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factbase-ancient-history/religions/greek-religion.md
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# Greek Religion
# Greek Religion
## Overview
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic system centered on the Olympian gods, practiced through public festivals, sacrifices, oracles, and mystery cults from the Archaic through Hellenistic periods.
## Key Facts
- Period: ~800 BCE ~400 CE (suppressed under Christianity)
- Type: Polytheistic
- Sacred sites: Olympia, Delphi, Eleusis, Delos
- Key texts: Homer's *Iliad* and *Odyssey*, Hesiod's *Theogony*
## The Olympian Gods
- Zeus: King of the gods, sky and thunder
- Hera: Queen of the gods, marriage
- Athena: Wisdom and warfare
- Apollo: Sun, music, prophecy
- Artemis: Hunt and wilderness
- Poseidon: Sea and earthquakes
- Aphrodite: Love and beauty
- Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Demeter, Dionysus [^1]
## Religious Practices
- Animal sacrifice at altars
- Panhellenic festivals: Olympic Games (776 BCE), Pythian Games, Eleusinian Mysteries
- Oracle at Delphi: Pythia delivered prophecies from Apollo
- Mystery cults: Eleusinian Mysteries, Orphic mysteries, Dionysiac rites [^2]
---
[^1]: Burkert, W. *Greek Religion* (Harvard, 1985)
[^2]: Mikalson, J. *Ancient Greek Religion* (Blackwell, 2010)
---
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