Personal Experience of the Divine

Question 1

Individual experiences

Answer 1

individual dimension particularly clear when studying mystery cults

seen as a form of direct communication

insight into area of GR otherwise invisible (oracles, votive inscriptions, why mystery cults)

Question 2

What is a mystery cult?

Answer 2

“mystery” could be related to the Greek word for initiate - “mystes”

Question 3

Why are mystery cults difficult to study?

Answer 3

-variety across Greece
-local differences
-unclear evidence

Question 4

How could mysteries be held?

Answer 4

as a public festival in a city

Question 5

Famous mystery cult

Answer 5

the best known recorded cult in Ancient Greece = the Eleusinian Mysteries

regular part of sacred calendar from 6th century onwards

Demeter built a temple at Eleusis

Question 6

What is the epopteia?

Answer 6

the revelation of a secret at the end of the Eleusinian Mysteries

Question 7

What is a myst?

Answer 7

person wishing to be initiated

Question 8

What is a mystagogue?

Answer 8

able to initiate others

Question 9

Who was Archon basileus?

Answer 9

King Archon responsible for all things sacred in Athens

Question 10

Who is the heirophant?

Answer 10

leading priest at EM, always drawn from Eumolpidae family

Question 11

What is a kykeon?

Answer 11

psychotropic brew from barley and perinyroyal

Question 12

When did you become a mystes?

Answer 12

after making the conscious decision to undergo a ceremonial initiation into a cult while promising to keep it a secret

Question 13

What were mystery cults part of?

Answer 13

Greek tradition

Eleusis = oldest and most famous

variety

local differences

Question 14

The public element of the EM

Answer 14

Most evidence (inscriptions, archaeology, literary evidence)

2 ceremonies every year from 6th century onwards
- lesser mysteries (spring) - prepare for greater
- greater mysteries (autumn):

• celebrated over 9 days
  -15 mile journey to Eleusis
• dances, sacrafices, singing, flutes
• fasted, drank kykeon, recreated myth
• controlled by Athenia government (important in law)

Question 15

Why would people join the EM?

Answer 15

attractive - D+P = agriculture so farmers wanted to ensure goof harvest

promise that life in Underworld = better

popular because create community, make you different, exciting

chance to meet the gods during ceremony

unlike any other Greek religious festival

Question 16

Archaeology of the EM

Answer 16

Complex of Demeter and Persephone

built in Geometric period (900-850 BC)

Telesterion enlarged several times

Pericles finished it in the 5th century

Question 17

Who could join the EM?

Answer 17

DIFFERENT TO OTHER CULTS

anyone (spoke Greek and not been involved in a crime) -> unusual

pay contribution to take part => NARROW down availability and limited access

not allowed to tell anyone about what happened or the secret => distinction between those initiated and those not

Question 18

Limitations of our knowledge about mystery cults - literary sources

Answer 18

most knowledge = second hand or allusions because people could not say anything

even after people like Pausanians shielded away

Archaic and Classical sources - Aristophans in ‘Frogs’ (humorous approach)

(interest kept due to Christian authors in early AD)

Question 19

Who did the EM attract the attention of?

Answer 19

Ancient: Plato and Plutarch

Early Christian authors: saw them as demonic or trivial in order to differentiate them from pagan ‘mystery’ religions

Question 20

What were the Elysian Fields?

Answer 20

mythical place where eternal life offered to EM members

Question 21

EM secret

Answer 21

has been kept (perhaps part of fascination)

shared in ceremony

revealing of secret to non-initiated or writing/speaking about it = capital crime punishable by death (e.g Alcibiades)

-> shows importance of festival and its status as a religious institution in Athens (relationship bet. politics and religion)

Question 22

When was the EM incorporated?

Answer 22

Incorporated into Athenian civic religion and calander in 6th century - UNUSUAL

Question 23

Eleusis

Answer 23

15 miles west of Athens

initialy independent but became part of Athens in 7th century BC

famous for hosting mysteries of D and P
-> Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Question 24

Ninnon tablet

Answer 24

-400-300 BC
- red-figure plaque

-depiction of the cult of Eleusis (initiates being led by Iacchus to seated goddess D AND P)

-key visual source for reconstruction of the myth

-according to inscription: found in sands and dedicated by Ninnon

• climax of ritual? revealing of secret - epiphany of deities in nocturnal or Underworld - torches

Question 25

Famous healing cult

Answer 25

The healing cult of Asclepius

spread widely and he was perceived as a god rather than a hero

Question 26

What did the healing cult of Ascelpius do?

Answer 26

• function like a modern day hospital
• pray to Asclepius for cures
• believed that A acted through physicians
• length of stay depended on illness
• votive inscriptions were evidence that people went on pilgrimages to the temple

Question 27

Who was Asclepius?

