The Religion of Hellenistic Greece

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The Religion of Hellenistic Greece

The religion of Greece in early times was polytheistic. The religion was incorporated into every aspect of the culture including art, and literature. This was the religion that was practiced during the "Golden Age" of Greece. The gods of Hellenistic Greece existed in every form and fashion. There were gods for everything in life like government, sex, month of birth, trade, and human traits (i.e. wisdom, love, war, birth, rain, etc.)

The Greeks believed that the only answer to death was to be remembered in fantastic tales and heroic deeds. Many of the gods existed with characteristics like the mortal man with the exception of death and powers of unnatural strength, intelligence, and other amplified human characteristics. The main gods that were worshiped were the twelve Olympian Gods although there were others as well. The gods were in most cases given birth to like humans and were identified with one or several specific trades or other qualities that became the central idea or reason of why they were worshiped.

The main gods lived on Mount Olympus, a mountain that was said to be found at the center of the earth. The Most well known of the Greek gods was Zeus. Zeus was the son of Rhea and Cronus who were the children of Gaea and Uranus . Zeus became the father of the gods after he bound his father to Tartarus . He was also the god that despenced justice and the storm/thunder god. Zeus is famous for his many sex partners, which produced numerous other gods of Olympus and heroes such as Hercules. Zeus was married to his sister Hera who was worshiped as the goddess of marriage and childbirth. She is said to be vindictive to the other women to whom Zeus shared his affections and their chi...

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...ce, cunning, and thievery. He also led souls to the underworld and guided men on journeys. He was the cleverest of the gods and he was very wealthy.

An important god that is not of Olympus is Hades. Hades is the god of the underworld . Mortals refrained from speaking of Hades because they were afraid that if they mentioned his name they would draw his attention. He kidnapped Demeter's daughter, Persephone, and made her the Queen of his stark gray world.

The Hellenistic religion of ancient Greece had many more gods and goddesses but they are so numerous that it would be impossible to list them all but I have tried to touch on the ones that held the most influence and are the most well-known. The birth lines of the gods are hard to follow because they were promiscuous deities and they often conceived children with siblings, parents or other family members.

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