Worshipping the Gods: Sacrifices and Temples

Temples.

Gods were worshipped at holy places, precincts that were cut off from the surrounding region by a clear, well-defined boundary that was marked by boundary-stones. The Greek word for such a precinct was temenos, which is connected with the word that means "to cut." The most important structure in the temenos was the altar where sacrifice was made. Then in the eighth century b.c.e., the Greeks began to build houses for their gods and goddesses, and the familiar Greek temple made its appearance. The basic temple was a single rectangular room with a porch in front. It was a megaron, which was the name for the main room of an early Greek house with a hearth in its center, a hole in the roof to allow the smoke to escape, and in front of it a porch with a roof supported by a couple pillars. Later the Greeks elaborated the design by surrounding the megaron with a row of columns. Yet the temple remained a simple dwelling-place that housed the image of the god or goddess. The indispensable component for a sanctuary was not the temple, but the altar. Inside the sanctuary was the cult statue or statues, if the temple sheltered more than one god. Sheltering the god and protecting the property dedicated to him was the temple's prime purpose, for worshippers left votive offerings in the temples which ranged from painted wooden panels which were within the price range of a humble worshipper to offerings of gold or ivory. Few of these have survived: the wooden dedications have decayed and the dedications of gold and ivory were stolen long ago. Many terracotta votives have survived, however, for crockery is not subject to decay. At any healing shrine, archaeologists find models of legs, arms, women's breasts, or male testicles that were dedicated to the god, probably as thank offerings for healing a particular part of the human anatomy. The interior of a temple must sometimes have resembled an old curiosity shop. The votives might overflow the temple and be stored in separate buildings in the temple precinct called "treasuries," for the Greek word for treasury—thesauros—also meant "storehouse" or sometimes "granary." Sometimes the priests might houseclean by removing old dedications and giving them decent burial. When the stadium at Olympia was excavated, the excavators found many votive offerings of helmets, shields, and other pieces of armor that had been carefully buried in the embankments on either side of the track. The temple, evidently, had run out of space for them.

Cult Statues.

Some cult statues were magnificent. The statue made of gold and ivory which the sculptor Phidias made for the temple of Zeus at Olympia was a masterpiece, and after he completed it, he made an equally famous gold-and-ivory statue of Athena Parthenos for the Parthenon in Athens. Yet the most sacred image of Athena was not the gold-and-ivory image in the Parthenon, but an ancient olivewood statue of Athena Polias housed in the Erechtheion beside the Parthenon. Every four years, at the Great Panathenaea festival, the women of Athens gave this image a new saffron-dyed dress that they had woven. Wooden statues of this sort, known as xoana, were thought to have a divine origin. They were primitive images, roughly carved; in some cases a xoanon was not much more than a wooden post.

SOCRATES ON PRAYER AND SACRIFICE

introduction: In Plato's dialogue titled Euthyphro, Plato imagines a conversation between his teacher Socrates and Euthyphro. While Euthyphro may or may not have been a real person, Plato presents him as a conventionally pious person who unfortunately models his own behavior on that of the gods; Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for manslaughter and justifying his action with the example of Zeus, who put his father Cronus in chains for swallowing his children. Socrates and Euthyphro get into a conversation about the definition of true piety. Euthyphro attempts to define piety as what is dear to the gods, and Socrates shows by his relentless questioning that the definition is not so simple. The quotation below on the purpose of sacrifice comes from near the end of the dialogue, which concludes with Socrates and Euthyphro agreeing that they must discuss the matter again another day.

Socrates: Doesn't sacrifice consist of making presents to the gods, and prayer in making requests to them?

Euthyphro: Yes, indeed, Socrates.

Socrates: So on this view piety would be the science of asking and giving?

Euthyphro: You grasp my meaning perfectly, Socrates.

Socrates: You see, my friend, I am a passionate admirer of your wisdom and keep my attention fixed upon it, so that no word of yours will fall to the ground. But tell me, what is this form of service to the gods? Do you hold that it consists in asking from them and giving to them?

Euthyphro: Yes, I do.

Socrates: Then would not the right procedure in asking them be to ask for what we need from them?

Euthyphro: What else could it be?

Socrates: And similarly would not the right procedure in giving be to present them in return with what they actually need from us? Because surely it would be an incompetent use of presents to give a person things for which he has no need.

Euthyphro: Quite true, Socrates.

Socrates: So piety would seem, Euthyphro, to be a sort of art of commerce between gods and men.

Euthyphro: Yes, if you like it better to describe it so.

Socrates: I don't like it any better unless it is really true. But tell me, what benefit do the gods really get from the gifts they receive from us? What they give is obvious to anyone, for we have nothing good that they don't give us; but what benefit do they get from what they receive from us? Is our commerce with them so much to our advantage that we receive all our good things from them, while they receive none from us?

Euthyphro: But do you really imagine, Socrates, that the gods derive benefit from the things that they receive from us?

Socrates: Well, if not, whatever can these gifts of ours to the gods be, Euthyphro?

Euthyphro: Why, honor and esteem and—as I was saying just now—gratitude; what else do you suppose?

Socrates: So piety is what is gratifying to the gods, but not beneficial or dear to them?

Euthyphro: In my opinion it is supremely dear to them.

Socrates: Then apparently piety is once more what is dear to the gods.

source: Plato, The Last Days of Socrates. Trans. Hugh Tredennick (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1969): 39–40.

Temple Sites.

