Text 5. Religions and sports festivals

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“Our city is an education to Greece”, boasted Pericles, the leader of Athens, in 430 B.C. This was Greece’s Golden Age, when Athens blossomed as a center of democratic government and achievements in the arts and sciences. Although Athens and the other Greek city-states eventually fell to foreign invaders, their accomplishments have been passed down through the ages.

Sports events were important in ancient Greece. Every four years, beginning in 776 B.C., the Greeks held an athletic competition called Olympics, which was open to all Greek men. At first this competition consisted of one event, a foot-race of about 200 yards. Later the Olympics were expanded to include longer races, wrestling, boxing, discus throwing, horse races, and chariot races. The modern-day Olympics are modeled after these Greek games.

The Greeks considered the Olympics so important that nothing, not even war, was allowed to interfere with them. However, the function of these competitions was not simply to entertain. The main purpose of the Olympics and other public events and festivals was to honor the gods.

The Olympic Games honored Zeus, the father of the Greek gods. The games were named after Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Greece. The Greeks believed that Zeus sat on a golden throne atop Mount Olympus and ruled all other gods and all of the Greeks. In fact, they thought of Zeus as master of the entire world.

All Greeks, no matter what city-state they lived in, worshiped Zeus and his family of gods. The Greeks thought these gods controlled both the world of nature and the human world.

The myths and legends of the Greeks celebrated their gods. These traditional stories explained the roles of the gods in creating the world and causing natural events.

The stories also told of the great power of their gods. For example, Zeus was portrayed as powerful, stern, and commanding. In Homer’s poem the Iliad, Zeus boasts about how he could control the world with a cord of gold dropped from the sky.

“Yet whenever I might strongly be minded to pull you, I could drag you up, earth and all and sea and all with you, then fetch the golden rope about the horn of Olympus and make it fast, so that all once more should dangle in mid air. So much stronger am I than the gods, and stronger than mortals.”

The gods of Greek myths formed a family, and each member had a specific role with particular duties and powers. Zeus, as head of the family, set standards of justice and made sure that humans and gods followed them. He also controlled the weather and punished wrongdoing with bolts of thunder and raging storms.

Poseidon, Zeus’s brother, was the god of the sea. Hera, Zeus’s wife, was the goddess of marriage. Zeus’s son Ares was the god of war. Another of his sons, Dionysus, was the god of wine. His son Apollo was the god of light, who drove the sun across the sky each day in his golden carriage. Apollo also was the god of health, herding, and prophecy.

The Greeks prayed to specific gods for things they wanted. For example, a sick person might pray to Apollo for a speedy recovery. The Greeks thanked the gods by making animal sacrifices when their prayers were granted. They also made sacrifices to the gods before competing in sports, going of to war, or setting sail on a long voyage.

The Greeks also built sacred places called sanctuaries to honor their gods. People from the entire Aegean world traveled to these sanctuaries to worship their many gods.

The sanctuaries were built in areas of great natural beauty. Each sacred site had its own unique traditions that had been established over hundreds of ears.

Olympia, where the Olympic games were held, was a sanctuary to Zeus. A winding river ran through the site, and a thickly wooded area made it a place of peace and serenity. Olympia was a perfect site for sports competition, because the land in the broad river valley was flat. On this level plain, the Greeks easily laid out large courses on which the foot races, horse races, and chariot races could be run during the Olympics. The Greeks believed that Zeus and the gods took special delight in watching great athletes display their skill and strength in open competition.

The Greeks honored Apollo at Delphi. Each city-state sent gifts to the sanctuary. Because the site was considered sacred, no thief would think of robbing it. Therefore, many people left their gold and silver in the shrines at Delphi for safekeeping. Located halfway up a mountain overlooking a lush river valley, Delphi was a most impressive site. The sanctuary was most famous for its oracle to the god Apollo. Like the ancient Chinese, the Greeks believed oracles were predictions. The Greeks believed gods and goddesses revealed hidden knowledge through these oracles. The Greeks also called the shrines where these messages were revealed oracles.

At these oracles, priests or priestesses interpreted the messages of the gods. The messages were often hard to understand.

The oracle at Delphi was considered the most powerful of the Greek oracles. People from all over the Aegean world came to Delphi seeking advice.

According to Greek myth, the island of Delos was Apollo’s birthplace. Like Delphi, the Delos sanctuary had an oracle to Apollo. Every five years the Greeks held a sports competition there to honor Apollo.

Eleusis, on the coast of mainland Greece near Athens, was the site of a sanctuary to Demeter, the goddess of grain. Athenians made pilgrimages each to Eleusis during the planting and harvest seasons. They also made sacrifices to Demeter and offered prayers for an abundant harvest. These religious rituals highlighted the importance of agriculture in ancient Greece.

The Greeks also honored their gods and goddesses by holding religious festivals. Many of these festivals, such as the Olympic games, centered on sports. Other ceremonies featured religious rituals and animal sacrifices.

One group of festivals has had a lasting influence on Western civilization. These were the drama festivals honoring Dionysus, the god of wine.