The Greek Culture
Early Greek is the most interesting culture in the world. The culture has vitally important contributions to philosophy, astronomy, and medicine, among other fields. Besides, this culture is very influential as it is the only culture that influenced the Roman Empire. It also had an influence on civilization and other modern cultures in the contemporary world. Also, ancient Greek is the only culture with a significant number of cultural phenomena. In this paper, I have chosen festivals as my cultural phenomenon. The essay will discuss how the selected phenomenon suggests about polytheism in the Greek culture.
In ancient Greek culture, numerous festivals were held in the different staging of every year. The Athenian festivals were held in honour of several important things, among them being their Polytheism gods and goddesses. Additionally, festivals were also held based around family, sacrifice, and citizenship. The following paragraphs explain how the Athenian festivals suggested about Delos, Hermes, Demeter, Perses, and Apollo.
In the Greek culture, festivals were held in honour of Delos and were particularly known as Delia. Up to date, the festivals are still held every fifth year in Delos, Greece to remember Asteria, who was the Titan goddess of the falling stars and dark divinations. During the festivals, there are sacred vessels called theoris that are typically sent to Delos from Athens. Delians say that Theseus used to send them after his return from Crete. However, much details about the goddess celebrated on this particular festival are normally not given during the event; rather, other things like games are incorporate.
The second term is “Hermes.” The ancient Greek festivals that were conducted based on this term are called the Hermaea. The festivals were held annually in honour of Hermes, an ancient Greek god of trade, fertility, farming, and wealth. The Hermaea was notably held at the foot of Mt Cyllene, Arcadia since they believed that Hermes was the herald and messenger of the mountain. Besides, the festival honoured the god as sports patron and gymnastic as he was the only Olympian god ever existed.
My third term is Demeter, the name given the goddess of the harvest. She also presided over grains and fertility of the land. The festival held in honour of this god was called the Thesmophoria, which was held annually in all the Greek cities in honour of Demeter and her daughter. The Thesmophoria was the most popular festivals in the Greek culture as it was used to express the cult of the goddess. It is usually celebrated the third of the year since this is the time when Demeter abstained from her role of being the goddess of the harvest. She was mourning her daughter’s death, which caused harsh summer of Greece that led to a drought.
The fourth term is “Perse,” which represents Persephone, a Greek goddess of vegetation. Persephone was Demeter’s daughter. The festival held in her honour is known as the Skirophoria festivals or the Skira. The Skirophoria is closely related to the Thesmophoria, which in the ancient calendar of Athens, they were celebrated on May and June respectively.
The fifth term is “Apollo,” which was the name of a Greek god and son of Zeus. He was also the god of war. The festival was celebrated in his honour is known as the Boedromia, held in Athens on 7th of Boedromia. Additionally, the festival had a military connotation, as the god provided assistance to the Athenians during wars.