greek gods

The ancient Greeks worshipped an extraordinary number of gods over an extraordinarily long time. First there was Uranus and Gaea, then Cronus and Rhea and finally the fifteen Olympian gods who resided on Mount Olympus (headed by Zeus) and a pantheon of sea gods and minor divinities.

Zeus, the greatest of the Olympian gods, presided over the universe, ruling heaven and earth and was always depicted with an eagle. He personified the laws of nature, the laws of state and the father of gods and men. Represented as a man of noble and imposing being, he has a rich flowing beard, a thick mass of flowing hair and a large finely carved nose. In other words, similar to how we might represent the Abrahamic God.

The Greek gods resembled mortals in appearance, but far surpassed them in beauty, grandeur, strength and especially stature -- height being considered most important for both men and women. They also resembled mortals in their feelings, passions and habits. They intermarried, had children, ate and slept and were expressed revenge, deceit, and jealousy. They also united with mortals and the offspring of these unions were called heroes or demi-gods.

As expected, the clothing, weapons, armor, and chariots of the gods resembled those of the mortals who worshipped them.

However, their blood was different to that of mere mortals in that it never became diseased, and, when shed, it had the power to produce new life. Also, the gods were immortal -- they never died -- but they were susceptible to wounding and suffering.

A special trait of the gods was their ability to transport themselves in time and space, to render themselves invisible and assume the forms of men or animals. They could also transform mortals into whatever they liked either as a punishment for their misdeeds -- for daring to neglect worship or rites -- or as a means of protecting the individual from impending danger.

As with all ancient cultures and tribes, gods were created in order to explain the awful convulsions of nature -- the storms, the floods, the droughts, the earthquakes, etc -- but the Greeks surpassed all in the magnificent temples they erected to honor their gods, and the great solemnity they showed in the worship of them, as befitting the great wealth that their city states had amassed by the 8th century BC (when they emerged from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization about 1100 BC).

With the progress of their civilization, the Greek temples were built and adorned magnificently. So massively were they constructed that some of these temples still exist today. The city of Athens, especially, contains numerous remains of these ancient buildings. On the Acropolis still stands the temple of Athene-Polias, and that of Theseus (which is the most entire ancient edifice in the world). The island of Delos, also, has well-preserved ruins of the temples of Apollo and Artemis.

The most ancient Greek temples served a double purpose. They were not only temples of worship but monuments to honor the dead. For instance, the Acropolis at Athens received the ashes of Cecrops, founder of the city.

Until the time of Cecrops, the Greeks worshipped their gods without any statuary of them. The first attempts at sculpture were rude, but later sculptors showed genius in producing the highest ideals of their gods. They stood on pedestals in the center of the temple, surrounded by images of other gods, in the same way that later emperors would display statuary of themselves and their family.

Temples were frequently dedicated to more than one god and were always built according to the particular traits of their gods. Temples to Zeus, Ares, and Heracles built in the Doric style of architecture; the Ionic style was favored for Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus; and the Corinthian style was favored for Hestia.

On the porch of every temple was a vessel of stone or brass containing holy water which was sprinkled on those entering, and most temples had a grove of trees planted around them in order to inspire worshippers with reverence. Every sacrifice to the gods was accompanied by salt and a libation -- usually of wine, but of blood when the infernal gods were being worshipped.

It is interesting that although holy water and libations of wine (or the blood of Christ) remains popular in modern religions, the Biblical injunction - 'Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God' - was given in order to firmly separate the true believers from the pagans.

A different order of priests attended to the different gods, and worshippers attended the different temples according to their needs -- to show gratitude for wealth, to beseach for success in an undertaking, or to ask for advice from an oracle -- in much the same way people do today.

The most famous oracle was at the temple of Apollo at Delphi and it was held in such high repute that people from far and wide came to visit and hear what its priestess, Pythia, had to say whilst in a trance from sulphurous vapours.

As with other ancient cultures, spring and autumn -- sowing seeds and harvesting --were important seasons for celebration and worship. In ancient Greece, the festival of Dionysia held in March in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine, lasted several days and attracted strangers from all parts of the world to Athens, particularly, where the city was gaily decorated, wine flowed freely and public shows, games and sports took place. The Lesser Dionysia festivals were celebrated in rural districts in the month of November, and were also characterized by drinking, feasting, and joviality of all kinds (similar to Oktoberfest in Munich).

In personifying all of the diverse powers of nature, the ancient Greeks were imaginative and poetical. They beheld a god in every tree, every stream and every sunbeam and the whole universe lived and breathed by divine grace.

