Influences of Greek Mythology

The influence of Greek Mythology on the lives of men and women:

The men's activities were normally politics, arts, crafts, construction, agriculture, sea faring, manufacturing, and trade. Agriculture was the most common male activity. The large majority of citizens of all Greek states relied on the land for their basic income, including the rich who didn't work in the field themselves but they did oversee the farming of at least some of their property that they didn't lease out. For the common people agricultural work was the reality of their lives, it's something they were forced to do. Some of the private aspects of the male lives are their love of hunting and horseback riding, which both took place out doors. This time was a great time for them to get away because they had freedom from the pressures of family life. The other important theme for male lives was warfare.

The Greek women had absolutely no political rights and were controlled by men at almost every stage of their lives. The most important jobs of city-dwelling women were bearing children and running the household. The women living in rural areas had to do some of the agricultural work such as harvesting olives and fruit as well as some of the vegetables. Women dominated the Greek home life since the men spent most of their time away from their houses. The wife had to raise the children, spin, weave, and sew the family's clothes, and supervise the daily running of the household. The Greek economy was totally slave-based, so there were plenty of female slaves available to cook, clean, and carry water from the fountain. Only in the poorest homes did the wife have to carry out these duties by herself. A male slave's duties were mostly limited to being door keeper and tutoring the male children. A Greek woman limited her time outside of the house to visiting her nearby female neighbors. The only exceptions to this social convention were weddings, funerals, and state religious festivals were women were expected to play prominent public roles. The presence of columns suggests that women spent a lot of their time in the courtyard of their house where they could enjoy the fresh air. The cooking equipment of Greeks was small and light so they could easily be set up in the courtyard. During sunny weather the women would sit under the roofed area of the courtyard because the ideal female had a pale complexion.

The Greek Household:

The Greek city houses were normally small and they were built of relatively inexpensive materials. They were mainly two or three rooms clustered around a small court to a dozen or so rooms. The exterior of the houses were rather plain, broken only by a door and a few windows that were set high. In the larger houses there was a kitchen, a bathing room, a few bedrooms which usually occupied a second floor, the men's andron where they dined, and a separate suite of rooms for the use of the women (known as the gynaikonitis).

Greeks and Their Religion:

The Ancient Greeks were very religious people. They worshipped gods and goddesses that they believed appeared in human form, but were given superhuman strength and never-ending beauty. Each Greek city was protected by at least one deity that was worshipped with a special emphasis. Although many sanctuaries honored more than one god, there was normally one deity that dominated the cult place. The deities are normally depicted by themselves or in the traditional mythological situations where they interact w/ humans and a large range of the minor deities, demi-gods, and legendary characters.

Greek Votives and Sacrifices:

Votives are gifts offered to the gods by the worshipper. Most times they were given for things that had already been conferred or things they were anticipating to happen in the future. They could also be offered to the gods for crimes involving "blood guilt, impiety, or the breach of religious customs." Votives were either given voluntarily or in response to the demands by the cult's priesthood saying the donor fulfill a religious vow or honor some religious custom. Votives were kept on display for a while in the sanctuary and then they were ritually discarded. Some examples of votives are bronze tripods, prize cauldrons and figurines, terra-cotta tablets and figurines, lamps, and vases. Armor, weapons, jewelry, marble statuettes, and reliefs along with other more personalized items were often dedicated in large numbers. In healing sanctuaries people donated body parts in thanks for in the hope of finding a cure. In the Panhellenic sanctuaries such as Olympia and Delphi private donors or individual city-states donated large sculptural monuments in bronze, marble and other costly materials. Sacrifices were gifts to the gods. There were bloodless offerings such as grasses, roots, cereal, grains, fruits, cheese, oil, honey, milk, and incense. There were also blood-offerings such as wild and domesticated animals, birds, and fish. The food sacrifices and the liquids were either burnt on raised alters so the aroma of them could rise heavenward or they were dropped and poured into wells, holes, or tombs. What was left of the sacrifice was usually consumed by the sacrificers.

Greek Views On Death:

According to their belief, whenever someone dies, their breath or psyche leaves their body and enters the palace of Hades. The psyche, once it leaves the body, exists as a phantom image. In the Classical times different secret mystery cults promised their initiates a state of blessedness after they die. At that same time ethical considerations had led to the proposition that the ones that transgressed repeatedly deserved everlasting punishment, while the ones that only transgressed once, and were just, would gain immorality and eternal bliss. Eventually the psyche becomes a true soul, apart from the body but serving as the personality and instigator of life's important moral decisions.