Approaching the Gods: Religion in the
‘‘Monocentric’’ CityWhen the apostle Paul visited Athens in the first century AD, he encountered a city
that was, from his Christian point of view, ‘‘overrun with idols’’ (Acts 17:16). The
Athenians were known in antiquity for their exceptionally large pantheon. The reason
for this was, in large part, the extraordinary size of the city in ancient Greek terms.
Most poleis had an average territorial size of around 70 square miles. Corinth was
large at about 250 square miles, yet the size of Athens was around 1,000 square miles.
It was a huge city with a pantheon to match.
The main religious beings of this pantheon may be divided into several distinct
though interrelating categories. The major Olympian gods played important roles,
each in specific local manifestations. This section will survey a few prominent
examples to provide a flavor of the nature of the system while introducing some of
the figures we will explore in more detail below.
The chief deity was Athena, whose olive-wood statue on the Acropolis was the
holiest object in Athens. It was thought that she had given her name to the city, and
she was noted for her willingness to intercede on her people’s behalf. The cult of
Athena Polias (‘‘of the city’’) was the major civic cult, although she was known by a
range of other epithets including Promachos (‘‘champion’’), Nike (‘‘victory’’),
Ergane (‘‘worker’’), Hygieia (‘‘good health’’), and Boulaia (‘‘of the Council’’).
Another multifaceted goddess was Aphrodite, who was represented in her
Olympian guise of goddess of love, but in a range of other ways too. As Pandemos
(‘‘of all the people’’) for example, her role was to unite groups of people, including
prostitutes and their clients, husbands and wives, and even the whole city. Other
prominent deities included Zeus, Poseidon, Hephaestus, Demeter, and Dionysus,
but perhaps the most widely represented god was Hermes, whose distinctive statues,
the herms, were situated outside temples and private houses. These were stone pillars
consisting of a head of the god, and, at groin level, a phallus. They were such a familiar
part of the city that Thucydides described them as a ‘‘national institution’’ (6.27.1).
Another class of religious beings was personified abstractions – figures like Themis
(‘‘Law’’), Peitho (‘‘Persuasion’’), and Eirene (‘‘Peace’’) – who have an intriguing
status as, at once, personal gods and abstract qualities (cf. Chapter 4). Heroes and
heroines were widely worshiped too, ranging from famous figures such as Heracles
and Theseus to the less well known (to us), yet crucially important Erichthonius and
Pandrosus, whom we shall investigate shortly.
To compound matters, the pantheon was far from a rigid system. We hear of the
introduction of numerous ‘‘new gods,’’ both from other parts of Greece, and from
the non-Greek world. Some imported cults, such as that of the Egyptian Isis,
remained privately organized, drawing their worshipers from the city’s non-citizen
population, whereas others were incorporated into state cult, as happened in the case
of the Arcadian mountain god Pan in the early fifth century BC. Although more
naturally associated with wild places than urban cult, he received a sanctuary beneath
the Acropolis and a state-financed festival after appearing to the runner Pheidippides
before the battle of Marathon.
222 Susan Deacy