#there is a reason Ares did not have much cult worship outside of Sparta

[barbiegirldream]

dream is like theseus and actually every greek figure Including Literal Gods who are seen through a purely modern lens by people with no context or understanding of ancient greek society and therefore are vilified to no end

I was so thrown for a moment i thought this was dsmp syndicate discourse I don't know Why my brain went there I study Theseus. c!Tommy was Not Theseus he killed no monsters and did Not abdicate a role of monarch for democracy

Anyways I'd say Dream is really just an Athenian woman. People wanted him to stay locked up forever and get pissed at anything he says.

Not really like the men though they were definitely all killing people to varying degrees of approval by society. By nature of not being insane psychopaths modern day men will almost always map better onto ancient women.

[songbirdspells]

Local Cultus, One of Many Introspections

There is no singular Greek religion.

Instead, what we think of as the “Greek religion” is a mishmash of multiple city state’s local cultus that share overarching themes and deities. Mingled with the panhellenic ideals of manhood we come up with a generalized idea of a religion that we can all claim to share, even if individual practices vary widely and wildly. The idea of one person worshiping all the aspects of a deity as listed in a place like theoi.com is antithetical to how the ancient society of Hellenes (ancient Greece) would have considered. Instead, each city-state developed rituals, aspects, epithets, and cults that suited themselves and their needs. I will be answering the questions: what is local cultus? How did the Greeks utilize local cultus in their own practice? How can we take that knowledge and use it when building our own practices?

What is local cultus?

Local cultus is the idea and ideal that an area develops practices and beliefs that make sense for that area. Local cultus can be found in multiple areas but there is an origin point. The mystery cults--especially Eleusinian Mysteries--are a great example of this phenomenon. The Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated by many ancient Greeks all across of the ancient colonies but the epicenter and where the cult developed is in Eleusis. This is why part of the rituals often involved traveling to Eleusis itself. While there were satellite temples (so to speak) who could perform the ritual it was considered best, if possible, to travel to the original site.

Delphi is another example of local cultus that spread beyond its own city-state borders to influence the rest of Greece. “Apollo could be consulted in so many places that the Greeks called him the wandering god. Interestingly, Apollo’s temples as a rule used men as oracles. Only in Delphi did women speak on his behalf” (The Oracle, pg 19, Broad) In a more typical Apollo oracle temple the priests would use less dramatic methods of receiving the divine guidance from Apollo and they functioned in more typical priestly manners, as explained by Broad, “In ancient Greece, priests tended to be symbolic intermediaries between the human and the divine. By contrast, the Oracle merged with the most illustrious of the gods in a holy marriage. She became Apollo’s mouthpiece and her words were the incarnation of his authority”(The Oracle, Broad, pg 11).

Also, they would not limit the types of questions received from the worshipers. Just like Dodona is the only Zeus oracle temple to use the rustle of doves’ wings and the sighing of the trees to hear the god--Delphi is the only oracle temple we know of to use the local landscape. Delphi could not be replicated in another location. In addition, Delphi is the one of the only known locations in which Dionysus and Apollo co inhabited the same temple. During Apollo’s fallow times and at night time, the temple was a celebration of Dionysus, not Apollo.

Instead, in one of antiquity’s most psychologically arresting twists, Apollo’s rowdy younger brother, Dionysus, took control of Delphi, and his devotees joined him in orgiastic rites. Exactly when such worship began is unclear. But certainly by the time of Clea, Plutarch’s friend, Dionysus had held sway at Delphi for at least a half dozen centuries” (The Oracle, Broad, pg 40).

Local cultus is why the historical books and papers will often broach a topic--like priestly duties--but then list many examples of how various locations differed from each other.

But in a cult of many manifestations, which varied according to the sanctuary and the god, the role of the sacrificer was not the only duty of the priest. At Eleusis one of his essential functions was to reveal the sacred objects to the initiated in the course of the ceremony of the epopteia, or the initiation of the second degree. At Ephesus the high priest, later to be known by the persian name of Megabyxus, went at the head of the annual procession in honour of Artemis, and for this he was apparelled in purple and gold, with all his priestly and royal decorations. It was his task to represent the goddess at games and festivals outside the shrine. At Claros the priest might on occasion assume the duties of the prophet.

-Daily Life in the Time of Homer by Emile Mireaux, pg 82-83

I know the quote is rather long but in that one paragraph the author has mentioned three different practices, despite the fact the basic underlying duties remain the same for priests across ancient Greece. Panhellenic (all of Greece) practices do occur--the basics of libations and offerings, the idea of regular social ritual and festivals. But the interpretations of it and why it was done tends to vary from place to place.

