Ancient Greek Gods Research Paper

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The Ancient Athenians were, like all of the Ancient Greek City States believers in the pagan polytheistic religion, and thus their belief in the specific gods had major impacts on their society and culture. Their gods in particular had a massive effect on the cultural aspects of literature like the Ancient Greek poets, and playwrights; such as Homer or Euripides. The effect of the gods had on the cultural arts like pottery and architecture like the Pantheon. Finally, the culture was significantly impacted on by the gods though such as festivals like Dionysia, the Olympics or Thargelia . Robert Graves once said, “Myth has two main functions. The first is to answer the sort of awkward questions that children ask. The second function of myth…show more content…
During these old celebrations, worshipers would dance around the altar of the god of wine and ecstasy, singing hymns to the wild, passionate accompaniment of the flute”. These celebrations were also performed to ask the gods for good harvest,a fertile flock or plentiful rain. While not much is known about the plays performed during the times of Athens, from when drama began around the late 6th Century BC. The four most significant playwrights that are still known of today are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes; the first three of which primarily wrote in the tragedy genre, however Aristophanes wrote comedy. It is known that many plays were performed each year however only about 40 plays survive from the entire of Ancient Greek history. The god’s impact on Athenian culture stretches into drama as the dramatic works convey the gods in a manner to the beliefs the Athenians held. that the Homeric texts concur with. The depiction of the gods seen in the Homeric texts is also seen in the Greek dramas as the gods seen as real figures who interact with the mortals and…show more content…
This can also seen in the Neck-amphora depicting Heracles, one of the most well known Greek myths, wearing the skin of the Nemean lion and drawing his bow in attack. The Lekythos also shows Greek myth with, Poseidon, the god of the sea, pursuing Amymone, a daughter of the legendary king of Argos. The use of the pottery as a storytelling medium, expresses the fact of how their art is portrayed within their real beliefs. The mythology shown on these pots is an expression of the Ancient Greeks beliefs and is majorly impacted by those

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