Jon Mikalson. Ancient Greek Religion, Chapter 5: “Religion in the Greek Family and Village” pp. 124-147.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Illustration: Attic Red Figure Loutrophoros. Groom leads his bride who has erotes above her head. Right: Mother of the groom holds wedding torches, welcoming the couple to the groom’s home. Left: the bride’s nympheutria (attendant) adjusts the bride’s garment. [450-425 BCE. MFA Boston 03.802]
0. Who was Zeus Ktesios, and why did Greeks worship him? Where did this worship take place?
1. Who was Zeus Herkeios, and why did Greeks worship him? Where did this worship take place?
2. Who was Hestia, and why did Greeks worship her? Where did this worship take place?
3. How did Greeks honor their family dead at a tomb on a special day each year?
4. Whose grave marker is pictured on the far right in Figure V.1? What does the image on the tombstone represent?
5. What is a genos? What would members of a genos do once a year?
6. What surviving physical artifacts prove that Greek women invoked Artemis and Asclepius for help with childbearing?
7. What did Athenian women do at the Thesmophoria? What did Athenian men do at the Thesmophoria?
8. What roles did a woman have in the funeral of a family member?
9. What female participation in the funeral rites does the red-figure loutrophoros in Figure V.3 show (mid 5th century BCE)? What is a prothesis?
10. What is the woman in Figure V.4 doing (Athenian white ground lekythos, 475-450 BCE)? What physical act is she about to perform?
11. Why does Mikalson say that a daughter was “only a temporary member of her birth family”?
12. Briefly describe the foundation myth behind the Athenian Arrephoria ritual.
13. Why was it important for Athenian girls to “play the bear” at Brauron?
14. What was the general age difference between an Athenian bride and groom? What is a loutrophoros? [and see photograph above]
15. To which two gods did an Athenian bride make offerings before her marriage?
16. What are four elements in the Athenian red-figure cup by the Amymone Painter (post 460 BCE) that allow us to see this as a marriage scene? (Figure V.6)
17. Which came first: a boy’s entry into his phratry, or his entry into the ephebeia? Which one is more related to the family?
18. What essential elements of the Apatouria festival made it important for Athenian boys?
19. How did the ephebic oath put Athenian boys’ “civic responsibilities under divine sanction”?
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