The temple sites were often determined by the preference of the god for a particular location. The preferred sites for temples sacred to Athena and Zeus were in the urban area: Athena on the acropolis and Zeus in the marketplace. Apollo had temples in the marketplace, too, but also sometimes by the seaside. Demeter's sanctuaries are often on a hillside near the city. Hera, Poseidon, and Dionysus preferred the countryside, and Artemis liked woods and marshy areas. Wherever sanctuaries were sited, they were sacred places where violent acts were not permitted. Temples offered asylum to fugitives, and anyone who dragged a suppliant from a hallowed temenos would bring pollution upon himself and arouse the wrath of the gods.

Festivals.

The year was marked by religious festivals in honor of the various gods. They were holy days, important for both the cultural and the religious life of the community. Dancing, musical contests, athletic games, prayers, hymns, and processions all had a place in them. Greek worshippers did not kneel to pray or utter silent prayers. Instead, they stood and, raising their hands, invoked the god in a loud voice. A hymn was a form of prayer that was chanted: the worshipper addressed the god under his various names, recited his great deeds, and ended with a petition. Processions were parades that often took up the first day of the festivals. Religious custom dictated what the festival procession would be like and what route it would take. If the sanctuary of the god whose festival was being celebrated was outside the city, the worshippers would parade along the country road to the site. In one of Hera's favorite cities, the polis of Argos where the Hera sanctuary was several miles outside the city center, the priestess was carried there by ox-cart which apparently led a parade of worshippers.

Sacrifice.

The most important part of the festival was the sacrifice. Cattle were the most valued sacrificial victims, but the most common ones were sheep and goats, which were more within the price range of a middle-income Greek. Pigs were sacrificed to Demeter and Dionysus, dogs to Ares and Hekate, birds to Aphrodite, and cocks to Asclepius. A sacrifice to a god or goddess was made on an elevated altar called a bomos in front of the temple, and a sacrifice to a hero was made on a low, round altar called an eschara, but rules in Greek religion were rarely left unbroken. Sometimes a hero might have a high altar, but the blood from a victim sacrificed to a hero should still trickle down into the earth where it would nourish the bloodless ghost of the dead. Gods on Mt. Olympus needed no such nourishment. A priest or priestess officiated at the sacrifice. Generally, male deities had priests and female deities had priestesses, but one cannot count on consistency. Generally the inedible parts of the sacrificial animal were burned as offerings to the god, and the rest was eaten, or even sometimes sold in the market. The exception was the "holocaust," a sacrifice where the victim was totally consumed by sacrificial flames. The roster of festivals in Athens shows that only one month passed without massive slaughtering of beasts for sacrifice. There must have been many days when the city smelled like an abattoir, and resounded with the noises of the community drinking wine, eating meat, and making merry. For low-income Greeks, festival days might be the only times they ate meat.

The Wealth of Temples.

Temples had an economic function which should not be overlooked. Sacrifices honored the gods, but they were also occasions for the distribution of food. Temples might also have to shelter asylum-seekers, sometimes in great numbers, whom it had to support. Archaeological excavations reveal that many temples had subsidiary buildings used for accommodation and cooking. Temples also served as depositories. Athens kept its state treasury in the back room of the Parthenon, and when she organized her archives, they were kept in the temple of the Mother of the Gods in the marketplace. Excavations of a temple at Selinunte in Sicily have yielded many clay seals used to seal documents written on papyrus. The papyrus has decayed, but the clay seals remain as mute evidence of the records that were once stored there. In Rome, a citizen might deposit his last will and testament in the Temple of Vesta where it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins. The god whose image was housed in the temple extended his protection over whatever was within his shrine. Some temples were wealthy and possessed large estates which they rented to leaseholders. They had other sources of income as well. An army that was victorious in battle would give the gods a small portion of the booty called "first fruits." During the brief period in the fifth century b.c.e. when Athens ruled an empire, she consecrated one-sixtieth of the tribute that she received from the member states of her empire as "first fruits" to the goddess Athena. Temples made loans and functioned as a kind of reserve bank. Religious faith changed as time went on in the Greco-Roman world, but religious festivals continued to draw crowds. Mute evidence of their numbers is to be found in the theaters that were built at popular shrines for visitors to witness the drama of the ancient rituals. At Delphi, the theater overlooks the great temple of Apollo. Even at the lonely oracle of Zeus at Dodona there was a theater built, and it is the largest structure on the site. Faith in the Olympian gods was declining when these theaters were built but they still drew visitors and pilgrims. Religion also served to redistribute wealth. There was no income tax in the ancient world, and, in fact, the well-to-do resented paying any taxes at all. But while wealthy citizens did not like taxes, they were quite willing to make donations to the community. Rich citizens paid the bills for the great religious festivals, and the honor they received repaid their generosity. Thus Greco-Roman religion served an important economic function that cannot be overlooked.

sources

Diskin Clay, "Heroes and Heroines," in Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. Ed. Graham Speake (London, England: Fitzroy and Dearborn Publishers, 2000): 742–744.

Tullia Linders and Brian Alroth, eds., Economics of Cult in the Ancient World; Proceedings of the Uppsala Symposium 1990 (Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist and Wiksell International, 1992).

Albert Schachter, "Festivals," in Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. Ed. Graham Speake (London, England: Fitzroy and Dearborn Publishers, 2000): 613–616.

Louise Bruit Zaidman and Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Greek City. Trans. Paul Cartledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).