accounts of many of the principal deities, such being the nature of mythology. It
follows from this, that there is no common doctrine or set of beliefs associated with
any one text as is the case with the Bible or the Koran. And it is little wonder that
one of the earliest pre-Socratic Ionian philosophers, Xenophanes from the sixth
century, is reported as attacking Homer and Hesiod for telling lies about the
gods and for representing them in human form – he remarks that if horses had
a conception of the gods they would see them in the form of horses. Despite
philosophical scepticism and any lesser scepticism of ordinary mortals when faced
with the contradictions and absurdities of the mythological tradition, all the evidence
suggests that invocation and propitiation of the gods whether in the public life of the
city, at festivals, at games or in the home continued without abatement throughout
Greek history.
Sanctuaries
You have many temples and wooded groves, and yours are all the cliff-tops and
viewpoints on high mountains and the rivers that run to the sea. But you especially
delight in Delos, Apollo, where the Ionians gather in their long linen garments,
with their children and their shy wives. They delight you with boxing and dancing
and song, whenever they hold a contest with you in mind.
(Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 143–150)Delos is the birthplace of Apollo and his sister Artemis, but their cults were ubiquitous
throughout Greece. The gods were worshipped in an open space set aside for sacred
use for which the Greek word is temenos, anoun derived from the verb to cut. The
temenos as a sacred place, which might be marked by a wall, could become a place
of asylum. Within this space, the most important focus was the altar for animal
sacrifice, burnt offerings, or libations. A fragment of the Athenian calendar for
sacrifices for 403–399 details the number of animals required to be ‘unblemished’ for
particular deities at particular times, mostly comprising sheep but including oxen and
pigs. In Classical times altars might be marble constructions with elaborately carved
decoration. The eighth century saw the building of temples and sometimes of
adjacent dining rooms. Temples, at first wooden then later stone, were not primarily
places for public worship nor did they enclose the altar but were used as storehouses
for sacrificial implements and to house cult statues of the god. There are marble
fragments surviving that preserve the inventories of the treasurers of Athena
recording objects stored in the temples of the Athenian Acropolis. These include gold
and silver ritual vessels, items of furniture and musical instruments that must have
been used in sacrifices and festivals. Also listed are items of armour and six Persian
daggers inlaid with gold. These latter are likely to be spoils of war, now dedicated to
98 THE GREEKS