Geography Anxiety Unknown Play Major Role Determining

¶ … geography anxiety unknown play major role determining character ancient Egyptian Greek religions?

Topic 1 Introduction Ancient Egypt historical geographical background Resource. Topic 5 Sacred Rituals Serving Gods People Topic 3 Beliefs Gods Afterlife Topic 6 Greek religion beliefs Mystery religions afterlife Readings Teeter, E 2007, 'Temple cults', T Wilkinson (ed.

Religion in Ancient Egypt and Greece

Geography and anxiety about the unknown are two of the most important elements responsible for creating and shaping religions through time. People virtually used religion as a means to combat their anxieties, given that they were determined to eliminate the chaotic and irrepressible system that governed their existence until the moment. Similarly, whereas the Greeks and the Egyptians have also had their cultures influenced by their desire to explain and control what went on around them, they gradually came to associate geography with religion and actually explained the latter by relating to the former.

Technology and human ingenuity in general has made it possible for people to go against many of their initial anxieties. However, given that society still had trouble understanding a series of concepts, people became determined to relate to supernatural powers with the purpose of explaining these respective concepts. Some of the most important factors that people in Egypt and Greece were unable to understand at the time when they formed their religious believes are "about not being in complete control of our destiny, about not being able to reverse the past, about having to die, about feeling guilty, about never fully realizing our dreams and possibilities as human beings, about always being somehow unfinished, incomplete" (Haught, 99).

Egyptian civilization was generally concentrated on the Nile region, especially given its potential and the fact that it played a major role in assisting the culture's progress. Some considered the Nile to be a spring of continuous resources and did not allow themselves to be intimidating by the fact that the river often rose and flooded their lands. Instead of perceiving these natural events as calamities, the Egyptians considered that they were closely related to religion, as rebirth became the central concept in their religion. The sun was reborn every day and the Nile made it possible for their crops to be reborn at certain moments in the year.

In spite of the fact that the Egyptians believed that science was particularly important, religion was the principal domain that they wanted to develop. The Egyptians were brought together by their appreciation of the Nile, as it was particularly important in shaping the civilization and its religious values. The Egyptian leader himself, the pharaoh, was believed to be a descendent of the Gods. He made sure that the rituals were performed in accordance to normal standards and that the Nile would, as a result, provide his people with fertility through irrigation.

Egypt's beliefs and customs were severely altered as a result of the region's geography and especially because of the Nile. The River often produced floods in the area and influenced people in thinking that this happened because their Gods were unhappy with their behavior and because the superior beings were generally determined to punish people from time to time. However, the floods were also beneficial for the fact that they fertilized the earth and made it possible for crops to grow more rapidly and in large quantities. "With the floods came silt, and the combination of fertile soil and ready water could produce yields of crops three or four times those from normal rain-fed soil" (Freeman 14). This presented them with the notion of rebirth, as they came to believe that everything is reborn at a particular moment, similar to how the crops were vitalized because of the cycle of floods occurring in the area. One of the most recognized rituals they performed based on the Nile and on the concept of rebirth was mummification, as they apparently wanted to preserve the bodies of their divine rulers as a means for Egypt's success to continue under their leadership in the future, in the afterlife.

In addition to holding the Nile responsible for giving shape to Egyptian religion, one can also attribute the need that Egyptians had to control their afterlife to their anxiety about the unknown. With the purpose of having more control about what happened to them after they died, these people considered the Nile and its floods and associated the events with a cycle of life and death during which people were reborn. Osiris was the god in charge of judging people after they died, as he decided who would go to a good afterlife and who would receive a less fortunate sentence by being thrown to a monster that would rip him or her apart. The pharaohs, however, had a different fate from the rest of Egyptians, as at the moment of their death they went directly to the afterlife where they took their position as leaders.

Ra, the Egyptian sun god, apparently traveled by boat, across the Nile, given that in an attempt to associate it with the sky (as it seems normal), the Egyptians considered that the Nile was to a certain degree similar to the sky and that it was its representative on earth. People in Egypt believed that the sun, the river, and the pharaoh were the three most important elements in religion and in their society as a whole

Greek notions in regard to religion and convictions concerning afterlife are mainly supported by numerous Ancient Greek accounts discussing these topics. Greek theatres often displayed works involving afterlife-related subjects, this being most obvious through looking at the fact that most theatres had "a tunnel leading from behind the stage building to a trapdoor at the center of the orchestra, enabling an actor to rise from beneath the earth" (Obayashi 51-52). Comparable to the Egyptians, the Greeks developed an sophisticated procession that was meant to have their community understand what happened to a person once he or she died. All mortals were apparently doomed to go to the underworld once they died, reaching a realm ruled by Hades. Once they reached the underworld, souls were judged and depending on the seriousness of their sins they were assigned a particular place in the realm, ranging from the Elysium Fields (a happy place where those who committed minor sins could enjoy their time) to the Tartarus (a horrible place where sinners would be punished for their behavior).