Characteristics Of Greek Religion

Greek society and religion is believed to have started developing around 2000 B.C.E.. By 700 B.C.E., Hellenism was fully fleshed out, complete with the well-known works of Homer and Hesiod. Hellenism is thought to have developed from the primal religions of the people of Crete, an island in the Aegean Sea. This is where the area 's first civilization arose in about 3000 B.C.E.. Around 300 B.C.E., Hellenism began being affected by neighboring countries. Despite those influences, the essential parts of the religion, gods, and legends remained the same. One interesting characteristic about Greek religion and mythology is that no particular god was identified as evil. Arguably, the Titan race was often personified as evil, particularly Cronus.

The difficulties do not arise, however, from the fact that there is only one god, but instead from the description of God himself. In the Book of Psalm it is said “Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” (Psalm 29:1-2). This shows that Christians did not view God to be evil in the slightest; they viewed him to be exactly the opposite: pure good. Because they viewed him as such a holy and pure being, evil can only be defined by looking at the direct opposite of God’s characteristics. And so one must look elsewhere, specifically to the devil. Though Satan is not a god per se, he is a supernatural being in the sense that he is more powerful than humans. Satan or the devil is believed to be the heavenly being named Lucifer after he fell from heaven for the sin of pride (Rhodes). Satan is not the only evil supernatural being in Christianity. He is, however, the most dominant. It therefore makes the most sense to turn to Satan as we analyze evil as portrayed in the divine beings of Christianity. [add piece about who satan/the devil/Lucifer

In his book Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society, Robin Osborne, the previous Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and a member of the editorial boards of several well-known journals such as the Journal of Hellenic Studies, discusses Ancient Greek sexual morality. I will discuss this more in depth later in the paper, but for the purpose of observing if this characteristic was considered evil, I will give a brief description. Robin Osborne makes the observation that the line between good and bad sexuality in Ancient Greek culture is not clear. It seems more that sex was simply an accepted part of Ancient Greek culture. It is this way for several reasons. For one, because neither the culture, nor the religion, nor the government made to eliminate any type of sexuality such as homosexuality which was targeted in other cultures, there are no documents concerning people being persecuted (Osborne). It is also not possible to pinpoint what, if any, sexual orientations were targeted. To continue, not only were some public events, such as the famed Olympic games, done naked, but many of the statues and other pieces of Ancient Grecian art portray the human body in the nude (Osborne). This supports the conclusion that sex was an accepted part of Ancient Greek culture as it was featured in many aspects of Ancient Greek life and