Today, Greeks are mostly Orthodox Christians. Two thousand years ago were, however, polytheists.
The ancient Greek religion arose from the fusion of the cults of local populations with the religions of Indo-European peoples from the north, settled in Greece from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries BC
Each polis (city-state) are entrusted to the protection of their own deities, which were made in some way back to the same laws that governed the life of that city. However, often the polis formed alloys, such Amphictyon, a political-religious. Moreover, the whole of Greek civilization was common occurrences, such as large Panhellenic festivals, which were conducted on a regular basis, at Olympia, Delphi, Delos, Samos and elsewhere.
Many elements of this ancient religion came the present day, and often with the same meaning they had at that time.
Moira (identified in the Hellenistic period, with the fate or destiny)
burial rites
rites of marriage
use of ashes
desire to question the afterlife
concept of soul and body
clear separation between the sacred and the profane
Greek mythology emphasized the weakness of human conflict with the great and terrible forces of nature. The Greeks regarded their gods and immortals considered both their own lives is entirely dependent on natural events God's will, generally, the relationship between gods and men were friendly, but reserved for severe punishment to mortals who exhibited unacceptable behavior as complacency or excessive ambition, excessive or flaunted wealth.
The gods were anthropomorphic characteristics, they were very similar to people: the same vices, virtues,
could only be identified because they were immortal and powerful. Their headquarters was the Hall, a mountainous area near the northern border of Thessaly, whose peak, high 2985 metri e quasi perennemente circondata da nubi, era difficilmente raggiungibile. Ad Olimpia, nel Peloponneso, c'era il principale tempio dedicato a Zeus, la divinità principale dei Greci, capo e sovrano di tutte le divinità.
Gli dèi trattavano le persone non con giustizia, ma secondo i loro "capricci"; loro stessi, però, dovevano sottostare a questo "fato".
L'aldilà non era meritato in base al comportamento, come invece abbiamo visto per gli Egizi, ma si andava nell'aldilà buono (Campi Elisi) o cattivo (Ade) in base al capriccio degli dèi che, per semplice simpatia, destinavano in uno o nell'altro aldilà.
Is there anyway to say that the afterlife in general, was a place broad, dark depths of the earth, heroes and cowards, just and unjust should all go to that place, there lived like shadows regretting life forever lost. According to Hesiod, only some men, the gods allow himself to live in the Elysian Fields (but always chosen men for sympathy from the gods).
With this type of religion, justice is lost by the gods (in fact he had not rewarded based on the life he had lived) and accountability by the people (you could create bad or good, 's aldidà still depended only on the whim of the gods).
From the fourth century BC, developed the idea that it was not fair or responsible, that all went to Hades, or few, preferably of the gods, went in the Elysian Fields, but it was understood that the afterlife was be deserved. Only the murders, suicides, bad citizens, those who had not shown mercy to his parents and foreigners could be excluded from the Champs Elysees.
regard to the concept of body and soul, it must be said that the Greek religion, man is composed of two parts: a mortal body and an immortal part, called eidolon (this is vital). The eidolon, closed in the grave or prison body, was purified to be worthy of a happy life in the Elysian fields. This concept has come to this day, is in fact present in many major religions. Great importance has
Hesiod and Homer, in order to understand the religious world of the Greeks.
are two poems of Hesiod: Theogony (1022 lines) and Works and Days (828 lines). The first is about the place in an organic and rational immense mythological material present in the religious traditions, popular beliefs and heroic poetry. After singing the origin of the universe from chaos, the poet enumerates all generations divine until the reign of Zeus.
The conceptual core of the Works and Days is the praise of the work of justice. The work is a moral necessity imposed upon men by the gods: those who work can only be a just man.
This law can not be changed absolutely and everybody's business. Two myths, confirms the need for the law of labor: the myth of Pandora's box, given to mankind by Zeus to avenge Prometheus had stolen fire and the myth of Prometheus and the age of five men, who their stupidity and violence have fallen from the miserable happy golden age Iron Age.
Conception the world and the afterlife
beginning of it all was the kaos (= abyss, chasm).
From this primordial state, shapeless, rose progressively ordered cosmos.
was formed before all the Tartarus, a place dell'0scurità night. Then arose the earth (Gaea), and from it sprang the sky (Uranus) and the Sea (Pontus). The union of the earth, the feminine principle, and the sky, the male principle, Cronus and Rhea were born then. These originated from Zeus, escaped the murderous intent of apparently when he grew up, he led the revolt of Cronidi (the children of Cronus, in fact) against the parent. But aided by the Titans was Cronus, her children, and thus began the great struggle between the gods and the younger Titans (titanomachia). They won the gods, so Cronus and the Titans were sent to Tartarus, by the power of Zeus. He became ruler of the world, Zeus settled on Olympus, where, later, also fought the giants who had rebelled against the new cosmic order. New colossal struggle to questions (gigantomachia) took part in the same Heracles (Hercules), who fought alongside the Olympics. The Giants were beaten and buried in the volcanic islands. The world settled down well, according to the new order under the rule of Zeus, and Poseidon was given the domain of seas, and Hades the underworld. Center of the world as it was ultimately the Omphale, indicated by a sphere of marble in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The land in this new cosmic order, was surrounded by the ocean, from which sprang all the rivers and springs. To the west of the earth, including ocean currents, and then stood in Hades, the underworld inhabited by departed souls. The kingdom of Hades was surrounded by walls of iron and iron are also portals through which Hermes, with his golden staff, accompanied the dead. To enter the dead in Hades were to be buried, because otherwise their souls were to wander for a hundred years without peace. Go beyond the gates of hell, the dead crossed the waters of the Styx, the river of the underworld. This in turn flowed into Cocytus, the river of lamentation, which formed the lake Acheron. Here, the old boatman Charon Transhipment the dead who had been buried, which had been placed with relatives, in the mouth under the tongue, a bronze coin, such as "offer for Charon." On the opposite shore of the lake, Cerberus, the hound, guarded the realm of the dead, making you enter the new arrivals and preventing anyone from uscirvi.
The condition of the souls to Hades, the Greek religion worked out with time concepts. For Homer, the deceased, regardless to what they had done in life, is in the memory and the desire of earthly life. Following the idea took shape of a differentiated fate, proportional to the morality expressed in life. In particular, they insisted on this principle, the followers of the orphan, a mystical and ascetic developed from the sixth century BC
According to this view, beyond dell'Acheronte, the souls of the deceased were subjected to Feedback of a sort of court of the dead, preseiduto by Hades, who - with impartial decision - gave a different fate according to the behavior that was kept alive. Just so I could access the ELISA, or Island of the Blessed, surrounded by the silvery waters of the river Lethe. These waters conceded oblivion to those who drank and hence to the eternal happiness. The villains were rather rushed into Tartarus, a dark hole surrounded by a triple wall, around which flowed the Phlegethon, a river of fire. Here the souls of the damned suffered terrible pain. For example, the 49 Danaids who had killed their husbands, were condemned to fill a bottomless pots, and equally harsh punishments had been raised to Sisyphus, Tantalus, and Tom.
0 comments:
Post a Comment