Blackwell Reference Online

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For I too have altars and household hiera and patrōia and artefacts of the same type as other Athenians . (Plato, Euthydemus 302C) While ancient Greek texts reveal that families performed religious acts in their houses, our knowledge of these occasions is tantalizingly incomplete. Family religion is not a subject of direct interest to ancient authors. We have no concise or lengthy descriptions of the role and practice of religion in the ancient Greek household; we have only fragmentary passages, where the subject or practice of family religion makes a brief and incidental appearance. These passages conceal as much as they reveal. While Socrates, the speaker in the passage above, is keen to assert that his household is religiously active, we do not know what artifacts he is referring to. We have no idea of the appearance of a hiera or a patrōia; we have no idea of how they were used or by whom. Many of the words used by ancient Greek authors, such as hiera and patrōia , cannot be translated clearly; we have no equivalent and cannot understand the meaning of such words. We can only guess that they are some kind of shrine. Our ability to understand the religious life of the ancient Greek family is constrained by source difficulties and the situation is exacerbated further by cultural restrictions. In seeking to view family religion, we are trespassing in a restricted zone. ... log in or subscribe to read full text