The Importance of Greek Mythology as Religion

Do you think that the Greeks took their religion - what we call "Greek Mythology" today - seriously, or do you think that they considered it to be more of a cute "novelty" or a reality for social cohesion? While someone could easily point to the vast sums spend on temples dedicated to various gods as support for the latter, we see in one of Plato's works (I believe it is in Plato's Phaedo) how easily Socrates dissects the notion of Greek deities. Surely, for a people as civilizationally-advanced as the Greeks, questions about the truth of their religion must have been raised at some points in time. So what do you think?

You raise an excellent point.  There were actually two religions in Ancient Greece.  There was the religion of the people (most associated with the mythology we have come to cherish) and the religion of the philosophers which flirted with our modern notions of monotheism.  The Greeks viewed their religion as a civic institution more than an actual "religion."  The festivals and the great animal sacrifices were held to distribute meat to the people and offer men the chance to network among themselves.  The rites and rituals observed by the ancient Greeks is known today by historians as civic religion.  Ken Dowden's book on the Uses of Greek Religion goes into much detail explaining the nature and structure of the Greek civic religious phenomenon.  You should check it out.

Uh, this is weird.  Phid you started this thread, but my post got placed ahead of yours.  Why for?You must have changed the settings to put the newest post first. Duh....... 🙄

Uh strike that.  I changed my own settings awhile back and forgot.  Duh........ 🙄

Dr. Dowden emphasized the need for epynomous names to sacred sites.  By epynomous I mean the place-names being derived from legends and heroes.  It's like in the Bible where Jacob makes an altar where he had his dream of the ladder and called that place Peniel “Face of God.”  The ancient world valued geographic continuity with folklore, and once a geography is set, the folklore becomes mythologized into sacredness.  Once a place becomes sacred, it is incorporated into the civic religion.  Examples of this is Pylos, Delphi, and the Areopagus mentioned in Acts.  Basically my understanding of Greek Mythology is that its stories began as legends, then places were ascribed to where these legends took place, and then pilgrimages to those sacred places began leading to a full fledged incorporation into the Pantheon.

Pretty much everything they did, with all the festivals and the Olympic Games, centered on religion.  So I say Yes the Greeks took religion very seriously. I think much of the earlier Greek religion was influenced by other people's religions and the Greeks morphed it into their own by adding different gods and even different sexes of the gods.  Mother Earth or Gaia (sp) seemed quite prominent in early Greek religion until Zeus and the other 11 major gods were developed.This is an interesting topic.  I might be doing my paper on the Oracle at Delphi (where I'll have to follow Apollo's "geneology" for one thing) or on the religious significance of the Olympics.  Would really like to do one on the Olympics (integrating sports and religion...how cool is that!)  but the sources may not be as user-friendly as the Delphi topic.  Plus I think I'll learn more about Greek history, laws, culture, etc. if I do choose Delphi.Sorry to be reviving old topics, but this is just too cool.  I feel like an excited little kid learning all this stuff. (I'm also pleasantly surprised at how much one can do with sports history...it goes way further back than Bobby Orr  ;D )

Thanks, Don!  I have to go to the library this weekend, so let me check if they have it there first or if my school or Questia has it.  The more I'm thinking about it now, the more I might do the Olympics. I'm up for the challenge.  8)