Which gods cult was the largest

The followers of Dionysos derived many of their eschatological beliefs and ritual prescriptions from Orphic literature, a corpus of theogonic poems and hymns. The mythical Thracian poet Orpheus, the archetypical musician , theologian, and mystagogue, was credited with the introduction of the mysteries into the Greek world. References by Herodotus and Euripides attest to the existence of certain Bacchic-Orphic beliefs and practices: itinerant religion specialists and purveyors of secret knowledge, called o rpheotelestai , performed the teletai , private rites for the remission of sins.

For the Orphics, Dionysos was a savior god with redeeming qualities. He was the son of Zeus and Persephone and successor to his throne X. When the Titans attacked and dismembered the baby Dionysos, Zeus in retaliation blazed the perpetrators with his thunderbolt. Archaeological finds from southern Italy, northern Greece, the Pontic area, and Crete provide important evidence for the Bacchic-Orphic mysteries: to ensure personal salvation and eternal bliss in the afterlife, objects such as the famed Derveni papyrus, inscribed bone plaques and gold leaves lamellae , or gilded mouthpieces were buried with the initiates Most mysteries started as family or clan cults and were later taken over by the city-state, the polis, as in the case of the Theban Kabeiria.

Kabeiros and his son Pais, collectively known as Kabeiroi, were patrons of herdsmen worshipped in Boeotia and Lemnos. In the absence of written sources, valuable information for their enigmatic cult comes primarily from excavations at their sanctuary in Thebes. The architectural remains of the Theban Kabeirion reveal a concern with controlling access and directing foot traffic.

Most probably there were preliminary sacrifices, a procession, and, at least in Roman times, initiation in two stages epopteia and myesis performed inside the anaktoron, the main hall of the sanctuary. Numerous votive figurines of bulls, often inscribed Beginning around B.

Understood in the context of the symposium, these vases were probably custom-made according to the specifications of the cult participants. Known among the Greeks as Kybele, or Great Mother of the Gods Matar Kubileya, mother of mountains in Phrygia, or Kubaba in Neo- Hittite , originated in Anatolia , where there was a long-standing tradition of worshipping mother figures.

It was imagined that Kybele resided on inaccessible mountain tops, where she ruled over wild animals. The goddess is represented wearing a long belted dress , a polos headdress, and a veil. She is seated on a throne flanked by two lions and holds a tympanon, a circular drum resembling a tambourine, and a libation bowl Ritual purity was a prerequisite of initiation into the ecstatic cult of the Mother.

Her priests, the Korybantes, and followers worshipped her with wild, loud music produced by cymbals By the third century B. Isis was another Eastern goddess whose cult spread all over the Mediterranean. Similar to Demeter, Isis was considered a law giver and protector of the crops, while ritual purification and secret rites were performed in her honor.

In pharaonic Egypt , Isis was sister and wife of Osiris god of the afterlife and mother of Horus, whom she appears suckling In the Greek world, the earliest temple dedicated to Isis was founded in Athens in the fourth century B. The cult spread rapidly during the third century B.

By this time the consort of Isis was Sarapis Serapis , a syncretic god created in Egypt, who represented the boundary between life and death and was identified with Hades and Asklepios Harpokrates, their son, is often portrayed with his finger touching the lips in a gesture intended to ensure secrecy.

Numerous miniature bronzes and terracotta statuettes of Harpokrates survive, and they probably derive from a Hellenistic prototype made in Alexandria The cult of Isis arrived at Rome at the end of the second century B. Both works combine features of other mysteries and contain rather generic descriptions of initiation rites.

Inscriptions , on the other hand, provide some evidence for the organization of the cult, which seems to have been modeled on the Egyptian priesthood. Votives and Sacrifice Cult Statues From an early time the Greeks housed the anthropomorphic cult images of their gods in temples, often enclosed in walled sanctuaries.

Most of the formal ritual associated with Greek religion-purification, libation and sacrifice, supplication, the swearing of oaths, and prayer-took place around altars set up nearby the temples. Cult statues like the 40 foot high seated Zeus at Olympia and the standing figure of Athena Parthenos in Athens, were regarded by the ancients as the wonders of their age.

The very sorts of materials from which they were assembled-ivory for the deities' exposed flesh, gold and perhaps glass for their drapery-suggest the costliness of these productions. Testimonia to his cult are, however, widely enough distributed to show that the cult was not limited to one specific area, indicating that the god was more than a purely regional presence.

The background of his cult is also problematic. We have no mention of him in Anatolia before the mid-fourth century BCE, nor is there any visual image of him before the early Roman period.

Before the fourth century BCE, the most conspicuous feature of Anatolian cult was the Mother Goddess, originally a Phrygian deity but one whose cult spread widely, particularly in western Anatolia. Of these, the most prominent is Zeus, worshipped with various epithets and in various guises.

As we have seen, Sabazios is often identified with Zeus, and the theonym Sabazios was used as an epithet of Zeus in the majority of the texts. Could Sabazios then be the Greek perception of the principal male Anatolian cult figure, one aspect of this Anatolian god whom the Greeks would later identify with Zeus?

