Priesthood: A world of marvels for a failed understanding:
Before writing this essay I must preface this by saying, the term priest is a term charged with Christian theocracy and does not correctly ascribe the wide range of acts, roles and understandings that were held under ἱerᾶteia. For reasons such as the need to simplify to the wider audience, I will be using the term priest, priesthood, or any form of this noun to simplify the notion in the readers mind, but please understand that it is not a necessarily correct term and in reality is a proof of how scholar work still holds western biases in their research and view on pagan, polytheistic and cultural practices.
A priest is understood across most scholarly work as "someone who takes care of what is hiera (sacred)", but, what does such thing mean in the context of Ancient Greek religion? The average practitioner is able to conduct sacrifices on their own, and does not need a so called "intermediary" between them in order to interact with a deity. Herodotus himself found it quite strange that Persians would require the presence of a priest for every sacrifice.
What is a priest’s role then?
A priest’s role is mainly to care for the cult’s sanctity. The priest would take care of the offering at the altar, clean the effigies, conduct the sacrifices. We must add to that, there was not only a singular priest that would take care of such things, but they were actually divided into multiple tasks that were assigned to cult members through all ages that held specific cultic roles assigned to their identity.
All of this was held under the state cults supervision, which identifies that to be a priest was to be a civic office holder. Contrary to what western biases might tell us, Greek polis was not secular and held cult laws (although differentiated between regions and cities) and "general" laws under the same umbrella. This, however, does not mean that there was such thing as a priestly caste quite the opposite. Priests were not like the Christian priests, they did not take up on the matter of the people’s faith, or "religious laws", not at all.
Who could be a priest, and how could you be one?
Only men could be priests of gods, and only women could be priestesses of goddesses. Added to this two main requirements, Physical and socio-economic status.
Priests are required to be in great health, serious birth defects could rule out anyone wishing to hold office.
Some cases would ask of the worshippers to prove their sexual abstinence, or to not do so for a couple of days before entering temples.
They were also required to fit the "wholeness" of the gods, they had to be beautiful, similar to how Homer describes the priestess Theano as "fair cheeked".
Class and financial status:
A priest was required (especially in cases of inherited priesthoods) to hold a pedigree, certain offices were held only to specific tribes or families that could trace themselves over at least four generations. As well as some prestigious priesthoods were only available to those who followed the principal of genos.
Financial status was also required. Old families that came with impressive economic resources that used to finance festivals and cults, said wealth eventually waned and that is mainly how the sales of priesthoods came along. This allowed for those who lacked the pedigree could then hold office thanks to their wealth.
Priesthoods could be acquired in one of four ways:
The most prestigious of priesthoods were held within very restricted clans, that managed to hold inheritance to this office despite the political changes in the region.
In certain cases families would claim lineage to the hero founding cult, which was one of the strongest claims to priesthood.
Allotment was a development that sometimes would introduced itself into preexisting cults. The choice by lot was based on the idea of luck of draw was in reality a way to allow the gods to choose the winner. (This might be a fifth century development that I give too much importance to!)
Election and appointment:
We do not have enough information on how these elections were constituted, but, we do know that elections were done for priesthoods with more importance or to elect low level offices.
Sales of priesthoods generally came with a life tenure, they could be sold before death or bequeathed to a child.
This clearly shows that there was no such thing as "self appointed" priests!
What is a priest’s relation with the gods
Priests acted as the servant of the gods, they were there to tend to the sanctity of the deities property, and were there to conduct rituals and festivals in their honors.
What were the privileges that were acquired with priesthood
Priesthood had its multitude of privileges, which were granted thanks to their being as servant of the gods, and thus their proximity to them.
This included, being granted access to holy precincts and to the cult statues, having their images held within the temple, and residency within the sanctuary. Added to that, cash payments and the sacrificial victim’s meat and skins.
We have seen throughout this essay what the role of a priest is and how can said title be acquired. Hellenic polytheist priesthood is in no way, shape, or form close to what Christian theocratic doctrine is, it is not a title that is especially closed to a specific gender and it is not a role of religious leader but divine servant.
Priesthood is as of today impossible to reconstruct, due to the complexity of cults, the very specific cultural nature of certain cults that were closed to specific tribes and clans, and its significance as a civic office of the Greek polis.
The only way where one could acquire the role of priest would be temporarily when conducting a festival!
Sources: Portrait of a Priestess women and ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly; Practitioners of the Divine: Greek priests and religious official from Homer to Heliodorus; Ancient Greek Religion by Jon D. Mikalson.
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