Study Questions Chapter 1: “Greek Sanctuaries and Worship” Ancient Greek Religion by Jon D. Mikalson (Due January 15, 2015)
Illustration: Crete (Minoan Bronze Age) “Ayia Triada Sarcophagus” Worship Scene. Right: Men offering animals to a figure (deceased?); Left: Women and Cross-Dressing Male Musician Offer Libations at a Shrine (?) . Date: 14th Century BCE (End of New Palace Period). The other side of the sarcophagus is pictured at the bottom of this page.
Students are responsible for the questions that have the same digit as the last digit of their U of A student ID number.
Click HERE for information on Greek Bronze Age Religion (Mycenaean Period)
0. Why was Poseidon worship important to the ancient Athenians?
1. Where is Sunium, and what about its location makes it an “obvious choice” for a place to worship Poseidon?
2. Why was Athena appropriately worshipped on the Acropolis at Athens?
3. If you walk from Athens to Sunium, what direction do you travel? What mountain must you pass on the way?
4. What made the altar the sine qua non of a Greek sanctuary?
5. What shapes did Greek altars take? What features did they usually have in common?
6. What are “ouranic” gods? What is the opposite of this term? [Its opposite is on page 36.] [There is a glossary of “Recurring Greek Terms” on p. 227.]
7. What might be the result of making an offering to Athena on an altar of Poseidon?
8. What use did Greeks make of horoi (pl) and a peribolos? [There is a glossary of “Recurring Greek Terms”on p. 227.]
9. What is a temenos, and what does it mean literally? [There is a glossary of “Recurring Greek Terms” on p. 227.]
10. What are four things that can cause ritual impurity and bar someone from entering a god’s temenos?
11. How did Greeks purify themselves before entering a sanctuary?
12. How did the Greeks decide whether a priest or priestess officiated at a sanctuary?
13. What are two things that must happen to the meat in the sanctuary of Amphiaraus?
14. How many years could a Greek priest serve at a sanctuary?
15. What are the meanings of hiereus and hiera? What English word contains this root?
16. How many deities could a Greek priest serve simultaneously?
17. How could you recognize a Greek priest when he is not on duty at a cult site?
18. What two details from the tombstone of Simos (Fig. 1.5) allow us to identify him as a priest?
19. What four details in the Cleophon painter’s vase (Figure 1.6) identify the scene as a religious one?
20. How many months were there in the Athenian calendar? How does the name of the first month relate to sacrifice?
21. What kinds of dedications were found in a Greek sanctuary? What is an agalma? [There is a glossary of “Recurring Greek Terms” on p. 227.] Images HERE.
22. What did “treasury buildings” at Greek sanctuaries look like, and what was their purpose?
23. In 480 BCE, what did the Persians do in Athens? What was the result of the Battle of Salamis?
24. What does the word Soter mean, and why would Athenians appropriately use it as an epithet of Poseidon after the Persian War?
25. What basic description of a Greek temple “in essence” does Mikalson give? What is the Greek term for temple?
26. What part of a Greek temple does the Latin word cella describe? What does the cella usually contain?
27. How would you correct someone who says that a Greek temple houses a god’s altar and is the central place of worship? [You might begin your response with, “Au contraire, my dear fellow…”]
28. What is the symbolism of Greek sculpted representations of battles between Lapiths and Centaurs, gods vs. giants, and the labors of Theseus?
29. What body usually had “jurisdiction over financial matters” at a Greek sanctuary?
30. What did Greek gods want from their worshippers? [Don’t say ‘love’!]
31. What was the Greek gods’ attitude towards human ethical behavior?
32. What is the difference between eusebeia and hosiotes?
33. What things please the gods, according to Mikalson?
34. What is Mikalson’s basic definition of sacrifice?
35. How would you correct someone who says that a sacrifice “was simply the killing of animals for the gods”? [You might begin your response with, “Au contraire, my dear fellow…”]
36. What does the Greek word thyein “to sacrifice,” mean literally, and how does this literal meaning relate to cult action?
37. What does charis mean, and how is it related to Greek sacrifice? [There is a glossary of “Recurring Greek Terms” on p. 227.] What part of the English word eucharist comes from charis? What does eucharist mean?
38. What does a priest do with his hands when he offers a prayer to a Greek god like Poseidon?
39. What kind of prize does Mikalson say might be given to a winning team in a regatta in honor of Poseidon? And where would that prize be displayed?
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