In the pertaining to worship forms adopted by the ancient Greek Religion , the principal rites is the Prière S, the Offrande S, the sacrifices, the festivals public and the plays. These rites are not excluded, on the contrary: an offering is accompanied by a prayer, in the same way a sacrifice, which itself can crown a public festival.

Prayers

The prayer recquiert above all the purity, i.e. a certain cleanliness (a washing of hands is essential), a decent vestimentary appearance and the absence of the state of stain. In the same way, the respect of the ritual is essential. In general, one requests before any ritual action.

The prayer, or εὐχή/ eukhế , can be a precise request or a simple call to the divinity; at all events, it is never quiet: the words, pronounced with high voice, count and to say only θεός/ theós (“god”) is in oneself a form of invocation. One requests upright to approach the Olympe, right hand raised (sometimes both), the palm directed towards the gods (sky, statue); one prostrate, more rarely, to call the gods chtoniens. In this case, one can also strike the ground. To kneel to request, on the other hand, passes for a form of superstition.

The request can also arise with the curse, that of an enemy or oneself when one lends oath (one curses oneself by advance if one would come from there not to respect his word; to swear on the Styx is the form of oath of the religious nature most powerful); one names it in this case ἀρά/ ará .

Offerings

They can be seen, with the Roman manner of the C C of the (“I give so that you give”), like a form of bargaining. Most of the time, however, the offerings are not involved or in simple marks of recognition.

Spontaneous offerings

The not involved offering can meet, for example, in the countryside: passing close to a temple, a peasant deposits spontaneously Fleur S. Certaines offerings are however prescribed: it is the case for the drinking, or σπονδή/ spondế , systematic offering of some drops of a liquid which one will drink, drops which one drops on the ground, on the victim of a sacrifice or another offering. Often, it is about Vin. The drinking achieves at least three times per day: with the rising, with the dinner and sleeping. It also makes it possible to draw the attention of the gods quickly, in order to protect a departure, for example: it is in this case a apotropaïque gesture (“which draws aside the evil”). In the same way, it accompanies any signature by treaty, so much so that σπονδή/ spondế , by metonymy, also the pact indicates. It can also take seat within the framework of a ritual more codified, like that of the invocation to the powers chtoniennes (cf extracts it from Homère in the 1 {{Re}} left). Such a drinking, named χοή/ khoế , is connected more with the sacrifice, since the versed drink will not be consumed.

It is moreover possible to offer clothing to the statues of the gods. Thus, at the time of the large ones panathénées, one walked in procession the statue of Athéna, equipped with a péplos woven during the year.

Justified offerings

In addition, one practices the offering (individual or collective) of invaluable objects, which one locked up in a treasure . The epigraphy informs us in an exhaustive way about certain treasures, since their inventory was to be precise; the outgoing priest, indeed, was to prove that it had not carried anything and held of the accounts (see in particular the inventories of Délos). The victorious cities in time of war practiced this type of official offering. The town of Delphes offers many testimonys of them to us: are aligned there the filled up treasures of objects commemorating the victory (statues, paintings) offered by cities, along the sacred way. The cities competed between them sometimes to offer the most luxurious treasure. It is notable that at the time of certain episodes of the Greek Histoire, like the Peloponnesian War, the treasures, offered by enemy cities, celebrates victories of Greeks against of other Greeks. The bond with the religious feeling can sometimes seem remote.

The Greeks practiced also the Ex-voto, object offered in thanks of a divine help. The habit relates to mainly the cures, allotted to Asclépios; one generally offered a plate representing the cured member. The athletes, in addition, thanked the gods in their intending a Statue for themselves, in the event of victory. In certain cities like Olympie, of the specific sites were reserved for these statues. In an abstract way, at the time of an unhoped-for success (like a fishing or a miraculous hunting), it was of habit to hold a share of the spoils to the gods.

Sacrifices

detailed article: Sacrifice in the ancient gecque religion

Those constitute the most technical form of the worship. One could describe the Sacrifice, or θυσία/ thysía (of a radical meaning smoked ), like an offering, with the difference that whole or part of what one devotes to the gods is destroyed and which the remaining part, if necessary, can be consumed by the men. The sacrifices can be bloody or not (in this last case, one sacrifices plants, food). The Feu is an essential component, especially in the bloody sacrifices: the gods, indeed, nourish sacrificial smoke, which must go up until Olympe. It is precisely the subject of the Oiseaux of Aristophane: those, leagued against the gods, prevent them from being nourished by blocking sacrificial smoke.

