Olympian and Chthonic

[Pārāyana]

I have a question related to the religion of ancient Greece. There is often a distinction made between what is called Olympian Cult on the one hand, and Chthonic Cult on the other.

Would it be a fair and justified re-interpretation (or even a quite correct interpretation?) to say that the olympian side relates to questions of bigger existential significance such as morality, meaning of life and salvation; while the chthonic side is related to things more profane, such as making the weather beneficial for farming and improving fertility?

I would be very grateful for any reflections and suggestions.

 

[Quintessence]

Kind of sort of. All the gods relate to big, existential questions, but these two classifications of gods do represent different aspects of that. It's good to remember what the purpose of mythology is within a society: one of those is to establish cultural norms and provide a vision for the people of how they fit into the broader world. Karen Armstrong's "A Short History of Myth" has a section in her book that reflects on the transition of more Chthonic gods (though she does not use that term) to Olympian gods. In essence she argues this shift was symptomatic of the rise of civilization and its associated attributes. Firmer ideas of law and morality were part of those shifts, hence we see a god representing lawfulness (Zeus) taking rulership over a more primordial and abstract sky-god (Kronos). But I would just read her book, because she explains it better than I. When I have time, I can see if I can find a short excerpt to put up.

 

[Benst]

I have a question related to the religion of ancient Greece. There is often a distinction made between what is called Olympian Cult on the one hand, and Chthonic Cult on the other.

Would it be a fair and justified re-interpretation (or even a quite correct interpretation?) to say that the olympian side relates to questions of bigger existential significance such as morality, meaning of life and salvation; while the chthonic side is related to things more profane, such as making the weather beneficial for farming and improving fertility?

I would be very grateful for any reflections and suggestions.

I think it changes over the ages, bu generally I think it's important to understand what the Gods were in Greek/Hellenic thought and what they were not. Personal Salvation doesn't come into the picture when it comes to the Olympians. No Human ever thought they would go to dwell on Olympus with the sky gods, nor did they believe in personal salvation because ultimately they didn't need to be saved. The Gods were there to grant boons and favours, and were worshipped to...in effect, stop them from squashing you. There was no mainstream cult of the sky gods versus a cult of the cthonic gods, atleast as far as I know. What there were though were different mystery cults which very much did focus on personal belief and salvation. Cthonic and earth gods were propitiated for good harvests, as much as the Olympians were worshipped for good favour. It doesn't mean though that the Gods really liked humans, indeed there are many tales told of Zeus wanting to just wipe us all out on a whim. That being said though, that was mainstream religion which was highly regionalized...so different cities had different relationships with different gods (very different from Abrahamic faiths which focussed on correct belief and practice across the board).

There were though cults specifically focussed on individual Gods whom were important to personal salvation. The Eleusinian Mysteries which focussed on the Goddess Persephone at Eleusis, the cult of Orpheus and his very different religious cult, the cult of Dionysus and his wildwomen. Each of these spoke of blissful experiences in the afterlife very different from the mainstream view of a bleak eternal existance as a shade. These were very similar to the Jesus cult and later Roman mystery religions which sprang up around Isis, Antinous, Mithra and Cybele.

 

[Planets and the Sun]

No, I don't think that's a very correct interpretation.

First, views differed even across the Hellenic world. Some deities were worshipped differently in each region, for instance, and there are deities that have more than one aspect. Dionysus and Demeter, for instance, are considered Olympians but they have close links to fertility. Artemis was often linked with childbirth. Hermes had a cthonic aspect as the guide of souls into the Underworld.

There were things Olympians were often linked with that are quite mundane, such as the weather (Zeus for example), marriage (Hera), and the examples mentioned above.

Likewise, there's also an existential side to the Cthonic deities. Hades is a chthonic deity, but he's strongly linked to the balance that death brings to life as well.

I think a better way to put it is that all deities have domains of "bigger existential significance" but also practical, profane ones as well. After all, it's only normal that people would be concerned about both of those things.