What Extent Was The Greek Religion Monotheistic Or Polytheistic?

University of the People

HIST 1421-01 Greek and Roman Civilization - AY2023-T3

Week 1: Learning Journal

Was the Greek religion monotheistic or polytheistic?

Almost all of us may have heard about the prominent Greek gods such as Zeus, Poseidon and Athena from a lot of books and films around the world. I was also introduced to Greek gods and mythology from the novel series called Percy Jackson & the Olympians. By simply looking at this information, we can clearly see that the Greek religion was not monotheistic, which means worship of a single god. In fact, they had a tradition of worshipping multiple gods, which is called polytheism. The most well known Greek gods in history were the Twelve Gods of Olympus, whose names were Zeus,

It is said that their names, appearances and functions were introduced to the Greeks by the two famous poets, Hesiod and Homer (Tridimas, 2021). Aside from these Twelve Gods of Olympus, there were also some other deities, demigods, mythical heroes and divine figures (Tridimas, 2021). Although there were many poleis in Greek civilization, their religions were said to be basically the same albeit the way they worshipped these gods differed according to their geography and myths. Also, the leaders or kings of the poleis did not restrict which gods their citizens prefer to worship (Tridimas, 2021). It is safe to say that the Greeks had religious freedom at that time. Moreover, the Greeks welcomed the new foreign religions, and they even added new deities without having to overthrow the existing ones (Tridimas, 2021). They tried not to offend or disrespect any of these gods through the practice of polytheism, because Homer's Iliad stated that different

Most of Greek art and architecture reflected their honor and regards to the gods and goddesses they worshipped. Almost all Poleis had at least one temple in their areas. The statue of a god or goddess was placed inside of the temples, and worshipers gathered outside the temples for the rituals,sacrifices, and festivals as the temples were not a place for the people to worship (Tridimas, 2021). The Athenians devoted enormous resources to the construction of the acropolis in order to surpass the other temples of their rivals (Becker, n.d.). For this reason, one of the finest examples of Greek architecture was the Parthenon of Athens, which was a temple built in honour of the goddess Athena, who was known as the goddess of wisdom and knowledge in Greek mythology (US History, n.d.). In addition to the temples, the sculpture called "Diana of Versailles," also reflected the Greek religion in art. It vividly illustrated the goddess of hunting reaching for an arrow while a stag was leaping around her (US History, n.d.). One thing to note here is that the Greeks portrayed their gods and goddesses in human form since they believed that the Greek gods and goddesses had human-like appearances and emotions. Not only had the Greeks made so many brilliant statues of gods and goddesses, they also painted pictures on the pottery which mainly portrayed the various stories of gods and