Religion

__Ancient Greek Religion __

__ The ancient Greek religion was polytheistic, meaning they believed in more than one god. They believed that everything that happened in the world was controlled by the gods. The Greeks built huge, beautiful temples in each city to honor each god or goddess. The citizens offered sacrifices and gifts to the gods at these temples. When Greeks had religious festivals, they would usually sacrifice large animals to the gods, and then they would have a large feast. __

__**Sacrifices **__Greeks made tons of sacrifices to the gods and goddesses they believed in. They believed each god or goddess had a certain animal that was sacred to them. Most of the time that is the animal they would sacrifice to them. Usually there would be a temple for each god or goddess, and that is where they would sacrifice the animal to them. For example, Zeus's sacred animal was the ox, and people would sacrifice one at his temple, hoping it would bring them good luck and prosperity. That is mainly the reason people would sacrifice animals to the gods, in hopes that they would bring them good fortune.

There were tons of different gods and goddesses in the Greek religion. There were fourteen Olympians, believed to be the most important and powerful of all the gods. The Greeks relied on the gods for everything, and made worshiping them a daily habit. The gods and goddesses were reflected in nearly everything the Greeks did. They had festivals in honor of them, the food they ate was a gift from them, even the dirt they walked on was there because of a god. The gods and goddesses were a very large and important part of Greek history and life. Oracles The Greeks believed that at certain times they could communicate with the gods through an oracle. An oracle was either a god, like Apollo, or a priest or in nature. The Greeks would ask the oracle questions about their future and the oracle would ask the gods. Once the gods answered the oracle, it would describe to the person their prophecy, or a way in which they told them their future through a riddle of some sort. Sometimes this would come straight from a priest's mouth speaking it to them, or from a sign in nature, like a rustle of leaves the priest would read to decipher the person's future. This, they believed, was a good way to get their problems solved.
 * Gods and Goddesses **



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by: Rachel