myth

The Cult of Isis

thatcher@uoregon.edu

The cult of Isis has a large complex history spanning thousands of years continuing at least until the early 1st century and maybe after. Isis gained support due to the large trading network created by Alexander and the Roman Empire allowing for Egyptian merchants to spread their beliefs. Isis was a powerful deity and certainty had the resume to back it up. Interestingly though because the gods she is most commonly associated with are not very similar. It seems as if as Isis spread changing names throughout the ancient world her cults and beliefs we’re divided up into many different names like Demeter, Gaia, Hera, or any number. Leading up to the Common Era Isis cults claimed her to be a mother like goddess where she would be the “daughter of Kronos” and “mother of Horus” who is associated with Apollo (Isis Aretalogy). This shows how integratable, flexible, and malleable the Greek religion was and how many of these cultures had very similar religious beliefs. Because not only was Isis worshipped so was many other Asia Minor deities such as Hadad, Ba’al, and even Judaism had places of worship in some places.

Isis is interesting because the two examples of praise for Isis are a little different because one is for a specific reason and the other seems to be a more broad statement as if to say in front of an assembly. The hymn there is a straight forward to provide a sailor or merchant safe passage over waters. It is interesting though because in the praising not only is Isis associated with Greek deities but also Syrian, Lycian, and Assyrian ones. I think that aspect speaks most to the similarity and reaching influence of Greek and Roman identity. The aretalogy is a different story because it is integrated by Greek and Egyptian mythos but speaks to the resume of Isis. One thing that comes through is the powerful identity associated with her and her ever-reaching kingdom even being called the “mightiest” of gods in the hymn. Isis can influence many different things and she is normally given praise in the name of other deities it seems and being called “many named” in the hymn is reasoning to believe this. Isis can be in charge of justice, the moon, sun, underworld, the cosmos, and many more. I’m not sure what it means but it would seem that Isis’ influence must have been very powerful in cultic circles if they truly thought of her as mother of Apollo and things like that.

I can see how Isis was a powerful rival with Jesus just because both have much to offer but it is almost a polytheistic attempt of matching monotheism. Isis could provide all the things Jesus could theoretically but she represented a polytheistic worldview. Jesus really changed the religious system of the Asia Minor and Mediterranean into monotheism creating a negative view of polytheistic rituals. Isis provided a way for polytheism to still preform cultic rituals.

Gods and Heroes

oglesby@uoregon.edu

The greeks categorized the divine world by god, epithet and location. By this I mean each individual god had many sides to them which are described by their epithet. The example that Mikalson gives in his book on page 33 is that of Poseidon Soter of Sunium and Poseidon Hippios. The former would deal with matters of the sea while to latter is responsible for horses, “One would pray in vain to Poseidon Soter to save his horse or to Poseidon Hippios to save his life at sea.” (Mikalson 33). The epithet describes something about that particular god’s function and characteristics. The locale of a god is where that god holds influence over. It would be foolish for people in one city or area to pray to the god of a different place as that is not their patron deity.

Homer and Hesiod are given the credit for formalizing the basic features of gods and heroes. Herodotus in his Histories says, “For I believe that Hesiod and Homer, who were 400 years before my time, and no more than that, made for the Greeks the genealogies of the gods, giving them their appropriate titles, assigning them their honors and skills, and describing their appearance.” (Warrior 2.1)

The picture of the Gods that I get from Warrior’s book is that they have a distinctly human element to them. That is not to say that they aren’t supernatural or otherworldly, but rather in Hesiod and Homer they seem to have human concerns. In Hesiod, for example, Rhea has to plot with her parents so she can have her child (Warrior 2.6, 470). In Homer’s The Iliad the gods plot against each other and seemingly admit mistakes, “How naive and senseless we are to set our hearts against Zeus!” (Warrior 2.18, 105) The gods are definitely not man, but they have an element of humanity in their interactions with each other and with humans.

The relationship that these myths have with practiced greek religion is that they myths explain things about the world and explain why certain gods have power over certain places or things. Mikalson says on page 54 that the truth of the myth is not the important part, but rather the message that is contained in the myth. He quotes G.S. Kirk as saying that they are “on the one hand good stories, on the other hand bearers of important messages about life in general and life-within-society in particular.” (Mikalson 54)

The myth that I am explaining is that of Athena, Poseidon, and Athens. In the myth all the gods decide to go down to Earth and claim the cities that they would become the patron god of. Athena and Poseidon get into a race to see who can claim Athens the fastest. Ultimately the story ends with Cecrops, the Athenian king at the time, deciding that Athena was the victor. After the race Athena planted and olive tree and Poseidon hit the Acropolis with his trident. This myth seems to serve several purposes in Greek and Athenian religious practice and thought. First it provides the Athenian citizen with a physical connection to the divine. As Mikalson states on page 56, “The Athenian would have before him a most impressive and beautiful representation of the story he had learned from childhood of how Athena became the eponymous patron of his city.” Secondly I think that it grounds Athens as being a city of great importance. Athens was a powerful and wealthy city but this story seems to show that it also was desirable to the gods themselves. The powerful Athena and Poseidon were involved enough with wanting the city as their own that they would race to claim it. In addition to this the judge of a race between immortals was just a man, the king of the city. The ancient Athenian king in that moment held some sort of power over two of the gods. 

