Western Civilization

6 Pages 1565 Words

Greeks viewed gods in different ways. "Poseidon, now with all your
heart defend the Danaas and give them glory, though only for a little, while Zeus still sleeps; since I have mantled a soft slumber about him and Hera beguiled him into sleeping in love beside her" (Iliad 44) shows that Greeks thought gods to be cunning or even deceiving. Even though they are icons of divinity, the fact that they deceive each other shows that they also possess human-like traits. Hera was cunning enough to distract Zeus with a ploy involving intimacy. As a result she was able to get her brother to help an attack on Earth that Hera wanted as victors. Greeks also had a large respect for the gods since they were the supreme beings. In the Iliad Hektor says, "Come then, shall we swear before the gods? For these are the highest who shall be witness over our arguments" (Iliad 45) to his opponent, Son of Peleus, during a fight. Gods were respected in a way that the Greeks thought that they were the most intelligent and able to decide what is just.
The Greeks basically stressed the fact that the Gods were the epitome of divinity and the ultimate powers yet were still human-like. Unfortunately for this religion though, there was no evidence of the Gods showing love or emotion to the religion's followers. This led to the decline in early Greek Olympian religion and spawned the beginning of Mystery Cults.

Mystery Cults branched off from the Greek Olympian religion. Mystery
Cults' main purpose was to select a god to pay all attention to. These gods were gods who had died and were then reborn. In giving all of their attention to a single god they believed that they in turn would get special attention or even reborn within their life with better luck and a more fortunate life. Most Mystery Cults were based on a story about the god and what had happened in the story, very similar to how Christianity focuses on Jesus’ crucifixion. Also, a trait that most Myster...