The ritual ones were fixed of long time. The sacrifices described by Homère are comparable with those practiced later on. One precisely finds of it description complete with song I, towards 446-474, of Iliade :

The sacrifice described here is a Hécatombe (ἑκατόμϐη/ hekatombê ), literally one “of one hundred oxen”, which it is necessary métaphoriquement to include/understand like a sacrifice of big size. Homère of described the stages by the menu:

1. purification by the washing of the hands;
2. prayer during which the officiant recalls what the god already achieved for him;
3. offering of barley grains pruned and not ground;
4. the sacrifice itself begins:
   1. the head of the animal must be turned towards the sky so that blood goes up towards the Olympian gods,
   2. one cuts the throat of the animals,
   3. this one is skinned,
   4. follows a very precise cutting of the skin, of which we do not know all the details, in order to separate what one will consume from what is allocated to the gods,
   5. the thighs are burned with wine,
   6. one distributes then what is allocated to the gods (the grease and bones of the thighs) and what returns to the men, meat and entrails (the entourage alone of the officiant having the privilege to consume these last, those being able to be used with the catch as oracle);
5. begins finally the banquet itself, the sacrifice being a collective ceremony;
6. after having eaten, the guests drink together, without to have forgotten the drinkings: it is the συμπόσιον/ sumpósion (“symposium”).

There exists another type of bloody sacrifice, the Holocauste or ἐνάγισμα/ enágisma , intended for the gods chtoniens; it is not question there of dividing with the alive ones, this is why the victim is completely burned. This one is placed close to the ground, or directly on the ground, the head turned towards the ground and its blood is collected in a pit, the βόθρος/ bóthros , in order to nourish the powers of in-low, to call upon them or alleviate them. It is this type of sacrifice which Homère describes in the extract quoted in the 1 {{Re}} left.

It should not however be believed that the sacrifice is a rite of a very great formalism; several alternatives exist, depend on the place on worship, each one requiring its type of victims (race, size and color), its types of acts. Once again, the excess of formalism, that which one could reproach the Romains, is seen like a form of superstition. The constants are the choice of the animal, which must be domestic (ox, goat, ram, pig) and without defects; in the same way the officiant, who does not only act but not accompanied by Acolyte S, revêt most of the time of the white and carries a crown; the objects being used for the sacrifice, like the knife to cut the throat of the victim, must be ἱερός/'' hierós '' (“temporarily clean with the worship”). The sacrifice is always public, from where importance of the banquet and the Symposium: it is, in a certain manner, a form of communion between the gods and the mortals and the men themselves within a more or less important community.

The sacrifice almost necessarily requires (except for the enágisma ) a furnace bridge, located in front of a temple (which, does not have an other function to him that to shelter the statue of the god and, sometimes, certain religious communities), in the open air, public character of the rite obliges. The steps of the temple can, on the occasion, to be used as steps. The furnace bridge itself is most of the time provisional: a hole in the ground or a ground heap is enough (one finds there the idea of place hiéros ). Certain sanctuaries never had solid furnace bridge; it is the case of that of Zeus in Olympie, where one made use of a hillock made up of ashes of the sacrifices of the year, joined together in a truncated cone equipped with steps, of a circumference being able to reach the thirty-seven meters at the base, ten at the top, for a six meters height fifty. The stone furnace bridges which one found are later, and often date from the hellenistic period. They can be monumental, like that of Zeus to Syracuse (known as furnace bridge of Hiéron II ), which reaches almost the two hundreds length for more than twenty in width. These stone furnace bridges are of round or parallelepipedic form.

Festivals and other ceremonies

The sacrifice can be only one component of a longer ceremony. The ceremonies are the guarantors of social cohesion, making it possible to bring closer the groups to the same community, on several scales (family, corporation, dème, quoted).

The festival is always preceded by a procession, which seems to be a Greek practice, moreover caricatured by Aristophane. The Plank of the Parthenon, describing large a Panathénée, puts in scene some three hundred and eighty characters, showing in a metaphorical way the importance which the processions can take; some ask for thousands of participants. In addition to their religious role, the processions have a social function of representation: one shows oneself there, one makes admire his costume, his ornaments. During certain processions, one can walk the statue of a god, like that of Athéna during the large ones panathénées.

It should not be forgotten, moreover, that the Greek Théâtre was before a a whole religious ceremony in the honor of Dionysos. The sporting plays, finally, form also part of the ceremonies: those take place within the religious framework besides, and it is not rare that are marked of Trier in the event of conflict.

Among the most important ceremonies among Greeks are the Mystères of Éleusis. Twice the year, at the time of the Small mysteries and of the Great mysteries, one returned a worship to Déméter, goddess of agriculture and harvests. The sow processions and sacrifice preceded ritual the rigorously secret ones in the Télestérion , where the initiates took note of revelations and obtained the guarantee of a life after death. According to the tradition, the Céléos priests and Triptolème would have established this worship at the request of the goddess. The source most documented on these celebrations is in the Homeric Hymne with Déméter .

Another important sanctuary with mysteries was that of the Large Gods with Samothrace.

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