Diversity in Divinity: Gods and Heroes

jeromej

                As has been made clear already in the few days of this class, the Greco-Roman concept of the divine world is fluid and complex.  However, Mikalson’s chapter on the categorization of the divine world was very enlightening for understanding how these countless deities could co-exist in the same general culture.  The first two major categories that the Greeks used to categorize the divine were Gods and Heroes.  Gods are generally defined as beings who were born immortal and remain as such. Heroes, on the other hand, are defined as people who lived on the earth as a human and did extraordinarily great or awful deeds. Heroes all die, but alters would be erected in their remembrance because some cultic followers believed the hero still influenced the community in some way.  Gods and heroes are further categorized by whether they are Ouranic (“of the sky”) or Chthonic (“of the earth”). Such a classification determined whether rituals took place during the day or night, and what type of sacrifice would be made.

                Mikalson further notes three categories used to identify each God: the name, the epithet, and the locale.  This three level system is what allows for such a great diversity to exist in the number of Greek deities. Gods with the same name and epithet but a different locale would have dissimilar myths surrounding their origins. The epithet defined the function that the god served.  Poseidon Soter and Poseidon Hippios are both Poseidon, yet they are both very different deities; one tends to sailors at sea, and the other horses on land. The use of epithets demonstrates how the Greeks primarily identified the Gods based on their function. This aspect is seen most clearly in Warrior’s selection from Hesiod’s Theogony.  As each god is born, he or she is described based on the activity or function they excel at.  Artemis is called an archeress, Hephaestus is excellent in the arts, and Athena is known for her battle expertise (Warrior 21).

                 In contrast to gods, whose influence and mythology could spread over large areas, heroes are generally confined to a specific locale. This location was typically based off of their real or imagined tomb, and thus confined the heroes influence to a single state or neighborhood. A good example of this practice is seen in the remarks of the geographer Pausanias.  He observes how the people of Marathon worship the dead from battle at their tombs, and that these dead have come to be known as heroes (Warrior 7).

While the Greek system of categorizing Gods and heroes allowed for an extremely wide diversity of myths and beliefs, there were some generally established basic features.  According to fifth century historian Herodotus, Hesiod and Homer were responsible for creating a “divine genealogy.” They gave the gods their names, epithets, offices, skills, and appearances and solidified it in their literature. They likely received much of their ideas from long standing oral traditions. Mikalson observes that these basic features developed in literature along very different lines from the local cult myths (Mikalson 35).

                Mikalson’s discussion on the myth of Dionysus, Icarus, and Erigone explains why certain sanctuaries and cultic practices were founded in ancient Greece.  The Athenians celebrated a “swinging” ritual known as the Aiora during a Dionysian festival each year, which likely originates from the myth of Erigone hanging herself.  The killing and burial of Icarus in the myth also explain the origins of his cult as the eponymous hero of the deme Icarion (Mikalson 58).

The myth of Dionysus, Icarus, and

Relationships with the gods and cult practices

lgc@uoregon.edu

In his hypothetical construction of a temple at Sunium, Mikalson attempts to address the various dimensions of Greek religious life and how they combine and converge at temple sites. In his step-by-step approach, Mikalson successfully explains which components of religious sites were most important, and those that followed once a cult had become popular enough to sustain a large temple. In his introductory chapter James Rives talks at length about the four dimensions of religious worship: cult, art, myth, and philosophy. In many ways cult, art, and myth converge during the production of a religious worship site like the one Mikalson constructed in his chapter. In the Greek religious landscape, the most important step to becoming a pious individual was to worship in the correct fashion, hence the importance of cult. This same reverence for cult drove the Greeks to place their worship sites in locations that were suitable for each individual god. Mikalson points out, for example, that mountaintops were often sacred for Zeus and the Site of Sunium was fitting for the god of the sea.  After choosing a proper location, nearly every aspect of the temples construction had a cult purpose, most notably the altar on which offerings would be made. The altar was the crucial aspect of cult, as the practice of sacrificial offerings was a fundamental part of their religious lives and a crucial aspect of remaining in good favor with the god. While myths of the deeds of gods and heroes likely served to reinforce the cult practices, they were not what modern Westerners would classify as a sacred religious text or tradition. Myths were often oral traditions that were used as symbolic representations of philosophical truths, according to Rives.  As it pertains to the temple at Sunium, there would have likely been tales of men lost at sea or killed in naval battles as a result of not providing the proper offering to Poseidon. So while myths might not have served a central role in religious life, it probably reinforced the central ideas and practices of cult. Besides just performing an offering before embarking on the sea, many worshippers would have brought dedications to the temple at Sunium in thanks to the god for fulfilling their requests. These dedications were often works of art such as small statuette or sculpted or painted plaques that would decorate the temple. In many ways, these works of art would be physical and tangible evidence that Poseidon had in fact helped dozens of sea merchants or sailors.

As I previously stated, the presence of myths was far more important to literature and art than it was cult. As Rives states, “…myth remained a fluid tradition, reworked and adapted to new contexts by successive generations…”
Cult worship was clearly the more important aspect of Greek religious life and was merely reinforced by myth and literature.

What I found most interesting about the overall “religiosity” of the Greeks was that they seemed to rely on the gods to help them with things that were out of their control. For example, a sailor would make an offering to Poseidon before setting sail because once they were on the water they were at the mercy of the elements. Greeks made offerings to Zeus because they could not control the climate and weather. So while they were ritualistic when they needed to be, more often than not they were able to complete tasks without invoking the gods.