, through divination rites, about one’s future on earth. The gods had distinct personalities in myth, but they also represented impersonal forces, and they served as focused points for civic life through the web of cult activities on which a city depended to maintain its social order. Individual worshipers might come under a god’s protection and individuals might even be granted a temporary share in attribute of the god. But it is primarily the city as a social unit that faces the gods. Gods, for their part, make their appearances not to a few saints but in public, so as to assure a city of their power and remind all human beings of mortality. Often the favorable response or reward expected did not materialize, and the civil strife that followed the classical period (from c.500 B.C.) placed the old gods on trial [3]. The popular religion of the Greek countryside rose, emphasizing the promise of afterlife and elaborate rites offered by such cults as the Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries. The Dionysian excesses of these mystery rites were offset by the virtues of moderation ascribed to Apollo. Later Greek philosophical inquiry sought a more logical connection between nature and mankind, leading to the rationalization of the early myths and the final destruction of the Homeric pantheon. The vacuum was eventually filled by Christianity. The polytheistic and anthropomorphic features of ancient Greek religion is characteristic of the ancient Greeks desire to describe the world around them and find answers about human behavior. The polytheistic feature or multitude of gods is used to represent the different aspects of life. Each god is thought of being a protector of a human attribute or emotion, for example, Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty. Gods were made in the image of humans; gods had names and bodies and they were sexual. Gods were more powerful and knowledgeable than humans and they were eternal. But, they we...
