Rachel Conley - Importance of the Gods to the Greeks

The Greeks are a people I’ve always been fascinated with, and one thing that is vastly important to them is their religion. It factors into every aspect of their life, private and public. Because their religion is so vital in all aspects of their lives, the Gods are very important to the Greeks. Each city has a founder God or hero, like in Athens it was Athena. There are temples to numerous Gods in each city because different Gods played different roles in society.

Whenever the Spartans were about to do battle, they would sacrifice to the Gods to help them during the fight. The Greeks believed that the Gods would actually fight on the battlefield with them, as happens in Homer’s Illiad. In the Illiad the Gods fight next to mortals as well as cheer them on. No man is a match for a God, so of course both sides want the Gods fighting with them.

Another way the Greeks show their belief in the Gods is through festivals. There are many of them in the Greek world and can very depending on which city they happen in. Cities will often have their own festivals for whichever Gods they worshiped the most. During these festivals, the Greeks were loath to do anything to disturb the activities, even if there was imminent war.

Another thing that greatly affected the Greeks was sacrilege against the Gods, which happened quite a bit in ancient times. The Greeks felt that if they somehow betrayed the Gods then they would be punished. Things they could do to anger the Gods were to break an oath, because they were always sworn to the Gods. Another thing that happened quite a few times was killing people on sacred ground. These things were sacrilegious and the Greeks believed that if they did these things the Gods would punish them severely, sometimes with the destruction of their city. The Greeks and their Gods are fascinating.