Carrie Dobbs on Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood’s
Chapter in
OXFORD READINGS IN GREEK RELIGION
2/28/02
Chapter One: What is
Polis Religion?
“The polis was the institutional authority that structured
the universe and the divine world in a religious system, articulated a pantheon
with certain particular configurations of divine personalities, and established
a system of cults, particular rituals and sanctuaries, and a sacred calender.”
“Greek religion is, above all, a way of articulating the world,
of structuring chaos and making it intelligible.”
I. The Polis: provided the framework in which Greek religion operated
A. Each polis was an independent religious system which formed
part of the complex ‘world-of-the-polis’ system
1. the polis interacted with other poleis and with the Panhellenic
religious dimension/ usually done in Amphictionies or Leagues
2. religious participation was only for the citizens of the community
which articulated the religion
3. if you visited the sacra of another polis you could
only participate as a xenos (foreigner)
* on some occasions a xenos could take part in cult if they had
the help of a citizen of that polis/ normally this would be the proxenos
of the city who would act as an intermediary
B. Polis “anchored, legitimized, and mediated” all religious
activity
Consultation of the Delphic oracle
1. Greeks came before barbarians, the Delphians came before all
other Greeks, after Delphians and before other Greeks came the other ethnic
groups and polis who were members of the Delphic Amphictiony Theoriai
(scared ambassadors)
2. sent by individual poleis to the Panhellenic sancutaries and
to other polelis, they conducted rituals in the Panhellenic sanctuaries
in the name of that polis
Gods and Cults
3. the gods worshiped by the different poleis were the same gods,
what differed was the precise articulation of the cult (its history, the
aspects of a deity each city chose to emphasize, etc.)
4. different needs gave rise to different cults/ the articulation
of religion through the poleis was a human construct, created by particular
historical circumstances and open to change
C. The polis, the ordered community, assumed the role played by
the Church in Christianity
1. Assumed the responsibility and authority to set a religious
system into place and mediate human relations with the divine world
2. Greek religion and “unknowability”
a. the Greeks believed that human knowledge about the divine and
about the right way of behaving towards it is limited
b. the only mechanism by which the polis could endeavor to ensure
that they were behaving properly towards the gods was through prophecy
c. the establishment of new cults is tied to this idea of unknowability,
they were never sure if they were neglecting a certain god or worshipping
correctly, gave way to the notion that there was always room for improvement
D. Religion was the polis’ central ideology
1. religion structured and gave meaning to all of the elements
that made up the identity of the polis, its past, physical landscape, and
the relationship between its constituent parts
* ritual activity reinforced the sense of group solidarity
2. heroic cults gave the religious systems of each polis much of
their individuality
3. religion was the aspect of polis ideology that citizens were
to respect the most, an act of disrespect towards religion was seen as a
sign of disloyalty to the polis and the politeia (constitution)
4. Greeks believed that it was the relationship of the polis with
its gods that guaranteed the polis’ existence/ the origin of a polis was
usually related to a form of “guarantee” by the gods (i.e. Athena’s
gift of the olive tree to the Athenians)
II. Polis Cults: in Greece all relationships and bonds, including
social and political, were defined and expressed through cult
* during the Classical period the polis had ultimate authority
in, and control of, all cults
* polis cults can be classified in broad categories on the basis
of their worshipping group
A. “Central polis cults”
1. usually located at, and pertains symbolically to, the geographical,
social, political, and symbolic center of the polis
* some of these cults were usually centered on the Agora
(Heroic cults were often located in the Agora)
* some were the cults of deities connected with, and presiding
over, the central polis institutions/ in Athens: Zeus Agoraios and
Artemis Boulaia
B. Cults of the genos
1. category of polis cult which separately defined the members
of each group who had exclusive right to one or more priesthoods specific
to the genos
* there were also various “private” cults based on personal
choice (often later became a part of polis religion)
III. Subdivision of the Polis
A. Tribes
1 the Kleisthenic tribes had their own tribal cults
2 the tribes, and other subdivisions, participated in the cults
symbolizing the unity of the polis because this reinforced that unity and
defined the subdivisions as parts of the “symbolically potent whole”
3 trittyes (subdivisions of the tribes) also played a role
in cult activity
B. Demes
1 in terms of cult, the new deme was the most important polis
subdivision in Classical Athens
2 the celebration of the central polis bond in the demes helped
further articulate the cohesion of the polis
C. Phratries
1 phratries everywhere appear to have had cults common
to all of the phratries of the polis
2 phratries also had cults that were distinctive and exclusive
to each phratry individually and helped to define it as a group
3 the phratries’ cult was dependent on, and derived it authority
from, the central polis religion
“The role of the polis in the articulation of Greek religion
was matched by the role of the religion in the articulation of the polis:
religion provided the framework and the symbolic focus of the polis. Religion
was the very center of the Greek polis.”
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