Ancient Greek Religion and Philosophy

"Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen."
--Homer, The Iliad

Although the religion of the ancient Greeks is virtually extinct in its original form, it lives on in the cultures, imaginations, and even the religions of the modern western world. This section of ReligionFacts explores the beliefs, practices and history of religion in the world of Ancient Greece. Our articles focus primarily on Greek religious belief and ritual, but they include Greek philosophy as well. In the ancient world, "religion" and "philosophy" were not completely distinct entities, and the beliefs of the average Greek might have been influenced both by traditional beliefs about the gods and ideas derived from the teachings of the philsophers. In addition, the teachings of philosophers like Plato and Socrates deal with the subjects we often group under "religious" today - the meaning of life, the existence of an afterlife, the nature of the universe, and God or gods.

Basics: Greek Religion Overview, Glossary of Greek Religion, Timeline of Ancient Greece
Beliefs: The Universe, Fate, Gods, Mythological Beings, Heroes, Human Nature and Life , Death and Afterlife
Bookstore

Festivals: Anthesteria, Apaturia, Great Dionysia, Thargelia
Gods: The Olympians
Library: Hesiod's Works and Days , Hesiod's Theogony, Orphic Hymns (selected), Plato's Phaedo, Golden Verses of Pythagoras

People: Aesop, Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Hesiod, Homer, Julian, Pindar, Plato, Zeno
Sects and Schools: Epicureanism, Mithraism, Stoicism
Rituals and Practices: Mysteries, Oracles , Purification, Sacrifice, Temples

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