So what is local cultus? It is rituals that are localized to your area and your own practice. In Delphi, they grew close to Apollo (and Dionysus) by breathing in mind-altering fumes. In Dodona they listened to the wind and the birds sacred to Zeus. In Athens they honored the great statue of Athena by draping her in the finest work the city could offer. In Eleusis, they found through ritual a way to their own enlightenment and salvation.

How did the Greeks utilize local cultus in their own practice?

“The religion of the Homeric Greek, of all of ancient Greece for that matter, was essentially official. Each city had its gods. It selected them as a rule from the Pantheon of the great deities common to the Hellenic world; but it frequently also had secondary gods of its own. It was bound to these divine deities by a sort of pact which created reciprocal obligations. These deities were in truth members of the city. They had their dwellings there, they had land--a temenos, which was a veritable concession, granted by the state--and they maintained servants. By reason of the services they rendered the community, they had a right to a collective tax, or grant, in the form of sacrifices and ceremonies.

-Daily Life in the Time of Homer by Emile Mireaux, pg 227

Nevertheless, the hard core of Greek religion is to be found in its observances: these took their shape among men whose focus was first the hearth and then the city-state, men moreover whose life and livelihood were tied to crops and herds and the annual cycle of nature. Urbanization brought changes, but we must not make too much of them, for in Greece proper there never was a cosmopolitan city like Alexandria and even the Athenians did not wholly lose touch with the good brown earth.

-Greek Folk Religion by Martin P. Nilsson

Long quotes but all state the same idea which can be found over and over again in historical literature about Greek religious practices; that individual practices were used in the ceremonies both public and private and that they differed from region to region both through necessity and tradition. Just as not everyone celebrates the international duck calling contest every year, not every city state or even town would celebrate the same festivals or use the same observances for shared festivals.

Some examples would include Athens, and the Greater Panathenaea. While all city states who celebrated Athena would come together for typical ritual and festivities, only Athens would spend the better part of the year before the festival with its best weavers carefully putting together a saffron robe to adorn the great statue of Athena. It was their own local way of honoring Athena that was not shared in other city states. While other city states might clothe their statues (a trait shared with other religions of the time), only Athens invested the time and money into providing for the weavers to make the truly gargantuan outfit and would include the drapery in their parade towards the temple.

How and why did local cultus form instead of a country-wide and/or culture-wide religion?

The short, sweet answer is the unique geography of Greece lent itself to small, focused communities. Each city state was often separated by either mountains, sea, or otherwise inhospitable terrain. Travel was common, absolutely, but it was difficult outside of designated paths. Few city states could boast rich soil for good agriculture (part of why olives flourished and flourish in Greece is its poor soil quality is perfect for olives) which further divided the city-states between those who could roughly sustain their own populations and those that required trade to stave off starvation.

Examples of how strongly the local geography can affect the worship practice and religious thoughts of the people we can turn to actually five of the great temples and known worship centers: Delphi for Apollo, Olympia and Dodona for Zeus, Athens for Athena and Sparta for Ares.

Delphi exists high in the mountains in an easy to defend and difficult to find region of Greece. This geographical isolation allowed the temple there to flourish mostly untouched for many of its years. Before it overtook Dodona as the center of prophecy for Greece it was still a place of prophecy with its unique geography allowing it a relatively unknown form of rapture--the steam vent that was uncovered during tectonic shifts that produced an altered mental status. Through this unique geological feature Apollo’s fame as an oracular god spread and Delphi became known as the place to go for grander and less personal prophecies. Because of its eventual fame and staggering wealth, Delphi became a hotspot for statesmen, philosophers and ambitious countrymen alike to mingle--which led to such things as the Delphic Maxims, which were carved on the side of the temple itself and said to come from either Apollo himself or the Seven Sages. However because Delphi was elevated to such a high status in the lore of the time it did not function at all like other Apollo temples.

Olympia--the city-state is mostly known now for the Olympics. But in its heyday it was a hive for oracles, trade and, yes, sports. The flat land surrounding the temple lent itself to truly massive playing fields including a track that could allow up to 40 chariot teams to race at once. Sports of all kinds were widely practiced and celebrated across Greece--to perfect one’s body was seen as a virtue--but the mixing of sports with an oracle temple was unique to Olympia, especially on the scale seen at the temple. Only in one of the few flat plains of Greece could such a temple exist and it lent itself to large, over the top celebrations versus more private and intimate festivals.

