Religion sources Flashcards
(11 cards)
Reverence/worship types of gods, benefit, interaction, contest
Isocrates 5.117
those who bring us good are called Olympians’
‘those who control disasters and punishments’ (Cthonic Gods)
‘the latter are not honoured by prayer of sacrifice’ - Wrong, were worshipped, just differently
Hesiod Works and Days - ‘sacrifice to the deathless gods purely and cleanly…that they may be gracious to you’
Herodotus 6.105
Did believe the gods would simply interact with them - believed Pheidippides ‘fell in with the god Pan’, who told him to honour Pan
Athletic contests a way to honour the gods
Importance benefit
Xenephon Hellenica 2.4
Helping them in war - ‘when we attack, they grant us…..trophies of victories’
Hesiod Works and Days - ‘sacrifice to the deathless gods purely and cleanly…that they may be gracious to you’
Importance negative
Sophocles Oedipus Rex -Benign plague hits Thebes - blames gods
Solution is to consult the gods
Gods solution and problem
Th 7.50 ‘Nicias, who was somewhat over-addicted to divination’ refusing to sail in Sicily until soothsayers approve
Prosecution on Religion
32 - Aspasia Impiety trial
Decree by Diopeithes - ‘anybody who did not beleive in the gods or taught theories about celestial phenomena should be liable to prosecution’ (Targeting Pericles through Anaxagoras)
Socrates prosecuted for impiety
Prosecution Alcibiades
Alcibiades 19 - Alcibiades impeached for ‘impiety towards Eleusis’ and reference to the mutilation of the Herms
People angry he slipped away when on ‘such serious charges’
Th 6.27 Herms ‘taken up the more seriously…ominous for the expedition
Use by powerful figures
Plutarch Pericles 30-31 (Gold for statue of Athena only superimposed) (Pericles adding himself onto the relief of the battle of the Amazons on the shield)
Funeral Oration - Pericles saying nothing of gods
‘this institution was set up and approved by our forefathers, and it is my duty to follow the tradition’ - avoiding talking of the gods explicitly
Alcibiades 34 - Winning favour through procession to Eleusis (crossing enemy territory)
Religion being challenged drama
Clouds - ‘zeus is not king of the Gods, but Vortex’
‘Clouds cause rain not Zeus’ (but Socrates ‘nutter)
Hippolytus - Aphrodite too merciless (announcing what happened not traditional)
Hippolytus rejecting advice to honour all the gods. ‘Since gods may choose whom they will honour, so may men’
No forgiveness given when servant prays
Challenge Anaxagoras
Plutarch Pericles 4
Anaxagoras ‘investigation of natural phenomena….first to dethrone Chance and Necessity…pure intelligence…as the principle of law and order’
‘steeped in the so-called higher philosophy’ (4)
‘teaching to rise above the superstitious terror which springs from an ignorant wonder at the common phenomena of the heavens’ (6)
Dissecting the skull
Challenge Protagoras
Protagoras -
“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life”
Socrates apology
Traditional view of gods matters
‘accuse me of teaching them to believe in new deities’
‘I believe in supernatural beings’ - Socrates
(‘believe that the sun and moon are gods; like other men do’ - daily presence of Gods)
‘I say that you disbelieve in gods all together’ - Meletus
Socrates inner voice
Apology - strange to say gods never lie, and trying to disprove the oracle
‘I try to assist the god by proving that he is not true’
Appointed by god to his mission
Socrates other
Xenophon Memorabilia 1.1 Socrates not that different from oracles and people who believed in divination - but probably not the traditional view
