Jon Mikalson. Ancient Greek Religion, Chapter 4: “Five Major Greek Cults” pp. 68-121.
Thursday, February 12, 2015.
0. What was the Erechtheum?
1. What was the spatial relationship between the Erechtheum and the Altar of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, and how do we account for this anomaly?
2. What probably served as the model for the “new style” 4-drachma Athenian coin from the late second century BCE (Figure IV.1)? What does that tell us about Phidias’ work?
3. What was unusual about the plan of the Erechtheum? How do we account for these anomalies?
4. Both the Parthenon and the Erechtheum contained images of Athena. Which was older? Which was associated with the worship of the goddess? Which one wore a saffron-colored peplos?
5. What was the purpose of the Parthenon?
6. What did Athena’s aegis look like? What literary work describes it?
7. What do some people think is depicted in the central scene of the Parthenon frieze on the east side (Figure IV. 6)?
8. In what ways did the statues of Athena Parthenos (Plate 2, after page 204) and Athena Promachos (Plate 3, after page 204) differ from the statue of Athena Polias?
9. What did snakes have to do with Athena on the Acropolis?
10. How did “four girls, aged 7-10” participate in the cult of Athena Polias?
11. What evidence of the wealth of Athena’s cult does Mikalson cite?
12. Who were the athlothetai, and what did they do?
13. Who could participate in the Panathenaic procession? What was its destination?
14. What kind of athletic competitions did the Panathenaia include?
15. What was the symbolism of the Athena Nike temple on the bastion at the entrance to the Acropolis?
16. What is the relationship between sacred olive oil and prizes for the Panathenaic competition winners?
17. Briefly describe a Panathenaic amphora. What did their inscription say (Figure IV.7)?
18. How did the Athenian playwright Aeschylus associate Athena with justice?
19. In order to go on the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis, in what direction did the initiates travel? What body of water did they pass? (Map IV.1)
20. How does the Great Eleusinian Relief relate to the cult of Demeter and Persephone (Figure IV. 8)?
21. What were “the two major domains of Eleusinian Demeter”?
22. How is Triptolemus like Johnny Appleseed?
23. Why were there grain silos at Demeter’s sanctuary at Eleusis?
24. What two attributes of Triptolemus do we see on Macron’s red-figure cup of c. 480 BCE? How do these relate to his mythical function?
25. Why do we know so little about the Eleusinian Mysteries?
26. The fact that a Hierophant participated in the Mysteries suggests what about the ritual?
27. What was the Telesterion? What other two names did it have? (Plates 4 and 5)
28. What does Isocrates (Panegyricus 28-29) say are the two boons resulting from initiation into Demeter’s Mysteries?
29. What is the common thread that links Dionysus to both wine and drama?
30. What three things are associated with the god Dionysus in the Athenian black-figure amphora of about 535 BCE? (Figure IV.10)
31. What is Pentheus’ crime against Dionysus? How is he punished?
32. What is a maenad? (Glossary, p. 228). What does the maenad in the Roman relief (copy of a late 5th century relief) hold in her right hand?
33. In brief, what is the foundation myth for the Boeotian Agrionia festival?
34. Name four things in the vase decoration in Figure IV.12 (Athenian red-figure crater, ca. 450 BCE) that relate to the cult of Dionysus.
35. What did Theban coins portray on the obverse and reverse, and how did this relate to religion?
36. What body of water and which mountain were closest to Delphi?
37. Whom did Apollo choose to be the first priests at his sanctuary at Delphi? How did he bring them there?
38. What was uncommon about Apollo’s temple at Delphi?
39. Why was the Pythia’s role “of immense importance” in the functioning of Apollo’s oracle at Delphi?
40. What is the omphalos, and what does it represent? What does this say about the importance of the site of Delphi?
41. Name four things in the vase decoration in Figure IV.16 (Athenian red-figure crater, ca. 450 BCE) that relate to the cult of Apollo Pythios of Delphi.
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42. How much did it cost to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi?
43. Which oracles does Mikalson say that we can think “were in fact given by Apollo at Delphi,” that we can believe are “historical”?
44. What was the primary kind of question that the “real” Delphic Oracles dealt with?
45. Why were the athletic games at Delphi, Olympia, Nemea and Isthmia called stephanitic games?
46. Why did the people of Elis put the image of Zeus on their coins? In what part of the Peloponnesus is Elis located? (Figure IV.17 and Map IV.4).
47. What is the spatial relationship between the temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Altar of Zeus? What was the upper level made of? (Figures IV. 19 and IV. 20)
48. What was in the cella of the Zeus temple at Olympia? (Figure IV.22)
49. Why do we know so much about the altars, dedications, statues and deities worshipped at Olympia?
50. What does Zeus “Horkios” oversee in the Council Hall at Olympia?
51. What “two aspects of Zeus Olympios” does Mikalson note in the dedications at Olympia, and in the statue in the Zeus temple there? How do these relate to athletic games?
52. What relationship does the mythical hero Pelops have with the Olympic games? How is he remembered in the Altis at Olympia? (Figure IV.24)
53. What appears to be between the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Rhea at Olympia? (Figure IV. 24) What happens at this spot now every four years? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/10/olympic-flame-lighting-torch-relay-olympia-london_n_1505570.html
54. According to Pausanias, the first Olympic Games (776 BCE) consisted of a single event. What was it, and what was its subsequent reputation?
55. What can we learn from the statuette in Figure IV.25 about the body position of a runner at the Olympic starting line about to race? What does the inscription on this figure tell us about where it ended up?
56. What was the pancration, and how is it represented in a black-figure vase of the 6th century BCE? (Figure IV. 26)
57. What were the pre-requisites for those who wanted to compete in the Olympic games?
58. What kinds of prizes did Olympic victors get at Olympia… and at home?
59. What are epinician odes?
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