Acient Civilization

Apollo, god of sun and music

Pythia of Delphi (on the left)

Greeks from different cities were aware that they worshipped gods with names that were the same as the gods of other cities, the gods of Homer and Hesiod, but the cities were likely to have twists to the stories about these gods that were special to their city. Each city, it has been said, had a story of creation that was a little different. But they held more or less in common that Zeus was the Lord of the heavens, the father of the other gods. They saw him as a god who became angry, and they feared his thunderbolts.

The city of Athens had its goddess Athena, who was said to have sprung from the forehead of Zeus. She was a virgin goddess of war and peace, of wisdom and a patron of arts and crafts. Various stories about her would come and go, while in marble form she dominated a temple built for her, where, after it was burned down by the Persians, the Parthenon was to be built. At Delphi was the temple of Adonis. Greek myth described Adonis as a beautiful youth with whom both the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone fell in love. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and a goddess of fertility in competition with Aphrodite. She presided over Hades, the place where the spirits of the dead resided. According to the myth of Adonis, Persephone, wanting Adonis, held him captive in Hades, and Aphrodite, also wanting Adonis, freed him from Hades and Persephone's captivity. Then, while hunting, Adonis was killed by a wild boar, which sent him back to Hades and Persephone. Aphrodite bitterly mourned his death and pleaded with Zeus to restore Adonis to her. Zeus decided to be impartial between the desires of Persephone and Aphrodite, and he decreed that Adonis would spend his winter months with Persephone -- an annual death. And he spent his summer months with Aphrodite -- an annual resurrection. These deaths and resurrections coincided with the seasonal cycles and the growth of crops. Adonis had become a fertility god. Every year, Greeks celebrated Adonis' death and resurrection, often with wailing and the beating of one's own breast with one's fists. At Delphi was an "eternal" and sacred fire, and a woman at the temple's core, served as the Pythia, an oracle who communicated with Apollo. She was a local woman, maybe young or old, maybe poor and illiterate or perhaps not. People, including statesmen, came as pilgrims to Delphi from various parts of Greece to put questions to Apollo, questions such as whether they should marry, whether their spouse was unfaithful, whether their city should go to war. The pilgrims would receive messages in the form of riddles that would leave them with the task of interpretation.When Athenians removed an aristocratic oligarchy from power the aristocrats went to Delphi and were encouraged by being told that Apollo was on their side. A leading aristocratic family from Athens, the Alcmaeonidaens, won the support of Sparta, and to do the will of Apollo, Sparta, in 510, sent an army and restored power to aristocrats. But a bigger rebellion overthrew the aristocrats again and created a democracy. In the early 400s BCE Greek city-states came together when invaded by the Persians. Athens and other cities met the Persians at Marathon. The Spartans wanted to join them, but they had their own religious concerns. They had to wait for the passing of a full moon. By the time they arrived at Marathon the battle had ended. They returned home praising the Athenians, and the Greeks of various cities held a religious festival at Delphi as thanksgiving to the gods for the victory at Marathon. There the oracle of Apollo praised Athens as great "for all time."The gods were not always kind to Sparta. In 464, an earthquake leveled most of Sparta's dwellings and killed around 20,000. The Spartans believed that the earthquake was the work of the earthshaking god Poseiden and that Poseiden had been offended by a recent violation of his sanctuary, from which some of their Helot slaves had been dragged away and executed. Following the earthquake, the Helots revolted, encouraged perhaps by their belief that the god Poseiden was sympathetic with their cause. They attacked what was left of Sparta, and they were joined in their rebellion by nearby enemies of Sparta who sought advantage from Sparta's sudden tragedy. The Spartans managed to contain the revolt, which lasted into 462.
Spartans were offended by the hostile alliance against them and by the meager support it received from Athens during the Helot revolt. Trade conflicts and power rivalry resulted in the Greek city-states splitting in two camps. One led by Sparta and the other by Athens, with Sparta believing that it had Apollo on its side. The Great Peloponnesian War erupted and lasted from 431 to 404 -- twenty-seven years. Sparta and its allies defeated Athens. Sparta's victory was celebrated at Delphi. Among Athenians was the view that Athena had judged them as deserving defeat because they had been insufficiently pious.