chapter seven
RELIGION

JamesAllanEvans

The Religion of Minoan Crete during the Bronze Age … 287
The Early Greeks on Mainland Greece … 291
The Dark Ages … 292
The Gods of Olympus … 294
Other Gods Beyond the Twelve … 307
The Underworld and its Inhabitants … 309
Heroes and Demigods … 312
Heracles, the Super-Hero … 314
Discovering the Will of the Gods: Oracles and Divination … 316
Worshipping the Gods: Sacrifices and Temples … 320
The Religion of Early Rome … 323
The Religion of the Roman Republic … 325
The Worship of the Roman Gods … 328
Immigrant Religions: the Arrival of New Cults from the East … 331
The Rise of Christianity … 335

Constantine … 338
Homer … 339
Numa Pompilius … 340
St. Paul … 340
Socrates … 342

SIDEBARS AND PRIMARY DOCUMENTS
Primary sources are listed in italics
Chronology of the Bronze Age … 288
The Festival of Apollo and Artemis (excerpt from a hymn celebrating a festival of Apollo and Artemis) … 293
A Guidebook to Greece in the Second Century C.E. (Pausanias describes religious sites encountered in Laconia) … 295
The Pessimism of the Olympian Religion (Semonides expresses the common belief that humans are playthings of the gods) … 296
A Parody of a Myth (excerpt from Lucian's spoof of the birth of the god Dionysus) … 304
Socrates on Prayer and Sacrifice (Plato writes of Socrates and his questions about piety and sacrifice) … 321
The Etruscans … 326
The Taboos Surrounding the Flamen Dialis and His Wife (Gellius recounts the strict behavioral code of the Flamen Dialis) … 328
The Lupercalia Festival (Ovid describes events associated with the Lupercalia festival) … 329
The Reforms of Numa Pompilius (Livy describes the religious and social reforms of Romulus' successor) … 330
The Importance of Magic (a spell to allow one to become invisible) … 332
An Epiphany of Isis (excerpt by Apuleius describes Isis rising from the sea) … 334
The Trial of the Scillitan Martyrs (transcript from the trial of Christians from the city of Scillium) … 336
The Illegality of Christianity (Trajan provides counsel to Pliny regarding the treatment of Christians) … 337