Pericles and the City Gods

This chapter examines Pericles' personal relations with the city gods and how his career as a stratēgos illuminates the Athenians' collective relationship to all that was divine. As a reelected stratēgos and a persuasive orator, Pericles was the spokesman of a civic religion that was undergoing a mutation. He was engaged in various religious activities at a time when the city was introducing profound changes into its religious account of its origins—that is, autochthony—within a context of strained diplomatic relations. The chapter first considers Pericles' role in religion and politics in the context of Athenian democracy, with particular emphasis on the religious festivals supposedly instituted by him, before discussing Pericles' privileged links with several deities in the pantheon. It also explores the increase in the number of impiety trials in Pericles' time.