Veronica Reed

Ancient World
Fall Semester

Portfolio Reflection

Through out history there are many great lessons to be taught. Whether it has to do with
politics, science, art or religion there is always something to gain from learning about it. In this
class we have covered everything from where humans originated from, Greece, Rome, Europe, all
the way to the Byzantine Empire. There was a whole lot of successful religion, government, and
downfalls of certain civilizations but most importantly there was a whole lot of history. I believe
that one of the key things in all of these different countries and time eras that we learned about was
their religion because it played such a huge part in everyone's lives.

In ancient Greek times religion played a huge part in their society. They had multiple gods that you
could pray to and chances are that you would find a God/Goddess that you could pray to for your
specific time in need. Religion shaped everything for the Greeks back then; they named their cities
after them, that had huge celebrations to celebrate a god, and some of the most amazing and
interesting stories come from this time. By having religion they were able to shape their society
and their rules by having women be nothing but suspicious and evil if they allow them to have the
chance, as for men they were taught that the Gods can take human shape and will sometimes even
interfere with human issues. By teaching them that it very much so kept them in check and in
place. This is important because to have any kind of successful civilization you must have some

sort of a scare tactic, every society has one and if I were to have my own society and country I
strongly believe that religion would do the trick well.

Fast forward to the Mauryan Empire time where Buddhism was just coming to popularity. They
used Buddhism to create peace throughout the empire and it lasted for a very long time. Not only
did they use it for peace but it was truly a way of life during those times. Buddhism did not call for
violence unlike many other religions and if you did commit a crime you would have to make up for
it or karma would come back around and do you how you did to others. It kept the citizens in line
as well because it kept an even amount of people in each sections of the caste. If you did not like
what caste you were born into you did not have to worry because in your next life, if you acted
properly, you would be reborn into a nicer life and that would continue until you reached nirvana.
You never had to worry about thing not being in balance in your society which is something that
happens so often in the modern world. I believe that is a key factor to any society because you
cannot have everyone wanting to be the elite otherwise there would be no one to do the farming or
running the market and doing other jobs that are considered lower class.

Even in the Minoan civilization religion played a major factor. While they followed Greek
mythology their city was basically part of some of the myths. One of the myths that came from all
of this was the one about the Minotaur. There was a kingdom that was built (either before or after)
the story came around and when archeologists found that it made Greek mythology that much more
realistic. Traditions came from this myth that included bull hopping and the bull being seen as
sacred in their culture. I believe that in my society if we have a form of religion that it can help us
built our own traditions which in turn will help us build a community.

In conclusion, religion has always had major impacts on cities and their culture. Whether it
impacted how they build stuff, how peaceful they are, new traditions or even keeping people in
check, I strongly believe that in any new society that there should be some shape or form of
religion. This has been proving time and time again through out our Ancient World class. When we
look back on civilizations we typically are also really curious as to what did they believe in, did
they think there was a god, what did they do to worship that god, and how did that impact their
everyday lives? All in all almost every civilization that we've learned about ash been impacted by
religion in one way or another.

Work Cited
Cartwright, Mark. "Greek Religion." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Dec.
2016. <http://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Religion/>.

Cartwright2, Mark. "Minoan Civilization." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 15
Dec. 2016. <http://www.ancient.eu/Minoan_Civilization/>.

"Library." Buddhism Origins, Buddhism History, Buddhism Beliefs. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.
<http://www.patheos.com/Library/Buddhism>.

Mark, Joshua J. "Knossos." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 15 Oct. 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.
<http://www.ancient.eu/knossos/>.