Joe Ratner. Athenian Religion: A History
Chapter 2: “Out of the Dark Age”
I. Earliest History
A. 13th C BCE Mycenaean evidence throughout Attica
1. Athens most important city
a) Building on acropolis
b) Walls
2. Other, smaller settlements also flourished
3. Dorian invasion
4. Mycenaean civilization disappears
5. Athens declined slowly
6. Gap in evidence in 11th-10th C
B. Resettlement starts around 850 BCE
C. Political unification of Attica (“synoecism of
Thesus”) between 950-700
D. Dark age political/social structure
1. local chiefs (basileis)
2. local chiefs with “paramount chief”
3. local chiefs with hereditary kingship
4. all emphasize local communities and leaders
E. some shared cult in Attica, but very decentralized
F. tribal (kinship) system
II. Religion prior to 8th C
A. Little evidence except funereal prior to 750
1. A few sites from 9th-10th C
B. Votives and sacrificial remains from about 700
1. Eleusis and acropolis possible temples
C. Two references in Homer
1. Athena and Erechtheus share house
2. Athena in Erechtheus’ palace
D. Ancestor-hero worship of Erechtheus
E. No evidence of unbroken cult from Mycenaean period
F. No evidence from early Dark Age
G. Much evidence from 8th C
1. Sanctuaries marked with walls and terraces
2. Temples built
3. Hero cults proliferate
4. Luxuries previously found in graves, now dedicated at shrines
5. New sanctuaries built on virgin soil
6. Many ancestral traditions considered in classical period to be “as
old as time” probably created in 8th C
III. “Eighth Century Renaissance”
A. Rise of the Polis
1. Transformed religious life
a) Collective identity from communal rites at new sanctuaries
b) First type of citizenship was “cultic citizenship”
2. When polis came about elusive
a) idea of political, cultural, geographical, and economic synthesis
modern idea
(1) different elements came about separately
b) no identifiable society from Mycenaean period to polis
c) ancients saw change from monarchy to oligarchy as slow process
(1) no specific point of change from king or disunion
(2) polis grew up around king
B. Athens center of population from Mycenaean period
1. Collection of villages in early Dark Age
2. Walled city in archaic period
a) Political polis earlier
b) May have had communal sacrifice, possibly presided over by king
c) Acropolis had been site of Mycenaean palace, but 400 years before
Dark Age
d) Greeks saw classical age religion as having come from the hearth
of the king
e) Basileus presided over communal rites
C. Public religion
1. 8th C time of rapid political and social change
a) possible population explosion
b) oligarchy formalized
c) possible popular assembly
d) rise of sanctuaries cultural and economic, as well as political
2. Genos hereditary association entrusted with priesthood
of cults
a) Old view: cults were of genos and they still ran after public
b) Newer view: priesthoods assigned to genos, cults always
open to all
3. Festivals in various places part of public religion of Athens (known
from later classical parallels)
a) Run by public officials
b) Celebrants came from throughout Attica
c) Semi-formal procession from city
d) Local rites may have been absorbed by city
e) Athens may have established religious outposts
(1) Three Artemis cults on coast (Artemis liked wild places)
(2) Eleusis is in best farmland
(3) Established in 9th-8th C to claim Attica
IV. Possible Religious Life circa 700
A. Archaic background
1. Three main magistracies
a) Archon (main Archon, later called “Eponymous’ (name-giver)
b) Polemarch (“war leader”)
c) Archon Basileus (“king archon”)
d) Religious and political authority separate
2. “common hearth” in Prytaneum symbolic center of city
a) successor to hearth of king
b) seat of archon, not basileus
c) prytaneis executive, not religious officers
3. “birth of polis” could be said to be the day the common
hearth, not of any king, consecrated
B. Religious life
1. “king” at center of public cult
a) either weak king or magistrate
b) presided at public sacrifices in Athens
c) led processions to sacred sites in Attica
d) probably tribal
e) people came from Attica for some rites
f) priests from specific gene
2. stone temples just beginning
a) possibly paid for by aristocrats
3. aristocrats represented Athens in international religious relations
a) Athens had interests in a number of other places
4. Public rites (in city, open to all people) were not central to religious
life of peasants
a) Rites by individuals, households, phratries, and possibly other local
associations
5. Gene may have had their own rites
Return to Main Page: CLST 4003H. Honors Colloquium
on Greek Religion. Spring, 2002.
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