Outside Reading: Ritual

The book The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong discusses many different religious aspects: the axial peoples, ritual, kenosis, knowledge, suffering, empathy, and empire among them. I found the chapter about ritual in Greek culture to be most fascinating. It takes into account the extensive history of Ancient Greece when discussing its people's long practiced ritualistic practices.

The Greeks were in the good practice of passing stories on orally, creating different accounts of Greece's history despite what is actually true. I believe that this ritual of passing down stories orally from generation to generation is extremely important for that fact that it is so long-lived. Although possibly untrue and a little exaggerated in some cases, the rituals that the Greeks believe in characterized their civilization into a unique culture that thrives today.

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