worship them. For this reason, it could be dangerous to oppose the introduction of a new cult, but it was
equally dangerous to slight a well-established divinity. The safest thing, therefore, was to be inclusive in
one’s worship of the gods, while not losing sight of the fact that some gods require, and deserve, a higher
level of worship than others.

Worship could take a great variety of forms, again subject to the constant development of Greek ritual
practice over the centuries. Those forms included prayer, the singing of hymns in honor of the gods,
processions, the pouring of libations, and the ritual slaughter of animals as a form of sacrifice. The
various forms of worship took place in a variety of contexts and a variety of locations. Thus, for example,
animal sacrifice could be carried out by an individual as a thank offering for, say, the safe completion of a
journey or prospectively by an army, in hopes of securing divine favor in an impending battle. Or a
sacrifice could be undertaken by an entire community in response to a specific directive from a seer or an
oracle in order, say, to put an end to a drought or a plague. Or the sacrifice could be a required feature of
a regularly recurring festival, like the annual Dionysia or Panathenaea in Athens. These, however, were
only two of the many festivals to be found throughout the year in Athens. And, again, Athens was only one
of very many Greek poleis, each with its own schedule of annual, biennial, or quadrennial festivals. Some
of these festivals were joyful, some solemn, some exclusively for men, some exclusively for women,
some for boys, some for girls. Thus, which god one worshipped at a particular time, and what form that
worship took, depended upon such factors as one’s age, status, and gender and which polis one lived in.
Indeed, one of the important functions of Greek religious practice was to allow the individual, through his
or her participation in various rituals, to define and come to terms with his or her place in the community.
Thus, while the buildings on the Athenian acropolis appear to represent the religious expression of the
Athenian community, they represent only one aspect – granted an impressive and enduring aspect – of that
expression at only one time in Athens’ history, and they can convey little, if anything, of what it meant to
any given Athenian (or non-Athenian) who stood upon the acropolis and took part in individual or
communal worship there.

Zetemata: Questions for Discussion

Why is  the science of  medicine    only    an  imperfect   model   for the practice    of  the historian?

Why is  it  that    so  many    ancient (and    modern) historians  concern themselves  with    wars?

How can Thucydides  pretend to  be  an  objective   observer    of  the war between Athens  and Sparta  when

he  was himself an  Athenian    who participated    in  the war?

What    does    it  tell    us  about   the character   of  Athenian    democracy   that    the Athenians   felt    that    all citizens

were    equally qualified   to  serve   in  public  office, but not as  general?

What    justification   can there   be  for the retention   of  sculptures  from    the Parthenon   in  the British

Museum  in  London  and the Louvre  in  Paris?

Recommended for Further Reading

Beard, M. The Parthenon (London 2002): an extraordinary and compulsively readable account, in the
series “Wonders of the World,” of the varied ways the Parthenon has been used, abused, and viewed,
from the time of Pericles to that of Shaquille O’Neal.

Connelly, J. B. The Parthenon Enigma (New York 2014): a new, well-argued, and controversial