History Of Greek God: How Gods Impacted Archaic Greece

Oh My God: How Gods Impacted Archaic Greece
One of the most well known parts of Archaic Greek History is its use and emphasis on the worship of Gods. The Gods served as an important part of ancient Greek life, most notably in how their presence was used as a tool to organize many facets of Greek life, such as their progression of time in the form of calendars, and how morally good or bad actions are treated. In a way, the ancient Greeks of the Archaic period used Gods as a way to structure and make sense of their life.
The importance of these Gods is made especially clear in their numerous dedicated temples and altars. In Figure 1, which displays a map of the Athenian agora, it is shown that each God received their own temple in a prominent

These flaws were appeased through various rituals, festivals or prayers, with the most notable being sacrifices. Xenophanes fragment number 11 reads, “Homer and Hesiod assign to the gods everything that is blameworthy and disgraceful among human beings: stealing, committing adultery, and deceiv-ing each other…” (Xenophanes 11). The different assignments that each God have, showcases the human-like nature appointed onto the Gods, as well as the designation of immoral behaviors being organized onto various Gods. This means that in order to internally and externally deal with frowned upon behaviors, the ancient Greeks looked to the Gods as a way to properly deal with unacceptable actions. The Greeks gained favor with the Gods through sacrifices. These sacrifices made to these Gods show how important these Gods were to the Greeks, and also how organized the worship of these Gods were. The sacrifices depicted in Homer’s The Odyssey showcase how the sacrifices to these Gods worked. “I [Chryses] wish first and foremost to propitiate the great goddess Athene, who manifested herself visibly to me during yesterday’s festivities”, it reads, telling how Gods held the power to

Chryses was Apollo’s priest, and because of Chryses’s services and worship to Apollo in the past, Apollo helped his daughter, Cilia escape being a captive woman (Homer, Iliad 1). The fate of captive woman is morally wrong, as it is a life of submission and sexual assault, and thus Apollo, a God, was used as a way to punish the captors and also displayed how loyalty, such as Chryses to Apollo, was seen as good and was rewarded with a favor. In this way, the Gods served as a pawn that dictates good from evil and responds with punishment or