The foregoing description of Greek religion is largely synchronous. This is not intended to imply that Greek religion was static or unchanging. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, there certainly were changes. People seemed to have become eager for a more personal, internalized religion, and this seems to be related to crises such as the Peloponnesian War. These wishes could partly be fulfilled by the aforementioned mysteries, or by the cult of Dionysus. But also, during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, new gods were introduced, originating in the East and of an ecstatic character, such as the Magna Mater Cybele from Asia Minor and Adonis from Syria. However, such newcomers were usually not introduced in the pantheon of the polis: even when new gods were officially introduced into the community, their cult tended to remain a private affair. One Greek god whose cult arose in the 5th century BC was Asclepius, the healing god. Also, Asclepius was a god with whom the believer could get into immediate contact: he was a god of salvation who came to mortals in their dreams. The introduction of new cults did not always go ahead without opposition, and traditional forms of personal or collective devotion were not replaced by something new. But several developments were set in motion that in the subsequent Hellenistic period would profoundly influence the character of Greek religion.
Figure 25 Copies of the statue of Athena Parthenos from the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis (originally 447-438 BC). To the left, a marble statue of Athena Parthenos, almost life-size, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. To the right, a small marble statuette found in Athens and now in the Athens National Museum. Both sculptures are 3rd-century AD copies that give us some impression of what the huge statue of Athena Parthenos, Athena the Virgin, in the Parthenon looked like. That statue, made by the famous sculptor Phidias in 447-438 BC, stood 12 m high and consisted of a wooden frame covered with gold and ivory. It has vanished without a trace, and we have to make do with copies like the two here (see also Figure 12). Athena is portrayed as the protector of the city: over a long chiton she wears a short mantle, the aegis, made of goatskin and with a frill of live snakes. On the front of the aegis is fastened a Gorgon’s or Medusa’s head. She wears a helmet, has a shield at her side, and carries a lance (according to descriptions of Phidias’ statue). In her right hand, she carries a Nike, Victory personified, and inside the shield there is a snake, an animal associated with Athena, and interpreted already in antiquity itself as Erechtheus or Erichtonios, the primordial king of Athens who was (part) snake, and who symbolizes the identity of Athenians as an autochthonous people who from time immemorial inhabited Attica. Photos: a) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA/Classical Department Exchange Fund/The Bridgeman Art Library; b) Universal Images Group/SuperStock
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