Dodona: a study in juxtaposition. When one thinks of Zeus what image is conjured is often big, brash, loud. Dodona reveals in near silence. The true heart of Zeus’ oracle tradition--in Dodona they listened to Zeus’ answers in the soft cooing of the doves or the rustle of the sacred oak leaves. After some time someone introduced singing brass bowls and gongs to Dodona and if the leaves and the doves would not speak the priests would consult the bowls instead.

After a long, arduous trek through the mountains to the quiet valley, visitors would wait their turn to ask Zeus whatever they wished. Some came to thank him. Some came to ask favors. Many came to complain to Zeus about unfair treatment or beg for the proper weather for their crops. While Dodona did have a few peaks of lavish decorations and festivals--it continually returned to its humble roots. Dodona is different from the other temples of Zeus due to both its location and the fact it was originally the sacred place of a different sky-god--of the people who were there before the Greeks. Just like the double-headed axe was added to Zeus’ sacred objects from another sky-god, Dodona became Zeus’ sanctuary only after the Greeks successfully colonized the area. To this day, Dodona remains a quiet place, given to reflection and contemplation.

Athens is the city-state that we know the most about so I will be fairly brief. However, Athens won for both the land it had to use (a decent amount of arable land, a well-sized port, slightly less mountain than most of Greece) and the centralized location to most of Greece. Because of where it was situated it naturally developed a strong line with surrounding city-states as well as a steady back-and-forth with nearby countries like Egypt. And because of this constant flow in and out of the city what Athens truly excelled in was trade, diplomacy and culture. It relied on imports to support itself but that wasn’t a problem for the city that controlled most of the foreign trade market inside Greece.

Due to its location and place within the League, Athens needed a god or goddess that reflected its values of careful thought, witty speeches and bravery. So while Poseidon would have exemplified Athens’ bravery and trade as well bolstered its reputation of a strong, sheltered port, only Athena would do as a patron goddess. Especially since Athens was known for its braggadocio when it came to relations with other city-states and often found the need to defend itself--either through counsels or war. And Athens is a fantastic example of how even one city could have multiple local cults about one goddess with distinct epithets, customs and fulfill different worship needs. In the Pantheon complex alone you can find temples to three different cults of Athena.

Sparta is one of the few city-states that venerated Ares above all others. While all soldiers would participate in rituals honoring Ares, only in Sparta were numerous temples found devoted to the god of war. The Spartans were noted for sacrificing dogs on his altar and participating in various festivals throughout the year that were not noted anywhere else. While the other deities were worshipped in Sparta--there is one particularly barbaric yearly ritual of young boys being whipped on a festival day for Artemis--Ares ruled supreme in a way he did not in other city-states.

The reason for his unusual popularity goes beyond the obvious answer of the fact that Spartans molded their entire society around war. And that reason is found in the Spartan history. No other city state forewent trade and cultural development to the extreme that Sparta did and yet Sparta worked when other city-states would be forced during war time to return to their normal pursuits to sustain the damage and strain that fighting troops can bring to resources and the surrounding landscape.

And why is that? Well, the Spartans had a dirty not-secret. The Spartan region was colonized by the Greeks well after another group of people had settled there for thousands of years. The colonizing Greeks in that region chose not to live side by side with their original settlers (as some other city-states, such as Olbia, did) but chose to subjugate the native peoples. We know them now as “helots”. Helots existed in an odd in-between state between true slave and a free people. They were not bought and sold as slaves were but they were forced to work their family’s plots as sharecroppers and were given meager to no rations by the Spartans who took over their family land.

In addition, they were conscripted into the Spartan army and forced to fight for Sparta. They dressed either like poor people or were forced to wear ridiculous clothing, depending on who you asked, as an outward mark of their social standing. And while not “slaves” they could win their freedom on the battlefield (usually from protecting Spartans). As anyone in logistics knows--at most only about 10% of a fighting force actually fights at any given time. The rest is resources and support. The Spartans maintained their extreme war-like culture, attitude and behavior only by using the helots as their “logistics” while they then spent their time preparing for battle.

Rhodes was the bringing together of two distinct city states, “In 408/7 BCE the old Rhodian city states of Ialysus, Camirus and Lindus united to form one polis and create a joint capital called Rhodes at the northern tip of the island” (Schipporeit). In doing so the people of the region were forced to bring together their cultures and customs as well in order to create a new way of doing things. And so in doing so, despite the fact that Helios was by far the “patron god” of Rhodes--with a distinct local cult, statues, temples, shrines, festivals--all devoted to Helios--there also existed a thriving and evolving local pantheon. While several deities enjoyed local cults within Rhodes, Athena in particular was a particularly strong presence since she had a famous temple at Lindos before the unification.

