|
One of the most important characteristics of the Greek religion was its educational function. The transition of the adolescent from childhood to adulthood was facilitated by a series of initiating rituals, with the temporary exclusion of the initiated from daily life a common characteristic. In their primitive form these procedures included the training of boys in hunting and of girls in basic domestic activities, such as in corn-grinding and weaving-speaning. During the Archaic period many complicated initiating processes had already been formed. Some of them were simply in the nature of a ritual, as the Apatouria in Athens. Other required some long-lasting service in a temple or in some special group, with the religious element stronger at times and the social one at others. Finally, some of the initiating rituals had already evolved into mystery cults. |
The most definite rituals of initiation are known from Doric Greece, especially from Crete, Sparta and Thebes. Although our sources are of the Classical period and do not specifically refer to the religious element, it is clear that the practices that are described were dominant in the Archaic period and closely related to the festivals of the gods. |
The transition of boys from girl's clothes to nudity also involved a ritual of initiation. Such was the case of Ekdysia in Phaestos and of Gymnopaidiai in Sparta. The same principle is also met in the story of Achilles in Skyros and that of Theseus' arrival in Athens. In Sparta a part of initiation was the celebrated krypteia. During this ritual selected young men were hidden and lived as thieves for a year. The practical importance of the specific venture was to assist the Spartan authority by killing helots without detection. Another cruel ritual of initiation included the whipping of boys at the altar of Artemis Orthia. Its context probably aimed at the definition of the age hierarchy, but in the imperial years ended up as a "tourist attraction". |
| |
|
Note: Click on picture for short description. |