Ancient Greek religion explained.

What you'll learn about in this video:

0:00 - Why I have a problem with history youtubers
1:58 - Ancient Greek religion was not about what you believed
6:13 - There was no ‘sin’ in ancient Greek religion
12:11 - Greek gods = all-powerful dictator toddlers
20:05 - Reciprocation: why the Greeks gave sacrifices
23:20 - My theory about why ancient Greek religion happened
27:52 - Sacrifices in ancient Greek religion
23:38 - Kinds of sacrifices: libations
35:18 - Prayers in ancient Greek religion
37:45 - Kinds of sacrifices: animal sacrifices
42:28 - Kinds of sacrifices: dedications

[faryafaraji]

I already love the intro—the mythology has completely overrided the reality of their religion in our pop-culture. I’m gonna enjoy this one alot

[peternewman]

Really hope you will do more videos about this. It's fascinating

[ElenaKomleva]

You said you would make at least two more videos on this subject, are the videos still going to be released?

[henryeccleston]

And naturally, Dionysus and the worship of him was just… out of sorts with the “proper” ordering of the world. Fitting for a god of madness, liberation, and intoxication.

[h_h_l_x]

I am very excited for this series, and I really appreciate the detail you go into about the concrete practices. It's really hard to find content like this, so thank you! About the uploading order—I like it when series content is fairly regular, but it doesn't have to be one right after another. Also, I love the length of the video! It's probably not optimized for youtube consumability or whatever, but I'll take a long deep-dive video any day.

[saturnscales]

Do you have your sources linked anywhere? I love researching ancient Greek religion and would like to read more :)

[Trickybboy]

The mechanism on the worshipper level is reciprocation & hospitality--not blackmail. That would be hubris, and such a similar trick was played by Prometheus on Zeus thinking He wouldnt know. Xenia is an important religio-cultural concept for the Greeks, ancient and modern, regarding offerings to deities (and human beings).

[nena]

Thank you Dan! I would very much want more of this. The mythology of Greece is often what I get when asking for what the ancient religion was like. This is so much more interesting. This video just got your channel a new subscriber.

[Son_of_zeus]

The ancient greek religion is still practiced, and evolved, it is a living tradition, a way of life. Hellenismos, hellenism or hellenic polytheism. The gods are immortals, eternal cosmic beings separate from the myths. The myths are allegories, to learn from, not to be taken literal like most modern religions. No commandments, but the we do have a moral system, the delphic maxims given to us by the God Apollo, outline moral virtues on what a good person should follow. The gods don't care if you worship them or not, however, you will build your relationships with them by reciprocity. The gods rebuke evil, and low passions, a bad person will never be favored by the gods, regardless of how they worship. Yes we believe we all go to the underworld, however we are judged based on our actions in our life, evil people go to tartarus (like hell) majority of people go to the asphodel fields (peaceful afterlife) the greatest of people go to Elysium (like heaven) all 3 realms are within the underworld ruled by Hades. People often mix our myths as literal description of the gods, which is very incorrect. The true gods are just, divine, and keep balance of the Cosmos. People still practice hellenismos today. It's a difficult concept to grasp through monotheistic lens.

[timharrison]

Fantastic video - cant wait to watch the rest 👌

[danielmalinen]

Not as bad as how the religions of ancient Greece and Rome are sometimes described as more secular, more philosophic, more atheistic and more logical religion (which is considered a positive and a good thing), which is the direct opposite and stark contrast to more religious, more superstitious, more spiritual and more yy irrational Christianity (which is considered a negative and a bad thing).

Personally I think that such a separation and a confrontation should have stayed in the 19th century and we would be able to understand different religions better now. But it is silly that this kind of way to present history still haunts into the school books of 21st century and this is at least one reason why it is difficult for us to understand the Greek and Roman religions. Such ghosts of the past sometimes guide our perception of the world as illustrating what ancient religions were like.

For example, some ordinary people think that the animal sacrifices aren't appropriate for such an ideal and perfect religion because this practice doesn't fit our noble and idealized image of ancient religions. And threfore people are in shock and deny when they hear that the ancient people actually did so and sacrificed animals. Or how jerks the ancient deities might have been in the ancient mythology and that thing isn't Christian propaganda attempt to tar and defame these older religions.

And yet, I get to hear this Christianity vs ancient religions debate at least once a month.

[vitaerat]

Would love to hear more, you should make a Patreon!

[rorytorrens]

High quality video. Thanks! I have one question: if sacrifices of livestock were performed at festivals *where the mortal ate the meat* and the gods got the bones, how could the Greeks honestly tell themselves they were making a sacrifice for the gods? The trick at Mecone myth doesn't help. If anything, it makes such sacrifice a commemoration of attempted deceit of Zeus - hardly a demonstration of sacrificial piety...

[witoldgawlik]

Could you put your podcast series on spotify ?

[lauraguan]

Did you read my mind lol I love this idea for a series!

[kimberleyalexandra]

Looking forward to part 2. Whenever that might be..

[henryeccleston]

I would like to point out that the gods could be obliged to aid individuals and organisations with the correct rituals to call on ancient promises, to shame them if they failed to look after the one who has performed the ritual, or even simply by feeding their ego so that any attack on or inconvenience to the individual can be framed as an attack or inconvenience of the reputation of that god.

[stevesmith]

To answer your question, back to back please.

[lefkeev]

Elysium, Elysseia in Greek is the idolized place, the 'paradise, where the souls of many semi gods and mortals would end up after they crossed Haron, / Charon in English.
Wish you would consult our many fantastic historians in Greece before you put out this video. Overall it is not bad some things you mentioned are not quite accurate. And there were 147 or so rules that people had to follow. I think it was Apollo who send them to people.
Also the temple where Cassandra was attacked it was Helios/ Apollo hid of the sun. Trojan elite were if Greek desent.
We / the ancient Greeks dud nit expect non Greeks /Varvaroi/Barbarians to worship their God's.

[zanokuhlemabuza]

23:20 - Your theory of religion is interesting, but the it’s circular. It doesn’t make sense for people to randomly appeal to the concept of a god if that concept doesn’t already exist. These theories make more sense logically (weakest to strongest):
1. Greek gods actually exist but have been neglected/forgotten.
2. Certain people with skills/gifts were deified (think saints in Catholicism or Santa Clause). But again - where would the concept of deity come from?
3. God actually exists and ancient Greek religion is a rejection/misinterpretation of the original religion/belief system.