You can reach the archaeological site of Sounion from Athens by car or bus, with the trip lasting about one hour. The last of the three prime gods, Hades was the god and ruler of the Underworld. Also known as Pluto, his mission was to guard the souls of the dead from leaving. Cerberus, a three-headed dog that lived with him, guarded the gates of the Underworld.
On the banks of the river Acherontas, which was thought to be one of the entrances to the Underworld, a Necromanteion was built. This was a temple dedicated to Hades and Persephone, where people went in order to seek advice concerning the afterlife or to meet the souls of the dead.
It is believed that the temple consisted of two levels, with the underground one relating to mystical practices, also famous for its acoustics. The Necromanteion is one hour drive south of the city of Ioannina. Demeter was known as the Olympian goddess of harvest and agriculture, who protected the grains and the fertility of the Earth. She also presided over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death, while she and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Built around BC on the island of Naxos, the temple of Demeter is considered a prime example of Ionic architecture and was built entirely from white Naxian marble of the finest quality. It is one of the few religious monuments built in the Ionic order on the Aegean islands, which also can be reconstructed in detail. The temple is situated in the south part of the island, just 25 minutes drive from the town of Naxos.
The sanctuary of Demeter is located within the city walls of Eleusis, a city situated 22 km west of Athens, on a ridge above the bay of Eleusis.
The sanctuary was composed of a sacred well the Kallichorono, the cave of Pluto adjacent to a triangular court and the Telesterion of Demeter, an almost square building that could seat people. This was the place where the secret initiation rites were taking place, which according to tradition, began during the Mycenaean period. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, handicraft and warfare, and the patron and protector of various cities across Greece, most notably of the city of Athens.
In artistic representations, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear. Widely considered the most important surviving classical temple in Greece, the Parthenon was dedicated to the patron deity of the city, Athena. The Parthenon is situated on the sacred hill of the Acropolis, at the center of Athens. Situated at the acropolis in the city of Lindos on the island of Rhodes, the temple of Athena was a famous sanctuary of Panhellenic character.
Constructed around the 6th century BC, it was built in the Doric style and it houses a cult statue of the goddess, a standing figure of Athena carrying a shield, but wearing a polos rather than a helmet. The temple is located approximately 3 kilometers from the center of the city of Rhodes. Known as the most beautiful of all the gods, Apollo was the god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more.
He was considered the national divinity of the Greeks and the most Greek of all the gods. Famous for the Pythia, the oracle that provided the visitors with signs, the temple was of Doric style, while the structure that survives today is the third one built in the same place. Delphi is located km northwest of Athens, and you can reach the place by car or bus.
Construction started around BC, although the finishing touches were never completed. It was a peripteral temple, while the famous Colossus of the Naxians stood in the adjacent courtyard.
You can reach Delos by a quick ferry ride from Mykonos. Volcanoes throughout the world have had a special relation to hell, for obvious reasons. The Yucatan's many limestone caves and cavern networks enchanted the Maya, and they ritually deposited valuables and sacrificed humans to the gods of the watery cave underworld. The Maya creation myth recounts the tale of the hero twins who vanquished the evil gods of the underworld, Xibalba , and freed the lesser gods there to surface and start our living world above.
All rights reserved. Different Kind of Hell The ancients had a very different concept of hell than does Christianity—it wasn't just a place bad people went when they died. Other cultures have their own "gates to hell.
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The Necromanteion was an ancient temple dedicated to the god of the Underworld, Hades, and his consort, the goddess Persephone.
According to ancient Greek beliefs, while the bodies of the dead decayed in the earth, their souls would be released, and travelled to the Underworld via fissures in the earth. The spirits of the dead were said to possess abilities that the living did not have, including the power to foretell the future. Temples were therefore erected in places thought to be entrances to the Underworld to practice necromancy communication with the dead in order to receive prophecies. Hades taking Persephone into the Underworld.
Whilst other temples, such as the Temple of Poseidon at Tanaeron, as well as the temples at Hermione Argolis , Cumae Italy and Herakleia Pontos were known to have practiced necromancy, it was the Necromanteion in Epirus that was the most famous of them all. This site is believed to have been discovered by Greek archaeologist Sotirios Dakaris in Epirus in the s. The ruins in Epirus believed to be the Necromanteion.
The Necromanteion was mentioned by a number of ancient authors. Herodotus gives an account of Periander, the Corinthian tyrant. According to this story, the tyrant wished to communicate with the spirit of his recently deceased wife, Melissa, so as to find out the place where she hid a certain amount of money. To prove her identity, she mentions something that only Periander knows of, i. This cryptic message actually meant that the tyrant had sexual intercourse with the corpse of his wife, something that Periander alone would have, presumably, known.
When Periander heard this, he immediately stripped the clothing off the local women and burnt them the clothing as an offering to Melissa. Communicating with the dead, however, was not limited to the famous characters in the writings of the ancient Greek authors. Regular citizens were also about to visit the Necromanteion to seek counsel with the dead. They would first enter a dark chamber before performing certain elaborate rituals intended for their own protection and to gain the ability to communicate with the deceased.
After this, a priest would lead them into a deeper chamber, where a ritual animal sacrifice would be performed, before passing through three gates which symbolised their entry into the Underworld. The celebrants would now be able to speak to the spirits of the Underworld. Inside one of the underground chambers at Epirus. Skeptics argue that these were simply hallucinations caused by ritual food or drink with psychotropic properties.
It was only in the 18 th century that the site was reused, when a monastery dedicated to St. John the Baptist was built on the site.
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