defenders, and burned the Druids’ sacred oak groves in an
eff ort to end their power and infl uence.GREECE
BY BRADLEY SKEEN
Pausanius, a Greek of the second century c.e., wrote a tourist
guide to his homeland. A modern book of this kind might
concentrate on art galleries and battlefi elds, but Pausanius’s
main interest was in religious practices and religious places.
For the Greeks the sacred was the most important part of life
and found its expression in the hearts of cities, in villages, in
the wild places of the countryside, and beside the hearth of
every Greek home.
Th e earliest Greeks, the Minoan civilization of Crete
(2000–1400 b.c.e.), carried out religious rituals in rural places
whose nature seemed connected to the divine. Mountaintops
were the closest places to the gods of the sky, while caves
seemed connected to the deities of the dead who lived under
the earth. Other gods were worshipped within sacred enclo-
sures set off around large trees.
Household shrines also existed in Minoan times and
continued throughout Greek history. Each house had its own
altar dedicated to the family’s ancestors and to whatever gods
protected the home according to family tradition. Frequently,
such shrines had small statues of divine fi gures. A ceramic
tube usually hung on the wall above the shrine; the tube con-
tained a live snake, the agathos daimon (“good spirit”) that
represented the powers watching over the family.
Greece experienced a cultural collapse or dark age (1100–
800 b.c.e.) during which many religious traditions were lost.
When Greek cities were established or reestablished in the
Archaic Age (aft er 600 b.c.e.), the sacred had to be brought
into them (though many rural shrines had kept their sacred
character and maintained their rituals even through the time
of collapse). Th e idea of the temple was imported from the
older civilization of the Near East. Because of the central im-
portance of religion to the creation and existence of cities,
the temples were built in the very hearts of the cities—either
on the agora (business district) or the acropolis (fortress), the
places that in modern society would be reserved for govern-
ment or commercial buildings as the most important public
structures.
When a temple was built, its sacred precinct was cut off
from ordinary space, usually by a wall, and purifi ed through
ritual. Th e space was further sanctifi ed by a foundation de-
posit of holy objects buried under the fl oor of the new temple.
A sacred zone such as this was created so that sacrifi ces could
be performed within it. Th is ritual was performed at an altar
that stood in the open air and used the facade of the temple
as a backdrop. Th e interior of the temple usually housed a
statue of the god but was rarely entered, since the rituals were
conducted outside.
When the temple of Athena Pronoia (Athena of Fore-
thought) was begun at Delphi in the eighth century b.c.e., thefoundation deposit included not only the bones of sacrifi ced
animals but also a cache of Mycenaean religious statuettes
(dating to about 1600–1000 b.c.e.) that had been hoarded and
preserved for centuries, ever since the collapse of Mycenaean
civilization. In this way the sacredness of the past was used
to create a new sacred institution, which was diff erent from
what had gone before yet could not be separated from tradi-
tion. Th is is emblematic of what happened all over Greece in
the Archaic Age as Greek civilization renewed itself.
A Greek god was always the god of a particular place.
Athena, for example, was not simply one goddess but had a
diff erent aspect in each cult place. In Athens alone there were
temples of Athena Parthenos (Virgin Athena), Athena Nike
(Victorious Athena), and Athena Polias (Civic Athena)—to
na me on ly t he most i mpor t a nt— each w it h it s ow n for m of wor-
ship, sacred calendar of festivals and sacrifi ces, and myths.
Th e Greeks recognized themselves as a people bound to-
gether by common culture and language, and especially by
common religion, above the level of the city. When the city-
states were established in the Archaic Period, national religious
institutions also came into existence, what modern scholars
call “Panhellenic” shrines. Th ese sacred sites were available
to all Greeks (pan meaning “all” and Hellenes being what the
Greeks called themselves) and helped form a Greek identity.
Th e most important such shrine was Delphi, where a
priestess known as the Pythia gave oracles from the god
Apollo. In legend Delphi had originally housed a temple of
the earth goddess Gaia, but Apollo had slain the dragon (py-
thon) that guarded it and took the temple for himself. A stone
stood near the temple of Apollo, as raised stones did in many
Greek sanctuaries. Th is one was called the omphalos (“na-
vel”) of the earth because Zeus had released two eagles from
the edges of the world at the same time, and this was the spot
where they met: the exact center not only of the earth but of
the universe. Each Greek city maintained its own treasury at
Delphi, which housed the lavish gift s of artworks or precious
materials that the city or its citizens might dedicate in thanks
to Pythian Apollo.
Greeks had used athletic contests as a form of worship-
ping the gods since Minoan times. Th e most famous games
were held at another Panhellenic shrine, the temple of Zeus
at Olympia (the same Olympic Games that were revived in
1896 c.e. and continue today). Th ese games (beginning in
776 b.c.e., according to tradition) were held once every four
years in alternation with others held at Delphi, Nemea, and
Corinth. Th e contest s i ncluded a r t ist ic a s wel l a s at h let ic com-
petitions. Although no cash or prizes other than honor were
given, the contestants were not amateurs. Winners usually
received valuable rewards from their home cities, and many
other contests existed that did award cash prizes, so there was
a large corps of professional athletes and performers, some
wealthy from this kind of work. Th e temple at Olympia used
a very ancient kind of altar, a simple pile of the ashes of the
sacrifi ced animals that was allowed to build up into a vast
mound year aft er year through the centuries.904 sacred sites: Greece0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i904 904 10/10/07 2:30:23 PM