Getting into the mindset of Ancient Greek religion

[ssherie_]

I really want to learn and understand about the Greek mythological stories and gods and goddesses... but I just realized that I have been missing the point somewhat. I think of this as literature. It wasn't to them. It was part of their every day lives and was their "religion".

I want to understand this mindset a little more because I think it will help me as I go through and lear about the stories, gods and goddesses, monsters, etc.

This, at the moment, feels overwhelming. Do you guys have any advice as to how I can approach it?

 

[amygdalE]

I really want to learn and understand about the Greek mythological stories and gods and goddesses... but I just realized that I have been missing the point somewhat. I think of this as literature. It wasn't to them. It was part of their every day lives and was their "religion".

I want to understand this mindset a little more because I think it will help me as I go through and lear about the stories, gods and goddesses, monsters, etc.

This, at the moment, feels overwhelming. Do you guys have any advice as to how I can approach it?

The big and eternal question for everybody to begin with; WHAT IS RELIGION? An old view: ti's a man's active relationship to a supernatural power which, I add, was personified. etc. Some such powers are destructvive, harmful. Response: seeking to propitiate it; begging to be spared, etc. Other powers are beneficial, thanked, etc., .... just as one is before a magnanimous king. // All in all, the operating gods come first; religion afterwards. Like myths, religions are elaborated and thus have their own history.

 

[amygdalE]

The big and eternal question for everybody to begin with; WHAT IS RELIGION? An old view: ti's a man's active relationship to a supernatural power which, I add, was personified. etc. Some such powers are destructvive, harmful. Response: seeking to propitiate it; begging to be spared, etc. Other powers are beneficial, thanked, etc., .... just as one is before a magnanimous king. // All in all, the operating gods come first; religion afterwards. Like myths, religions are elaborated and thus have their own history.

One necessary addition: after the personification of superhumanly powerful things and events [hence the gods], the ancients saw them as immortal, whereas humans are mortal. Typically the ancient Greeks, had the feeling of this tragic disparity and sought immortality. Hence the rise of various mystery [mysticism] religions, including the Eleusinian [...Kora and Dionysus... BREAD and WINE] Rites, which persist in the Orthodox and Catholic religions in the form of the Eucharist/Mass.

 

[k_tsoukalas]

It's a good point that learning about Greek Mythology is more than just learning the stories or learning about the gods and goddesses as a separate entity. It really helps to understand the mindset of the Ancient Greeks and what they sought from their religious practice. One thing that it took me a long time to understand is that these weren't just stories to them, they were part of their lives and their ways of seeing the world. It's been really hard for me to understand their mindset but I've been trying.

 

[amygdalE]

It's a good point that learning about Greek Mythology is more than just learning the stories or learning about the gods and goddesses as a separate entity. It really helps to understand the mindset of the Ancient Greeks and what they sought from their religious practice. One thing that it took me a long time to understand is that these weren't just stories to them, they were part of their lives and their ways of seeing the world. It's been really hard for me to understand their mindset but I've been trying.

I like the phrase, "... and their ways of seeing the world". Lately I have been
considering the phrasing of the nature of their gods according to their mindset/perspective/frame-of-mind, in comparison to other mindsets. Result: A Greek myth-maker typically looked at a relationship between a presumed god and a human person, whereas, e.g., a Hebrew looked at a God-tribe relationship. [As God is by nature all-good, adversities among humans are due to their faults. Hence the myth of the JUST God, whereas the Persians posited a good god, Ahura Mazda, and an evil god, Ariman. The Greek PERSONALISM , and hence personal responsibility, will be evident in the Orphics and in Socrates' inquiries, to say the least.

 

[amygdalE]

I am still coping with the concept of MINDSET or mentality. Though going hand in hand, THEISM and RELIGION must be distinguished.//
Why so many gods and other supernaturals? Because of the great variety of EVENTS that affect us -- storms, forest fires, floodings...... They are like human deeds, by Mighty persons. The process of personification allows for the invention of myths/fables as well as human intercessions, shrines, etc. // A change of [Greek] mentality around the 6th cent. BC.: events are AUTONOMOUS. Thus the rise of philosophies rather than theistic myths. {John of Ephesus, the Evangelist, was the last Greek mythographer -- on the footsteps of philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus!}