Page |1 Practice not belief is the key, and to start from questions about faith or personal piety is to impose

alien values on ancient Greek religion. (Simon Price) Discuss. Word count: 1491 When studying ancient Greek religion from a context almost totally devoid of any similarity such as a Judeo-Christian 21st century west it is difficult to know how to approach a subject such as ancient faith. On the one hand, as Simon Price explores in his book, we can see that ancient Greek religion seemed to revolve around rituals and practices. The absence of any dogma or apparently moral code seems to support this theory that practice, not belief, was key to ancient Greek religion. And yet, the assumption that a lack of dogma equals a lack of personal devotion is a highly Christianised one in itself. Imposing contemporary notions of religion onto ancient Greece is not only unhelpful, but assumes a continuity that perhaps does not exist. However, it is also possible to go too far in the opposite direction. In our eagerness to avoid imposing contemporary notions of religion onto ancient Greece, it is possible that we ignore the similarities that do exist. Theoretically speaking, where there is practice and ritual in religion, there must be belief: a belief, at its most basic, that something is listening, and the hope that this something will respond. It does not seem likely that practice and faith can be as divorced as Price believes for why would the practice exist if there was no belief to support it? The fact that many (though not all) rituals were undertaken as part of polis activities does not signify lack of personal religious experience. For thousands of years, masses were (and are) equally institutionalised, as were funerals, weddings, etc. However, they still contain emotional and spiritual relevance. The problem with piety is that, in the Western world, we are used to a Judeo-Christian concept of God as a power who encourages an active relationship with Him and who has laid down moral guidelines. We measure piety by adherence to these guidelines. Personal devotion in Greece could not have been expressed by such guidelines of moral behaviour, because the gods had never given them any. It is true that ancient Greece had no dogma; that its religion was experienced collectively rather than individually, and does not appear to have afforded an introspective experience. However, this does not mean that belief and faith were not at the core of Greek religion, and to make an overly general assumption that they were not simply because of

Page |2 Greeces incredible reliance on practice is unhelpful. This essay will conduct a brief examination of personal devotion in ancient Greece by examining its ritual practices, and will conclude that faith and practice were intertwined, since every single ritual in the Greek world was at its core about communication with the divine. Sacrifice is one of the most visually evident practices of ancient Greek religion. All festivals in Greece and there were many involved sacrifice of some kind. It was performed often both publicly and privately for three reasons: honour, gratitude, and desire for things (Theophrastus, fr. 584A.) The problem with the major studies of Greek sacrifice is that they rely overly on the signs and process, and what these signify to Greek culture (for example, the two major studies of sacrifice by Vernant and Burkert), and not upon its significance to religion. Even today, sacrifice, is seen as a measure of devotion. The ideal Christian, for example, would sacrifice all their wealth and possessions for God. Although we can never be entirely certain, Greek religion seems to signify the same kind of idea. Sacrifices were made as a measure of how much one honoured the gods. Throughout the course, this process was discussed as a kind of business transaction; the more one sacrificed, the more one could be sure of their wishes being granted in the future. Logically, those who honoured the gods more were honoured in return by the gods. Boiling sacrifice down to a business transaction is perhaps too clinical a way of describing ideas such as honour and gratitude. In Theophrastus explanation, these two ideas come before desire for things; by his language, they are shown to be the most important. When measuring something like piety, honour and gratitude come far closer to our conception of piety than a desire for things. The practice of sacrifice as a measure of devotion can hardly be imposing alien values upon Greek religion in the light of this evidence, however unsatisfactory it appears. Oracles are another way of measuring faith in ancient Greece. Along with or perhaps, as another facet of epiphanies, oracles were the main method of communication with the gods. The popularity and embeddedness of oracles reveal that the Greeks were possessed of this desire to

Page |3 communicate. From public oracular advice involving war, famine, and so on, to private oracular advice about thefts, love, and so on, oracles were involved in almost every part of Greek life. Being, then, such a unique connection to the gods, it is possible to suggest that the gods were a part of everyday life. Oracles appear to be a physical symbol of this business transaction effect; going to an oracle fulfilled the role of Theophrastus desire for things. However, the fact that they offered such a unique connection to the gods was one that no Greek took lightly: the popularity of oracles is a testament to this. Clearly faith had a large role in the oracular experience; the faith that the oracle was the right connection to the gods (in order to receive the best response), the faith to accept (or perhaps, interpret) the response, and even the faith involved in offering thanks or honour before and after seeking an oracles advice. Oracles were not a simple method of measuring devotion, but the experience clearly involved much faith, however, even by their nature they were a personal connection to a god, and even, dependence upon the gods. Clearly their popularity had as much to do with this: a connection to a higher power, even just for a simple question. Oracles were a tangible and achievable way of accepting the gods willingly into ones personal life, of communicating to a power who, by the mediation of the oracle, was sure to communicate back. It is interesting to note that there is little mention of piety or an equivalent in Greek texts. However, there is mention of impiety, which is just as illuminating. The anxiety surrounding occasions of impiety, and the strict laws concerning impiety, seem to demonstrate that piety is intrinsically linked to correct forms of practice. The case of the Herm Mutilation and the Mysteries in 415 BCE (Thucydides, 6.27-30) is a particularly interesting example of this. It seems to suggest that impiety was dangerous to the wellbeing of the polis. Over the mock Mysteries, for example, there appears to have been almost a witch-hunt the anxiety surrounding the impiety there is almost palpable, and was punished by execution and imprisonment. Perhaps the implications of this are the same as the implications of the fact that there is no Greek word for religion: it was so embedded in Greek culture that it was not conceived of as a separate idea.

Page |4 In conclusion, a brief examination of Greek ritual practices seems to indicate that questions of faith, piety and personal devotion are hardly alien to Greek religion. The purpose of sacrifice, oracles and the treatment of impiety all seem to indicate a relationship with the gods that cannot be boiled down to a simple give-and-take relationship. Although piety was expressed in different ways to contemporary devotion, perhaps it was not so very different after all. Much of the Greek religious experience, as expressed through ritual and practice, relies on faith, whether it is explicitly stated or not. The Greek gods did not precisely encourage relationships in the Judeo-Christian sense, but the Greeks certainly sought them out. Although imposing alien values onto ancient Greece is unhelpful, it should be noted that not all comparisons are alien. By assuming that faith is not a tenet of ancient Greece religion, we ignore the simple truth. Ancient Greek rituals are all based on the idea of divine communication an idea which, in its most basic sense, is built from faith.