There are several sculptural images of Sabazios from Anatolia, all of the first and second centuries CE. Four of the inscribed dedications to Sabazios are surmounted by a relief depicting the god, and one statuette of him, found near Afyon, is known.

One stele, from Balat, in Bithynia, shows a mature bearded male seated on a throne, wearing a long gown and a headdress; he holds a phiale in his right hand and a spear in his left. Clearer information can be derived from reliefs on three stelai from Lydia, from Maionia, Koloe, and Philadelphia.

On two pieces he pours the libation onto a small altar, and on the third into a krater with a tree behind it. In each example the god is shown wearing the costume of a typical Greek male, a long robe drawn into a roll around his waist and pulled up over his left shoulder.

On the stele from Maionia the god wears a distinctive headdress, a cap with a pointed tip, traditionally labeled Phrygian although as we shall see below, this label is incorrect. Apart from this example of cap and snake, none of the reliefs has attributes that identify the god specifically as Sabazios.

Both arms are outstretched, the right lowered and the left raised. Unfortunately both hands are missing, and so we cannot tell if the right hand was depicted with the tradition three-finger gesture of blessing characteristic of Sabazios votive hands. This representation of the deity follows the standard Sabazios iconography known from numerous reliefs and statuettes of Sabazios and from figurines attached to votive hands of the god, all of which, apart from this piece, come from the western Roman Empire.

It is instead a Greek creation, originally based on an Achaemenian prototype. It first appears in Greek vase painting during the first half of the fifth century BCE in depictions of Achaemenian Persian figures, who are shown with a very similar belted tunic, leggings, soft boots, and pointed cap with ear flaps.

The use of the costume was also extended to represent a variety of mythological figures believed by the Greeks to be of Eastern origin, such as the Amazons and the Trojan Paris. The image is that of an Oriental Zeus, in which the Greek body and face of the god are clothed in Eastern dress.

The first application of this costume to Sabazios probably did not take place in Anatolia, but in the western Empire, perhaps in Rome itself, from where it spread widely throughout the western Empire. The evidence for his presence in Anatolia and his position as a deity of honor there is too widespread to deny his Anatolian roots.

The text from Sardis sets him firmly in the company of other gods, Angdistis and Ma, of clear Anatolian origin. Thus one may wonder why representations of Sabazios drew on a visual scheme originally based on a Greek model. Why was an Anatolian image of the deity not adopted, as was done in the case of the Phrygian Matar Kubeliya, who became the Greek Meter?

The answer seems to be that there was no Anatolian visual prototype of Sabazios to draw on because the god had never been represented in Anatolian art. When the cult of Sabazios spread to the west, a visual iconography was created for the god based on the widely disseminated schema used to represent another deity associated with Anatolia, Attis. The agora was the marketplace and beating heart of each community. Each variant, or epithet, relates to a particular aspect of his power.

The following are just a few examples. Zeus Herkeios was worshiped in Athenian homes and was believed to be the protector of the hearth. More widely, Zeus Ktesios was seen as a protector of all property.

Small shrines to him were set up even in store cupboards. Away from the domestic world, Zeus Philios, was believed to be the protector of friendship. This covered individuals and communities, as well as political alliances. For times of crisis there was Zeus Soter. He was believed to protect individuals and cities from war and natural disasters, such as earthquakes. Zeus therefore permeated every aspect of Greek lives, from the weather outside to the cupboard in a humble home.

Zeus was worshiped far and wide across the Greek world, including at festivals such as the Olympic Games. His legacy as the greatest of gods also meant that he became the favored deity of great leaders in the ancient world.

These leaders included Alexander the Great and the Emperor Hadrian. Hera, like her husband and brother Zeus, has ancient origins and is attested on two Mycenaean Linear B tablets. The queen of the Olympian gods was most closely associated with marriage.

But she also presided over the full arc of female lives, from childhood, through marriage and then into widowhood or separation. Hera was therefore a vital goddess for women in the Greek world. Among the most common was Hera Gamelia. She was celebrated during the month of February when sacred marriage ceremonies were held. Hera Argeia was worshiped at Argos, where a statue of the goddess was bathed in a sacred spring.

This represented a symbolic restoration of her virginity in preparation for marriage. Her sanctuary on the island of Samos was her mythological birthplace. Herodotus says that this sanctuary was home to the largest temple known in the Greek world.

It is also thought to be one of the oldest Greek temples, dating back to the 8 th century BC. Equally important was her hilltop temple in Argos, which stood imposingly over the Argive plains. Objects have been found which originated from as far afield as Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. This universality established her as one of the most important deities of the ancient world. There is no evidence of the existence of the god Apollo from the Bronze Age.

It is believed that he became more widely known as a deity from around BC onwards. Apollo had a very diverse sphere of influence and therefore he became an important god to people in ancient Greece. His associations ranged from healing and prophecy to young men and the arts.

This sanctuary dates from the 6 th century BC and was so large that it was more like a small city.