Understanding The Greek Gods

In the 21st Century when we consider the Greeks we think about the philosophers, the Greek language the Greek myths and legends, the architecture and of course the gods. We have studied the Philosophers in great depth and know a lot about their theories. We have a wide knowledge of Greek architecture, how they built the temples, specific styles they adopted. We know a lot of facts about the Greek gods, however the thought behind them is not considered in as much detail. We have not come up with a definite answer as to why the Greeks felt the need to believe in so many gods. I think this is because (at present time) we don’t know of any information or artifacts that can answer this question. Thus, we can only try and uncover the reason as to
why they believed in their gods, and try to come up with our own answer.
Our understanding of the Greek gods: To find an answer to this question we must have a basic understanding of the Greek Gods which fortunately is a topic we do know about.
The Ancient Greek belief system was polytheistic, meaning that they believed in more than one god or deity. Each god and goddess had power over a different aspect of life, leading the Greeks to believe that these gods had power over what happened in their own lives. The Greek Gods looked like humans physically, essentially the only difference between the Greeks and their Gods was that the Gods were considered immortal. The Greeks believed that the gods lived high above Mount Olympus and were always watching the life below, and from time to time would interfere with it. This led them to the understanding that, you would not want to anger any of the gods in any way, or else they would make your life miserable. Emphasis was placed on pleasing the gods in order to live a life free of hardship and oppression. Man, created the Greek gods to explain the world around him, act as a means of exploration, provide legitimacy and authority to ancient Greek aristocracy, and provide entertainment for the masses. The religion of the ancient Greeks was different to the many religions we follow in the 21st Century. It did not have a single source of written scripture such as the Bible or the Qur'an. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks did not
believe in absolute truth as practiced by modern faiths such as Christianity and Judaism. Every city in Greece had a 'patron' god or goddess. People believed that they protected them from harm. The Greeks built magnificent temples in tribute to the gods and goddesses and many of these are standing today. These were used as places where people would go to pray when they needed help. They would go to a specific temple depending on their problem, for example they would pray to Demeter the goddess of grain if they were worried about the harvest. As well as praying, people also brought gifts of money, flowers, food, animals, and drinks which were offered as sacrifices.

Who Created the Greek Gods and why: Most religions rely on unconditional belief. We don’t have proof that God does exist, but if you are a Christian for example, you must have faith that he does. Which ultimately shows your true faith in God and the religion. Furthermore, in Christianity they believe that god is omnipotent and all powerful, whereas even though Zeus was the king of the gods, he was not considered omnipotent by the Greeks. If the Greeks were the ones who created their gods and goddesses, surely, they knew that they weren’t real, which defeats the object of having faith and belief. It must be extremely hard to give gifts, make sacrifices and to believe in something once you know it is not real. To the Greeks it was very important to please the gods, as they thought they controlled every aspect of life. Maybe the Gods weren’t believed in as such but rather idolized. The gods however did not appear out of nowhere, someone must have created the whole theory. The Greeks were an extremely intelligent society, Philosophers questioned the things that man had not discovered yet. Leading to the knowledge they possessed, if they knew that the gods weren’t real then there are no questions to ask. They’re simply worshiping something that they know is non-existent. Though, there must have been a reason for this.
Why would the Greeks believe in the Gods if they created them: Creating the belief that life was completely dependent on the good will of the gods meant that people would not show unacceptable behavior, in fear of being punished.
This would lead to an obedient, safe society where you would not need to enforce rules (a concept which seems unlikely in the 21st Century) because people knew that the gods would ‘punish’ you if you were bad. Consequently, much of their society would be good although there would be some who wanted to test the theory and risk being punished. This may be the reason for the creation of the mythology stories, as they showed people what would happen to them if they were bad. They showed the few that wanted to test the theory what would happen to them. Thus, the polytheistic belief system was widely accepted amongst the Greeks. Aside from creating an obedient society, the Greeks also believed in the gods as a way of reassuring themselves. For example, they would include Ares in their offerings even though he was not a likeable God. I think they made offerings to him despite this fact, so that they did not suffer from violence or harm. In other words, they did this out of fear, and by making sacrifices to him it subdued their fear. Another way in which the Greeks used the Gods as
a reassurance was that they believed the gods would take care of them when they died, by sending them to the Asphodel Meadows. Much like many modern religions believe in an afterlife, like Christianity and Heaven for example. However, this depended on whether they had been good or not, if they had been bad or disobedient, they ended up in Tartarus which was a horrible pit where their soul was tortured for all eternity. This links to the idea that maybe the Greeks created their whole belief system so they could live in a society of good people and not have to worry about the bad people doing unacceptable things to them.

How the Greeks influenced Roman beliefs and how Roman Religious Beliefs differed : By drawing parallels between the two periods we can see how the Greek religious belief system influenced the Romans. The Romans followed a polytheistic belief system like the Greeks. They also ‘borrowed’ many of their gods, adopting the same concept of having gods and goddesses to represent various aspects of life. For example, the Romans also had a god of war, but instead of being called Ares they called him Mars. Unlike the Greeks they also worshiped the elements- Earth, sea, sun, sky. They believed that everything had a spirit and that if they performed sacrifices then the gods would be more willing to help them. They introduced the idea of a calendar and used it to record dates of religious importance. What we consider to be priests, they called Pontifices. They believed in sixteen main ones, whose duty was to organize the religious affairs of the state and record important matters and festivals on the calendar. They called some priests flamines, they were specific priests of gods. Their duty was to possess the knowledge of the god they represented, and to which temple they were attached, they also performed a daily sacrifice to the god that they represented.
What I believe: To conclude, I think that the Greeks believed in the Gods to answer the questions about the world that they did not know. They did not believe in absolute truth, meaning that they did not believe that the gods were unconditionally real (true). We must remember that they did not have the same knowledge as we do now, so instead of living in query and wonder about our world, they came up with the gods as an answer to the questions they held. Even if they knew that this ‘answer’ was not ideal. In some ways, you can see how the Greeks influenced modern beliefs. Much like in our modern society some people believe in fate or luck and there is no way of knowing if they are real. It is the belief in them that makes the difference. Religion was important to the ancient Greeks because they believed that it would make their lives better while they were living and after death.