Answer 27

hero turned god

worship soared during pandemics

“blameless physician”

son of Apollo and a mortal

Question 28

How were people healed?

Answer 28

• exercise and diet
  -instantly in sleep
• miracle
• snake venom
• physician act through A (e.g. medicine, surgery)

Question 29

What was the process at the healing cult?

Answer 29

• bathe

-sacrifice

-sleep in incubation in the stoa or under sky

Question 30

Quote about miracles

Answer 30

“miracles proved the deity”

Question 31

Anatomical votive relief

Answer 31

-1st century AD

-marble relief on shrine of Asclepius on island of Melos

-imp. example of a votive offering to Asclepius after cure was received in one of his sanctuaries

-made by Tyche to A after his daughter Hygeia hurt leg/ wounded leg

-evidence for cult of Asclepius

Question 32

When is Asclepius first mentioned?

Answer 32

first mentioned in Iliad and defined as a hero

(in other versions he is son of Apollo w/ mortal mother)

Question 33

Two most famous sanctuaries of Asclepius

Answer 33

two most famous sanctuaries dedicated to Asclepius date back to 5th century.
->indicative of his life and function as a hero or physician as they combine worship with actual practical help for the sick (worshipped as a god)

Asclepius at Epidaurus and Sanctury of Asclepius on island of Cos

Question 34

The two sancturies

Answer 34

Asclepius at Epidaurus: centre for pilgrims seeking cure from wide range (widespread patients from all over Greece - left inscriptions)

Sanctuary of Asclepius on island of Cos: famous school for physicians

-> both sanctuaries frequented by people from all over Greece (to thank for cure or to seek cure)

Question 35

What were miracles?

Answer 35

miraculous deeds allegedly performed by the gods were common in antiquity, many of them rooted in personal devotion

Question 36

Where were mircales often recorded?

Answer 36

in votive inscriptions to healing deities such as A to express gratitude for miraculous recovery

-> proudly displayed at sanctuaries

Question 37

What did miracles help do?

Answer 37

promote and legitimise a new or recently introduced cult (like A)legitimise

display of miracles became more important over time (“miracles proved the deity”)

Question 38

Another example of a healing cult

Answer 38

healing cult at Dropos in Attica
- dedicated to local god or hero Amphiareios
->sanctuary located at Oropos

incubation common and incumbents slept on ram skin (according to Pausanias)

temple, altar inscribed with names of gods and heroes, a theatre, seperate bath and fountain house

Question 39

What is an oracle?

Answer 39

• site (where oracle founded)
• person (priestess etc.)
• oracular statement

Question 40

Who was prayed to at an oracle?

Answer 40

god

hero

MAYBE the dead

Question 41

What sort of questions were asked at oracles?

Answer 41

fertility

which god to pray to

marriage

widowhood

safety/travel

should I do x or y?

Question 42

Why were the oracles personal?

Answer 42

• privacy about what was asked
• request = individual
• talking w/ gods
• personal response

Question 43

The Oracle at Dodona

Answer 43

• N. Greece in a v. deserted area made up of diff. areas
• sanctury to Zeus
• v. old
• tablets on which people write q’s
• travel = big concern (unsafe, unknowing)
• never any context for evidence we have

-visited by people from all over Greece - important because it was the oldest oracular sanctuary in Greece

• H: priestess from Egypt set up oracle and spoke for Zeus

-based around oak tree

Question 44

Site of an oracle

Answer 44

temple, sanctuary, statue in market place with dice

Question 45

Dodona vs. Delphi

Answer 45

Dodona = v. personal and individual matters

Delphi = matters of state

Question 46

Dodona Herodotus and Hesiod

Answer 46

Herodotus and Hesiod say oracular responses were from rustling leaves of sacred oak or doves

In Odyssey, Odysseus visited Dodona to “hear Zeus”

Question 47

Oracular tablets at Dodona

Answer 47

v. informative

questions asked by individual consultants

questions about health, gods to pray to, travel, moving places

provide understanding for personal religion

show what was a cause of concern and anxiety in Ancient Greece

Question 48

responses from gods

Answer 48

rarely get evidence of a response by gods

usually yes or no answer

Question 49

Ariston at Dodona

Answer 49

3rd century Ariston asks god ‘whether it is better and preferable for me and if I will be able to sail to Syracise to the coloney at a later point in time’

-> glimpse of individuals fate and concerns but never the context

Question 50

names in statements

Answer 50

sometimes individuals are named (e.g to marry a particular woman) but the questions were more often anonymous

Question 51

Concerns at oracles

Answer 51

concerns about a womans status and value in terms of property

offspring and number concern (e.g Kleanor)

trade is a concern

questions can be broad and specific

Question 52

What do the oracles show about the gods?

Answer 52

people sought answers to a range of things

->advice of the gods very important (popular)