Rhodes is an interesting case of local myth being shaped by the events of a particular area since there is some proof of why Helios, a relatively minor god outside of Rhodes was chosen as the patron. “Diodorus Siculus (XV 56), quoted above, narrates how the god dried the earth after a flood and fathered a new generation of inhabitants. A slightly different version of the myth is told by Pindar in his seventh Olympian, where he praises the athlete Diagoras of Rhodes after his boxing victory at the Olympic Games in 464 BCE. After the gods divided the world among themselves, they realized that they had forgotten to include Helios in the process. Although Zeus offered to start all over, Helios refused: he had spotted an island still covered by the sea, made it rise and claimed it as his share. Then he coupled with the nymph Rhodos, and from this union were born seven men, the Heliadai.” (Paul) The story of the flood landed can be seen in almost (possibly all?) ancient civilizations speaking to a global event, but Rhodes in particular used it as part of the creation myth of both their island and their people. From there it was a natural choice to choose the god that made their island possible, rather than a ‘more powerful’ deity that already had shown favor to other places.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I would like to highlight what brings all these examples I examined together. FIrst, the idea that one must embrace the entire deity--with all their aspects--is a very modern idea. I believe it is one brought over by the Christian mythos since it is an idea I myself succumbed too. But as those in the city states outside the cult centers did not worship Demeter as a judge or Aphrodite as an abstract being of lust or Posideon as an oracle god; if we are being true to historical accuracy we do not necessarily need to embrace all aspects of a god. After all, as R.P. Lister mentions in the introduction to The Travels of Herodotus, “The Greeks originated two revolutionary concepts that affected human history and have affected it ever since. [...] THe other was the idea of philosophical and scientific enquiries made in a free spirit, with the sole desire to ascertain the truth.” (pg 27) By using this philosophy we can turn to ourselves, our deities and also our observations of our nearby areas to discern if the deities are present in our lives or our local living spaces in a way that is not historically attested. The deities were living, growing creatures at their height but there is no reason they cannot live and grow the same now. Perhaps in an urban city Demeter is the goddess of the local mediation courts or the goddess of the cottage industries. Artemis could be the goddess of the local CPS.

While we always should strive to be respectful to the gods, it is clear that the ancient Greeks desired their pantheon to be in every aspect of their daily lives and invited the deities into areas they were not typically rulers of. And most of these cults and worship centers stayed for quite some time, implying that the deities welcomed the worship even if it wasn’t technically their normal patronage; and/or that the worshipers received some measure of satisfaction and fulfillment from worshiping a deity outside their normal spheres.. And by using the ancient local cultus as a guide I believe we can invite the gods into our local areas--even if that means that we “ignore” another one of their aspects or worship them for something that perhaps isn’t on their Theoi.com list of patron areas. Our local cultus practices should reflect our unique areas and their struggles and triumphs and, as in ancient Greece, that means our local worship practices may be similar to others but should not be carbon copies of each other.

Sources:

Books: Daily Life in the Time of Homer by Emile Mireaux The Oracle, by William J Broad Hellenisms: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity, Katerina Zacharia (ed.) Greek Identity in the Hellenistic Period, Stanley Burstein Greek Folk Religion by Martin P. Nilsson Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece by Angus Constam The Travels of Herodotus by R.P. Lister The Traveler’s Guide to Ancient Greece: A Guide to Sacred Places by Richard G. Geldard

Articles: Mystery Cults in the Greek and Roman World by Kiki Karoglou The New Order of Time and Cult in Synoecized Poleis by Sven Schipporeit Local Pantheons in Motion: Synoecism and Patron Deities in Hellenistic Rhodes by Stephanie Paul Personal protection and tailor-made deities: the use of individual epithets by Jenny Wallensten Religious Innovation in the Ancient Mediterranean by Greg Woolf

Articles reference but not directly quoted: Dedications to Double Deities: Syncretism or simply syntax? by Jenny Wallensten Objects and Ancient Religions by Jay Johnston Visiting the Oracle Shrine at Dodona by Visiting Greece (the website)

Podcasts: Myth and History of Greece and Rome by Paul Vincent, particularly episode “Chapter Thirty: Men of the Polis” The History of Ancient Greece by Ryan Stitt, particularly episode 10 “Panhellenism”