communal feast
- meat was expensive + a luxury, only eaten occasionally
What is a mantis?
- a prophet, seer or soothsayer
What was a common motif among mantis?
- palm tree
- associated with island of Delos
- birthplace of Apollo, god of prophecy
- holding organs
What does a mantis do?
- examines entrails after an animal was killed
- based on colour + texture could interpret whether if gods accepted sacrifice
- interpret answer from asked questions from organs
What other methods of divining messages does a mantis do?
- interpreting flight patterns of birds
- changes in the weather
What are examples of a mantis holding great political power?
- Lycurgus consulted oracle when he needed guidance on legal reforms
What kind of training does a mantis need?
- none
- could claim to have prophetic gifts
- becomes successful by acquiring a reputation for accurate prophecies
- prophecies were often vague = can’t be proved wrong
- can say that oracle is misinterpreted
Who was the pythia and where did she live?
- most important ancient greek mantis
- lived in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi
What did people ask the Pythia?
- important decisions
- moving to another part of the world
- how to remove religious pollution
- how to earn gods’ forgiveness etc
How did the pythia perform the ritual of letting apollo take over her body?
- bathe herself in nearby Castalian Spring
- garland herself with bay leaves (Apollo’s sacred plant)
- seat herself on three-legged stool in innermost room of temple
- in room was chasm down the earth
- burn barley and laurel leaves as offering to apollo, breathed deeply
- smoke from fire/ fumes intoxicate her
- temporarily letting apollo take control of her body
What would the inquirers do after the pythia is intoxicated?
- make animal sacrifice
- ask question and wait for answer
How did the Pythia respond to the inquirers?
- mumble and groan incomprehensibly
- interpreted by priests
- written down in verse and given to inquirer
- or pythia would answer in plain greek
Who could be the pythia?
- local peasant woman over 50, born in delphi and lived a blameless life
- or virgin maiden
- either way serves as apollo’s priestess for the rest of her life and had to refrain from having sex
- when she died woman would be chosen to replace her
When was consulatation day?
- seventh day of each month
What is the significance of the women depicted on the east side of the parthenon frieze?
- rewards women for being modest
- women are all heavily draped, introverted gaze (compare to grave stele)
- implies importance of women in festival
- less dynamic than men- static
Which god is the Panathenia in honour of?
- Athena Polias
- role of protector of city (polis)
- all of Athens is represented in festival
- share pride in city and success
What is the importance of the role of weaving the peplos for Athena’s olive wood statue for women?
- women’s skill as weavers and cloth makers = valued role
- encourages them to partake in activity
What does the peplos depict?
- images of battle between gods and giants
- symbolises victory of civilisation over barbarity
- peplos is purple and saffron (expensive)
What happens during the procession during the Panathenia?
- peplos draped ceremonially like sail of ship over a cart on wheels
- kanephoroi (young virgins of noble blood) carry scared baskets
- brought sacrifical animals that would be presented at Athena’s altar along with peplos
what do the females do during the procession?
- mingle freely with noble Athenian men
- unusual
- reward to their modesty and work during daily life
What was the high priestess of Athena Polias?
- most important religious position in Athens
- held by woman from noble family
- exerted considerable influence religiously and politically
- religious role is an honour not allowed in other areas of life in women
Which God did the Thesmophoria honour?
- demeter, goddess of agriculture, fertility and harvest
What happened to Persephone and Demeter?
- P got abducted by Hades to make her new queen of underworld
- ate 6 promegranate seeds
- D gets sad and no plants grew (winter)
- zeus gets Hades to release her for 6 months
- explains seasons
Who was the Thesmopohoria for?
- exclusively for married women
When was the Thesmophoria held?
- in autumn
What was the primary function of the festival?
- ensure success of next year’s harvest
- corn seed sown after ritual = important that Demeter was honoured
How long was the Thesmophoria?
- three days
What happened on the first day of the Thesmophoria?
- set up temporary shelters near Pnyx (where Athenian assembly met)
- symbolically took over the city
What happened on the second day of the Thesmophoria?
- fast for the day and sit on ground
- covering themselves in ashes
- ritual act of mourning, re-enacting Demeter’s grief at the loss of daughter
What happened on the third day of the Thesmophoria?
- pray for blessings related to fertility
- for children, future families and bountiful crops
What happened some time before the festival?
- piglets cast down into chasm
- decomposed remains retrieved during festival
What did the act of throwing the piglets into the chasm symbolise?
- chasm = underworld
- piglets = persephone’s journey into darkness and back to light
What would happen with the remains of the piglets?
- mixed with corn seed, placed on altar
- scattered on field to ensure good harvest
Why might the festival be enjoyable for women?
- few opportunties to escape direct control of kyrios
- socialise, make new friends
- part of ritual- joking with each other (crude)
- mimicked those said to Demeter to cheer her up when she was grieving
Why might the information for the Thesmophoria be inaccurate?
- it was a mystery cult
- majority of account were by people with no first hand evidence
What is ekstasis
- stepping outside of oneself
- experience of being someone other than yourself
What was Dionysus the God of?
- wine, theatre, madness
What is a maenad?
- female worshipper of dionysus
- aka bacchant
Describe the Maenad cup
- woman with hair loose
- draped with leopard skin
- holding staff covered in ivy leaves (thyrsus)
- dancing pose
- snake wrapped around head
What did wearing the leopard skin symbolise?
- leopards are sacred to dionysus
- followers often wore leopard cloaks
- some accounts maenads chase after wild animals in ritual madness
What does the woman holding a thyrsus symbolise?
- staff is symbol of dionysus
what does the snake wrapping around the maenad’s head mean?
- temporary madness
- refers to dionysus’ roles as god of death and rebirth (associated with underworld)
What does the loose hair on a maenad represent?
- wildness and frenzy
- hair tied up = respectability and self control
What could be the function of the maenad on the bottom of the cup?
- surprises drinker once they empty their cup
- association with dionysus = wine
Summary of Bacchae by Euripides
- Pentheus, king of Thebes wanted people to stop worshipping D
- D takes great offence
- plots for his downfall
- makes P infiltrate rituals disguised as woman
- Agave (P’s mother) notice Pentheus in madness
- mistakes him for lion cub
- women chase “cub” tear it from limb to limb
- Agave realises what she did at the end of play
Quote from Bacchae, Euripides that shows what men are scared of women becoming
“One of those women tore a poor, tiny calf away from its mother’s udder and others ripped calves to bloody pieces with their bare hands”
What should we keep in mind when studying sources from men about the worship of Dionysus?
- tainted with bias
- no first hand evidence
- could have kernel of truth
What did women do when someone needs to be buried?
- wash body
- dress any wounds
- anointed with purfume oils, clothed in white burial shroud
- garlanded with flowers with coin pressed onto mouth
- pays for crossing into underworld through river Styx, given to Charon
What did women do for the ritual lamentation of the dead?
- cut hair short
- dress in tattered clothing
- dirty themselves with ashes
- wail, beat breasts and scratch cheeks until they bled
- not display of genuine emotion -> carefully planned out ritual pageant designed to uphold family reputation
