Polytheism

By: Alexis CollinsMeredith Price

Zoe BogerNina Maguire

The Basics

• Belief and worship of multiple gods– Often anthropomorphic

• No promise of afterlife• Examples: Greek, Roman, and Egyptian

mythology, Hinduism

• Olympian Gods ruled mankind, living in Mt. Olympus (the highest point in Greece)

Beliefs

• Free to worship god(s) of choice• Had gods to explain culture and

nature (love, death, birth, etc.)

• 12 Main Gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, Hades, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hera, Hephaestus, Demeter, Ares

•All had human forms and personalities

Practicing Polytheism

• Temple for each god/goddess• Sacrifices at temples• If people didn’t practice polytheism,

punished (especially Romans)

• Greek temple- acropolis– At least one in every city-state– Sits on highest point

• No separation of church and stateParthenon-acropolis in Athens

Rituals• Each god/goddess had unique rituals and sacrifices

– Would choose god based on what they owed or what they wanted– Depending on problem (famine, drought, etc.) sacrificed to

different god– Sacrifices made mainly to appease gods

• Sacrifices– Each city-state had a separate deity– Animal sacrifices in temples

• Required to kill domestic, loved animal and offer part of it to god while eating the other part (bigger the sacrifice, larger the group)

– Libations everyday– Scheduled a few times every year– Like praying

• Ceremonies/Festivals– Lycaea: dedicated to pastoral god, Pan– Olympic Games: every 12 years honoring the 12 main gods

Role of Women

• Better off in polytheistic religions– Because of divine images of women– Had most of the same religious rights as men

• Some classes of women had significant roles in ceremonies

• Women’s annual festival: Thesmorphoria– Based on success of farming– Women participate in traditional rituals that

predict family’s fruitfulness for the year

Major Texts

• No one specific text – Each Polytheistic religion had own text(s)

• The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer (8th Century B.C.E)– Greeks didn’t consider themselves well

educated unless they knew these epic poems.

• Did not have a formal, unified manuscript– Relied on “bards” (storytellers) to orally

pass on all information/myths/etc.

Missionary Work

• Missionary work- not a part of Polytheistic religions– Due to the fact that there was no competing religious

ideas at time– Everyone developed own religious ideas separately in

different areas• Developed when people searched for answers about natural

processes

• Greece never used missionary work to spread religion– Created and spread through oral-poetic

tradition by travelers and trade connections

Diffusion

• Thought to have begun in 2500 B.C.E– Hinduism= first (Northern India)

• East-West– Spread gradually by way of travelers and trade

• Evidence found connecting origins of myths to Middle Eastern cultures (Mesopotamia/ Anatolia)

• Believed to be heavily influenced by Mycenaean culture – Lived in area of Greece before (1700-1100

B.C.E)

Major Contacts with Other Religions

• Eventually died out in most areas of the world– Was slowly over-taken by monotheistic religions

• Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam

• 1st: smaller religions within the state of Greece rebelled – Xenophanes- monotheistic (Well-known philosophers

such as Plato and Aristotle were Xenophanes)• After conquering Greece in 146 B.C.E, Romans

adopted much of Greek religion and added it to their own mythology

• Greek Imperial Courts mostly Christian ( late 4th Century C.E.)– Christian emperors closed polytheistic temples and

ended Olympic Games– Emperor Theodosius I: made public practice of Greek

mythology illegal

Quotations

• “It is not that we worship many Gods and Goddesses (e.g. money, sex, power, and so on); it is rather that the Gods and Goddesses live through our psychic structures.”

-David Miller, The New Polytheism • “All strangers and beggars are from

Zeus, and a gift though small, is precious.”

-Homer, The Odyssey

Sources• http://seanchasfior.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/more-quotes-on-polytheism-and-storie

s/• www.relijournal.com/Christianity/from-polytheism-to-christianity/• www.allabouthistory.org/polytheism.htm• www.sacred-texts.com• www.adherents.com/adh-influbooks.html• en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism#Gods_and_divinity• Matrixbookstore.biz/polytheism.htm• www.greek-gods.info/• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/literature/homer.html• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/literature/homer.html• http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/sacrifice.htm• http://books.google.com/books?

id=EkXh9roRTC0C&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=women+in+polytheism&source=bl&ots=dRjQh50pIn&sig=W2oZnVskODzY7fD1F8YzcdSvoFM&hl=en&ei=xuydSrzZGoOItgfmn9jhAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=women%20in%20polytheism&f=false

• http://www.allaboutreligion.org/origin-of-religion.htm• http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/p/hinduismbasics.htm• http://www.greece-museums.com/greek-mythology.php