Ancient Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These different groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or “cults” in the plural, though most of them shared similarities.
Many of the ancient Greek people recognized the major (Olympian) gods and goddesses (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera), although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to posit a transcendent single deity. Different cities often worshiped the same deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them and specified their local nature.
The religious practices of the Greeks extended beyond mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of Ionia in Asia Minor, to Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy), and to scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean, such as Massalia (Marseille). Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later ancient Roman religion.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Ancient Greek religion, Religion of Greece, Religion of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greece, Greek religion, Roman religion, Greco Roman, Greco Roman religion, Pantheon, Pantheon of gods, Greek deities, Roman deities, Roman gods, Religion of Ancient Rome, Ancient Rome, Roman Empire, Roman pantheon, Greek Empire, Greek pantheon, Greek gods, Greek gods and goddesses, Roman gods and goddesses, Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hestia, Poseidon, Jupiter, Neptune, Juno, Mars, Venus, Bellona, Minerva, Janus, Vesta
Bible reference(s): Acts 14:11-13, Acts 17:16, Acts 17:22-23, Acts 19:24, Acts 19:27-28, Acts 19:34-35, 1Co 8:5, Gal 4:8
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Ancient Greek religion,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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