Ancient Greek Religion, Chapter 2: “Greek Gods, Heroes, and Polytheism” pp. 31-51.
Be prepared to answer all questions with the same last digit as the last digit of your U of Arkansas student ID number. [For SLO: Tuesday, January 20, 2015]
0. What is the basic difference between “gods” and “heroes”? What do they have in common, in terms of Greek religion?
1. What three things give a definition of a god?
2. In terms of Greek religion, what is meant by “epithet,” and what are three examples?
3. What is the difference between a cult that is “panhellenic,” and one that is not?
4. How did the Greeks account for the fact that they worshipped many different Poseidons and Athenas?
5. What connection did the gods of Greek literature have with the gods of Greek cult worship?
6. What do we mean when we say that Apollo finds worship only as an “ouranaic” god, and that Hermes has both “ouranic” and “chthonic” aspects?
7. What kind of tablets did people write that addressed “Hermes Chthonios”?
8. What difference (in general) is there between the worship of a chthonic and an ouranic deity?
9. In what way is Demeter considered a “chthonic” goddess?
10. What is a heroön, and what would we expect to find there?
11. Cimon found a tomb on the island of Scyros. What did he think that the tomb contained? What did it really contain, in all likelihood? And what does this have to do with hero worship?
12. How did Harmodius and Aristogiton become “heroes” worthy of worship at Athens?
13. Who were the “heroes” the Athenians worshipped at Marathon?
14. Why did the Athenians worship Theseus as a hero?
15. What is an eponymous hero? What is an example?
16. What does Mikalson mean by saying that some heroes “had a dark side”? What example does he give?
17. What two heroes “crossed the border from hero to god”? What does apotheosis mean?
18. Give an example of a “family” of gods that were worshipped together, including their names and the location of that combined cult.
19. Give an example of gods worshipped together based on their function, including their names and the location of that combined cult.
20. Give an example of the combined worship of a hero and a deity, including their names and the location of that combined cult.
21. Where were the cult centers of Pan and the Nymphs? Where did Greeks worship the Muses? Which god was most closely associated with the Muses?
22. Why were citizens of one city-state unable to participate in the cults of other city-states?
23. What function did the 139 demes play in the religious life of the citizens of Attica?
24. What can we learn about Athenians’ worship habits from the sacrificial calendar of the deme Erchia?
25. What was the purpose of Athenian worship of gods in the household?
26. What was the religious attitude of an Athenian of one deme towards the eponymous hero of another deme?
27. What was the most expensive sacrifice on the Erchian calendar for the month of Metageitnion? What dollar equivalent does Mikalson give to one Athenian drachma?
28. Each individual in a red-figure amphora scene (Fig. II.3) is characterized by at least two attributes. By what two attributes do we recognize Zeus, Heracles, and Nike, respectively?
29. How did the Codrus Painter visually distinguish the hero Theseus from his opponents in the Athenian red-figure cup (ca. 440-430 BCE; Figure II.1)? [i.e.: What iconography sets him apart in the scenes on the cup?]
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