Greek Religion

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Greek Religion

The ancient Greeks with their brilliant and imaginative spirit created a complete order of things that functioned harmoniously in the infinite world that contained them. Although its exact origins are lost in time, Greek religion is thought to date from about the 2d millenium B.C., when the culture of Aryan invaders fused with those of the Aegean and Minoan peoples who had inhabited the region of Greece from Neolithic times [1]. The beginning and the genesis of this world occupied the ancient Greeks in much the same way it did the early people of every civilization. Greek religion was at the beginning a blend of Minoan, Egyptian, Asian, and other elements, but it subsequently evolved along with Greek thought.

The early Greeks interpreted natural forces and unexplained phenomena in what they considered a reasonable way, true to a system of laws which arose from a respect for the superior beings who defined and ruled the universe. The stimuli from the environment and the incredible vastness they saw around them, made these early people deify abstract concepts, elements of nature and all the other amazing things they believed regulated their fortunes and their survival. The divinity that was worshipped above all others during prehistoric times was Mother Earth. Mother Earth was frequently identified with the goddess of fertility and the cultivation of the earth was clearly connected to religious practices.

These early divinities soon no longer satisfied the imagination of the Greeks or their yearnings of religion. People wanted more actively involved gods to keep them company in their daily lives and to take a position in regard to their problems. The early gods evolved with Greek thought and the scepter of th...

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...ympian religion emphasized the limits of humans, the religious and mysterious Eleusian and Orphic Mysteries offered the Greeks a sense of immortality (rebirth), a comfort to the fact that humans die. These mysteries were an aim to overcome the fear of death and achieve a spiritual purification (resurrection). And they seemed to be successful at that as the participants to these mysteries returned from their pilgrimage full of joy and happiness and with the fear of death diminished.

Bibliography:

1. The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, Columbia University Press, New York, 1989

2. Sofia Souli, Greek Mythology, M. Toubis Editions, Athens, Greece, 1995

3. The Bacchae of Euripides, A New Version by C. K. Williams, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 1990

4. Readings on Sophocles, Don Nardo, book editor, Greenhaven Press, San Diego, 1997

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