Because of the Greek heroic tradition, it is highly likely that their gods were originally human beings whose lives had been so distinguished that after death they were turned into gods by the people among whom they lived (similar to the way the Christians made Jesus the son of God and canonise their saints).

Before writing came into being, all cultures had oral traditions -- stories and songs -- that were passed down through the generations, embellished and changed according to the times -- and while it is impossible to separate fact from the sort of fiction that accompany oral traditions, the very existence of demi-gods in Greek mythology -- human beings given the status of son or daughter of a god by virtue of their extraordinary gifts -- seems to bear out the belief that the original Greek gods were extraordinarly gifted human beings, too.

tree worship in pagan Europe

The Minoan culture was an ancient culture that predated the ancient Greek civilization and survived on the island of Crete for almost 2000 years until about 1450 BC. Minoan women danced around a sacred tree as a part of their worship and a world tree seems to have been part of their religion, too.

There are many examples of potted trees in Minoan Art, and these were used in tree shaking initiation ceremonies where initiates were required to gnaw on the tree with their hands behind their backs.

In ancient Greece, there were many sacred groves, including Plane tree groves at Olympia and Lerna,Ash trees groves in Ionia and a sacred grove at Lycosura which featured an olive-tree and an evergreen oak growing from the same root.

The oak tree was sacred to Pan and Zeus (the rustling of its leaves was heard as his voice).The myrtle-tree was sacred to Aphrodite and the olive tree was sacred to the goddess Athena.

In Greek mythology, women and men are frequently transformed into trees -- for instance, Atys became a Pine tree, Smilax a Yew tree and Daphne a Laurel tree, sacred to Apollo -- and the spirit of trees is typically personified in female form. The Alseids were grove nymphs, the Dryads were forest nymphs guarding the trees, and the Hamadryads were nymphs forming anintegral part of the trees themselves.

In Ancient Rome, a sacred Fig tree associated with Romulus grew near the Forum, and a sacred Cornel tree grew of the slope of the Palatine Hill.

Pillars similar to those built by Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India (268 - 232 BC) representing the Cosmic Tree were erected on hilltops by some German tribes. Made of tree trunks, not stone, these pillars (called Irmensul) represented the 'tree of the universe'.

A particularly venerated Irmensul in the Westphalia area was chopped down in 772 AD by Charlemagne in accordance with forced Christian conversions and,to remove the sacred powers or energies of pagan tree cult sites, a church was often built on the same site. The most famous church on these 'converted sites' is the medieval Gothic cathedral of Chartres.

The religious faith of the ancient Celtic inhabitants of Gaul and the British Isles was Druidism and it flourished until Christianity wiped it out. The Druids believed in the immortality of the soul, passing upon death into the body of a new-born child, and they believed themselves to be descended from a Supreme Being.

Learned in astrology, magic, and the magic powers of plants and animals, the Celts believed trees to be the source of sacred wisdom. The Yew tree was a symbol of immortality, the Hazel tree was associated with wisdom, and the Druids venerated the Oak tree (particularly if it had mistletoe growing on it, believing it meant the tree had been struck by lightning and was the tree of life). All Druid rituals were performed in oak forests because they believed that spirits lived within the interior of the oak tree.

Certain names of Celtic Gaul tribes reflect the veneration of trees, for instance the Euburones (the Yew tribe), and the Lemovices (the people of the Elm).

The Christmas tree is an interesting phenomenon because the idea came from Martin Luther, b. 1483, the leader of the Reformation in Germany. He taught that the fir tree is a symbol of the promise of Christ, decorated it with fruit representing the tree of life and,although not intentional, revived a Pagan reverence for trees!

At the same time, the Puritans in England and Wales were tearing down hundreds of village maypoles and banning the practice of maypole dancing with its sinister associations with tree worship. Despite their attempts to remove the maypoles, several prevailed and the tallest, said to measure 30 metres, still stands at Barwick in Elmet, Yorkshire and maypole dancing resumed with the restoration of Charles II in 1660.

The Celts divided their year by four seasons and all celebrated with great festivals. Samhain, signifying the arrival of winter and the New Year was first, and it was celebrated on 1st November. Imbolc was next, on 1st February, followed by Beltane on 1st May and Lugnasdh on 1st August.

Some people believe that May Day celebrations are associated with Beltane and the tree worship of the Druids -- and possibly are associated with the spring festivals of ancient Egypt and India. Others believe May Day, as it is celebrated today, owes more to an ancient Roman festivity honoring Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.

As the largest plant, rooted in the earth and reaching skyward, trees were the earliest focus of religious life for many peoples around the world and it should not surprise anyone that so many rites are similar.