Greek religion
Extracts from chapter thirteen of "Primitive Materialism".
Notwithstanding, one does not need to posit any such migrations; an internal development of patriarchy is equally possible; external shock goes with internal evolution. A theory of historical migrations and fusions of cultures is not required to perceive the fundamental pattern at work. In Minoan religion there is only one deity attested – the all-powerful “Mistress”; each city had its own mistress. The male figures appear as human semi-divine consorts, destined to untimely death. Yet, by the Archaic period an Olympian pantheon has emerged of six gods and six goddesses, a nice balance, save in the dominance of the supreme god, Zeus, equal in power to all the others combined. Three of the six goddesses are virgins, and fecundity is only prominent in two – Aphrodite and Demeter. The six goddesses are Hera, Demeter, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite and Hestia. There appear to be not six but seven gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes and Dionysus.
When the balance of the Olympian pantheon is further tipped towards the male predominance by the ousting of Hestia in favour of the new entrant, Heracles, the progression towards patriarchy is attested in the very composition of the college of gods. Fast forward to the Council of Nicaea (325 CE) and there is declared a Trinity of three male gods – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The ascendency of patriarchy is attested independently of any external “cause” such as the migration of patriarchal Indo-Europeans. At the beginning of the evolution, the matriarchal element predominates; over the three-thousand-year cycle, patriarchy evolves into predominance.
Questions
1. Does the above prove that there must have been a reformation or period of religious transformation occuring during the Greek Dark Ages (1200 - 800 BCE)?
2. To what extent is it necessary to interpret the Dorian Greeks as vectors introducing or reinforcing patriarchy into archaic Greek society?
2. To what extent is it necessary to interpret the Dorian Greeks as vectors introducing or reinforcing patriarchy into archaic Greek society?
Second extract
The Eumenides by Aeschylus is a confirmation that the men of classical Greece understood that their religion was (a) a supplanting of an older form in which maternity was pre-eminent, and (b) a sophisticated compromise with that earlier religion. In this play there can be no doubt that Orestes acts on direct instructions from Apollo to avenge his father Agamemnon’s murder by murdering in turn his mother, Clytemnestra; in this action he is aided by his elder sister Electra. Thereafter, he is pursued by the Furies (the “kindly ones” – the Eumenides) who drive him mad and seek his death to atone for the spilling of his mother’s blood. What is the position of Orestes in this drama? Is he the obedient servant of god, or a psychopath?[1] This conundrum could be projected onto Orestes, and in the dramas of Euripides in which Orestes on several occasions is the protagonist, this is likely. But in the drama of Aeschylus, Orestes is acting on instruction by Apollo to commit the murder. Apollo takes upon himself the guilt of the action, and Orestes is thereby absolved of moral responsibility. In fact, the religious-ethical problem for Orestes is whether or not to obey the command of god, and he has already, as a knight of faith, passed this test and taken upon himself the suffering imposed upon him by Apollo, who repeatedly assures him that he will bring him to a happy state in the end, though Orestes evinces some doubt, useful to the drama, and accuses Apollo of failing him. The protagonists in the play are Apollo and the Eumenides, and the play recounts a conflict or war between the Olympian gods and the “old powers”; Orestes represents the middle-ground over which they fight, while Apollo and the Eumenides exchange insults. This play expresses a full self-conscious awareness on the part of Aeschylus that the Olympian gods represent a new order that has replaced the old one.
[1] Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling discusses the morality in the Hebrew myth of Abraham’s decision to obey god’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac. In contrast to this high religious motive, Kierkegaard observes that any number of psychological twists could account for Abraham’s actions, and it is possible to imagine that Abraham is a sick man, acting in bad faith, who secretly wishes to murder his own son. Kierkegaard introduces the concept of a knight of faith.
[1] Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling discusses the morality in the Hebrew myth of Abraham’s decision to obey god’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac. In contrast to this high religious motive, Kierkegaard observes that any number of psychological twists could account for Abraham’s actions, and it is possible to imagine that Abraham is a sick man, acting in bad faith, who secretly wishes to murder his own son. Kierkegaard introduces the concept of a knight of faith.
Question
1. "This play expresses a full self-conscious awareness on the part of Aeschylus that the Olympian gods represent a new order that has replaced the old one." Is this the correct interpretation of the work of Aechylus?
Third extract
Pindar is a sports commentator, who in praising athletes, their patrons and cities, drew upon mythological sources. His first Olympian Ode, written for Hieron the tyrant of Syracuse in 476, is an essay on the myth of Tantalus and Pelops. The story is that Tantalus first attempted to steal ambrosia from the gods, then, at a banquet to which the gods were invited, offered up his son Pelops, who was sacrificed, dismembered and served on the menu. We are told that the gods rejected this sacrifice, though Demeter was forgetful and ate part of Pelops’s shoulder. Zeus brought Pelops back to life, but later threw him out of Mount Olympus – another unseemly death for a hero.
The myth records an older substratum when indeed ritual sacrifice and cannibalism were practised, and it seems in honour of Demeter.
The myth records an older substratum when indeed ritual sacrifice and cannibalism were practised, and it seems in honour of Demeter.
Questions
1. Does the myth of Tantalus and Pelops confirm that the Greeks originally worshipped cthonic deities and practised human sacrifice?
2. What is the correct evaluation of Pindar's place in this history of Greek literature?
2. What is the correct evaluation of Pindar's place in this history of Greek literature?
Fourth extract
Euripides and human sacrifice. A central protagonist in the work of Euripides is the mythological figure of Orestes, who appears in several of his extant plays, and is always handled with irony. Many of the plays of Euripides deal with human sacrifice. In Iphigenia at Tauris (c.414) the brother of Iphigenia, Orestes, has been sent by the Oracle of Delphi to steal the cult image of Artemis from the Taurians. He does not know that Iphigenia, whom her father Agamemnon had intended to sacrifice at Aulis to appease the goddess Artemis, had been saved by Artemis and brought to Tauris to officiate as her temple priestess.
Iphigenia
The goddess made me priestess in her temple here;
And at her feast – so-called, a pleasant name for rites
Which Artemis takes pleasure in; the acts performed
I do not speak of, since I fear her deity;
For, by a custom that held here before I came,
I offer all Hellenes who set foot on this shore –
At this feast of the goddess I begin the rites;
The sacrifice itself is an unspoken act
Performed by others in the interior of the shrine.
The sacrifice in question is human: the Taurians choose strangers for victims. Orestes and his friend Pylades are captured and Iphigenia herself will officiate at their sacrifice. Euripides knows that Artemis originally was a goddess who demanded ritual human sacrifice, whose victims, at some late stage of development, were often travellers.
Iphigenia
The goddess made me priestess in her temple here;
And at her feast – so-called, a pleasant name for rites
Which Artemis takes pleasure in; the acts performed
I do not speak of, since I fear her deity;
For, by a custom that held here before I came,
I offer all Hellenes who set foot on this shore –
At this feast of the goddess I begin the rites;
The sacrifice itself is an unspoken act
Performed by others in the interior of the shrine.
The sacrifice in question is human: the Taurians choose strangers for victims. Orestes and his friend Pylades are captured and Iphigenia herself will officiate at their sacrifice. Euripides knows that Artemis originally was a goddess who demanded ritual human sacrifice, whose victims, at some late stage of development, were often travellers.
Questions
1. Is the work of Euripides a full confirmation that the Greeks knew full-well that they originally practised human sacrifice?
2. What was the moral purpose of Euripides in writing Iphigenia at Tauris?
2. What was the moral purpose of Euripides in writing Iphigenia at Tauris?