The Greeks ways of worshipping the Greeks Gods

The Greeks had many ways of worshipping the Greek Gods from structures to people to many other things to make the gods and the people happy.


Why did the Greeks worship the Greek Gods?

Temple

The Greeks felt like if they didn't worship the gods they would get punished through whatever nature they were god of.  For example if they didn't worship Zeus, the God of the Sky, he would send down a lightning bolt and burn down the whole village.  They felt like if they did worship them, they would have good nature and crops and there would be nothing wrong.  They felt if they worshipped more than one god, the other would become angry or jealous and cause them destruction on them or their village.  To avoid this, they worshipped the gods equally.  They did this by having a temple for each god and a priest or priestess that maintained the temples.  They considered the gods to control everything.  Typically one god would control one thing although there were some that controlled multiple things.  There were major and minor gods, but they mostly worshipped the major gods and the decendents of the major gods. The Greeks goal were to make the gods happy.

 How did the Greeks worship the Greek Gods?

Temples were considered the places of the gods and were not for worshipping.  They were basically to honor the gods and the Greeks worshipped them in seprate places for worshipping.  They had an altar inside the temples were they would sacrifice animals and food to please the gods.  It was rare that they sacrificed humans in the late history of the Greeks although there were some hints that there were some.  They had oracles and priests that were  considered to be the gods keepers and speakers.  The priests would be in the temples and conducting the sacrifices and keeping the temples clean.  The oracles made important decisions by asking the gods about things the Greeks wanted to know.  Temples were public for all people to go in but was not for worshipping.
Second page to how the Greeks worship the Greek Gods.


What did the religous structures look like?


At the heart of the temple was an altar for sacrificeing food and animals to the gods. It showed the Greeks devotion towards their gods. The temple reflected what the god was god of. For example Poseidon, the god of the sea, would have water and an undersea palace look. It usually had big supporters or columns around the front that made up the entrance way. The first temples were made out of wood but later they started to build it with stone and marble making the pillars and columns. They also had pictures and writing on parts of the walls telling stories of the particullar god.

Were there any sacred people that helped worship the gods?

They had priests and priestesess that maintained the temples and helped with the sacrifices inside the temples. They had to be dipped in holy water and pledge an oath to the god.  The temples the priests and priestesess were in were dedicated to only one god and there were about a hundred on them placed in order of importance.  The priests and priestesess god was to keep the temples clean and do the sacrifices so the gods wouldn't get angry.  The priests were also responsible for oragnizing religous festivals and the games that happened there.  The oracles, who supposedly carried out the message of the gods.  There was one for every temple and it was supposed that they carried out there specific gods message.  Later they narrowed the oracles down to one main oracle, who gave profecies and told the Greeks about what was happening in Olympus.