Art and religion construct people’s identities; they give people a sense of self. Who are they? What is their position in this world, where do they stand as a species, and what is the purpose of their existence on this small blue planet drifting in space? For us, scientific knowledge has become a source of identity that gives us a sense of self. How, then, did ancient people, particularly the people of Greece, develop their ways of understanding the world?
How did religion, art, and philosophy help them construct their sense of identity and their understanding of the world in which they lived? These are the primary questions of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to identify topics such as art and religion and critically evaluate the influence and reflection of these social and metaphysical institutions on people’s identity in ancient Greece.
Religion Drama and Dionysian Identity
Like many ancient civilizations, the Greeks were also fascinated by rituals and religious practices, though their way of understanding these institutions was very different from that of later Abrahamic traditions such as Judaism and Christianity. Nonetheless, they too had the idea of an afterlife and a sense of reward and punishment after death. In ancient Greece, drama was closely linked with religious rituals; it was associated with Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and wild urges, the god of wine and orgies, and most of all, the god of disorder. Greek plays were performed at his annual festival, where renowned dramatists of the time participated in a competition of performances staged in the glorification of Dionysus. Drama and religion were closely linked, and by understanding drama, we can see how it reflected the identities of the ancient people of Greek civilization.
Oedipus and the Search for the Self
As an example, we will analyze Oedipus Rex, or King Oedipus. In this play, we learn that the complex implications of identity and the sense of self come from ancient mythology and were later composed by Sophocles into a drama that was performed at Dionysus’ shrine. This play elaborates on the moral, ethical, and existential dilemmas of the Greeks, including the identity crisis and the role of fate and free will in the lives of the people of Athens. Oedipus was prophesied to marry his mother and kill his father, as told by the oracle of Delphi, which was associated with Apollo, the god of order, music, and harmony and the polar opposite of Dionysus. Because of this fear of transgression, his mother and father abandoned him in the wilderness, where he was rescued by a shepherd and taken to the king of another city, who accepted and loved him as a son. When Oedipus was young, he was compelled to learn about his origins and confront the question, ‘Who am I?’ The play is structured to depict that journey from ignorance to knowledge and the dire consequences that follow. In search of his origins, Oedipus left his home and went to the oracle of Delphi to ask about his origins. He was mocked and humiliated, and the oracle refused to tell him about his origins; instead, he learned that he was cursed to marry his mother and murder his father, as destiny had ordained.
Therefore, Oedipus vowed not to see his father and mother again and started traveling toward Thebes, where his real mother and father were living. On the way, he had a quarrel that resulted in the murder of an old man and his guards; one man succeeded in escaping the scene. Ironically, the man Oedipus killed was his father. The play uses dramatic irony, which means that the spectators are well aware that Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, but the characters are not aware of it; they are as ignorant as the protagonist. The rest of the play explores Oedipus’s persistent struggle and stubborn determination to learn his origins. Tiresias warns him about the dangers of wisdom in the following statement:
“Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise! This I knew well but had forgotten it, else I would not have come here.” (Lattimore et al. 1959).
Knowledge Fate and Tragic Self-Discovery
Tiresias was the blind prophet who warned Oedipus against the destructive consequences of wisdom or knowledge. Hence, one can argue that this play is a metaphor about knowledge and a cautionary tale about the devastation it brings to an individual, as we can see in the case of the protagonist. At the end of the play, Oedipus is humiliated and disgraced when he finally learns about his origins and true identity and screams:
“Darkness! Horror of darkness enfolding, resistless unspeakable visitant sped by an ill wind in haste! madness and stabbing pain and memory of evil deeds I have done!” (Lattimore et al. 1959).
Tragedy follows Oedipus; he becomes a victim of fate, a fate that uses Oedipus himself to bring about his own damnation. By the end of the play, Oedipus gouges out his eyes because he cannot bear to see the reality of his position, as Tiresias says earlier in the play:
“You have your eyes but see not where you are in sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with.” (Lattimore et al. 1959).
Heroic Suffering in the Greek Imagination
In conclusion, one cannot help but sympathize with Oedipus, but I want to make a point here that can give us a more insightful view of the ancient concept of a hero. According to ancient Greek thought, the concept of a hero is very interesting. For the ancient Greeks, it was not easy to become a hero. Take the examples of Heracles and Odysseus: these heroes suffered and went through many trials in order to attain heroic status. Similarly, the ancient Greeks hailed Oedipus as a hero. He has a status similar to that of Heracles or Odysseus. Therefore, trials and tribulations make a hero, and nobody suffered more than Oedipus in attaining that status (Nagy et al. 1999). Hence, the play provides great insight into the development of the identity of the ancient people of Athens: how they saw themselves in the general scheme of the universe and how they understood the roles of gods, fate, and free will.
Epicurean Philosophy and the Pursuit of Happiness
Although religion, art, philosophy, and political ideologies are different fields of study in our time, in ancient Greece every field of study was connected and had overlapping tendencies. In order to expand on how their philosophical or political ideologies contributed to, influenced, and reflected their identities, we will critically evaluate Epicurus’s letter to Menoeceus. In the first paragraph of this letter, Epicurus talks about wisdom and its pursuit through philosophy in the attainment of happiness because, for Epicurus, the ultimate goal of human existence is the pursuit of happiness that comes from pleasure. He states the following:
“So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.” (Sedley, 1979).
Death Desire and Life in the Present
In the following passage, Epicurus goes on to give one of his most striking opinions on death; it is so direct and distinctive that one is struck by Epicurus’s approach to the subject. The quote states the following:
“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death does not come, and, when death comes, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living, it is not, and the dead exist no longer.” (Sedley, 1979).
Epicurus argues that we can never know anything about death because ‘when we are, death is not, and when we are not, death is.’ It concerns the impossibility of knowing death and the futility of debating its metaphysical nature. Furthermore, Epicurus goes on to explore his principles of pleasure and pain, happiness and despair. He argues that we must try to live in the present rather than think constantly about the future because the future is uncertain. Similarly, he makes a distinction between natural and necessary desires. Natural desires involve our instincts to eat, drink, have sex, defecate, etc., while we also have desires to connect, love, and communicate with others. We can live neither without natural necessities nor without necessary desires. It is an interesting anatomy of desires and instincts, not entirely modern but very insightful. Epicurus was a cult figure. He had followers all over Greece; people followed him, and many modern thinkers and writers were inspired by his philosophy of pleasure and material realities. These concepts helped to build the identity of ancient Greece; they influenced the Greek worldview and addressed the enduring questions of one’s existence in this world, the purpose of life, and the life hereafter.
Works Cited
Lattimore, Richmond, and David Grene, eds. The complete Greek tragedies. Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, 1959.
Nagy, Gregory. The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Print.
Sedley, David N. “Epicurus.” (1979): 82-84.
Academic Master Education Team is a group of academic editors and subject specialists responsible for producing structured, research-backed essays across multiple disciplines. Each article is developed following Academic Master’s Editorial Policy and supported by credible academic references. The team ensures clarity, citation accuracy, and adherence to ethical academic writing standards
Content reviewed under Academic Master Editorial Policy.
