World Religions in Credo: Ancient Religions

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts of Gaul and the British Isles. Celtic worship centred on the interplay of the divine element with the natural world. Springs, rivers, and hills were thought to be inhabited by guardian spirits, usually female. Some gods were widely worshiped; lesser deities were associated with particular tribes or places.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Ra, the sun god, and Osiris, god of the dead, were the chief deities, but many gods were believed to control birth and death and various aspects of everyday life. The gods were depicted with the heads of the animals sacred to them. The hawk was sacred to Ra and Horus, the ibis to Thoth, and the jackal to Anubis. Later the local deity of Thebes, Ammon, became supreme as Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, a symbol of national unity. Immortality was originally the preserve of the pharaohs, but under the New Kingdom all who could afford mummification could achieve it.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Pre-Christian religious practices among the tribes of Western Europe, Germany, and Scandinavia.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
The religion of ancient Greece from the 8th to the 3rd century BC, with a well-defined pantheon of deities including the supreme ruler Zeus; his consort Hera; Athena, the goddess of wisdom; Hermes, the god of war; and many others, who lived on Mount Olympus and were closely inter-related.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
The religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Rome. The spirits were held in awe and were placated with offerings and prayers.

From The Hutchsinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Religion of the Sumerian civilization. Sumerian society was ruled by gods - everything belonged to the gods and the kings were their representatives. Humanity's role was to serve the gods and to fulfil their will in their eternal struggles with each other.

The Acropolis of Athens was a ceremonial site beginning in the Neolithic Period.

Europe's largest stone circle (diameter 412 m/1,350 ft), in Wiltshire, England. This megalithic henge monument is thought to be part of a ritual complex.

From Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained
The pyramids of Egypt were built around 2000 bc as royal tombs on a gigantic scale – it has been calculated that the largest of them, the great pyramid, was originally 147 metres (481 feet) high.

From Dictionary of Classical Mythology
The highest mountain in Greece, almost 10,000 feet high and situated on and around the borders of Macedonia and Thessaly. From early times Olympus was believed to be the home of the gods ruled over by ZEUS, thus giving them their familiar name of the Olympian gods.

[Gr.,=the virgin's place]; temple sacred to Athena, on the acropolis at Athens. Built under Pericles between 447 B.C. and 432 B.C., it is the culminating masterpiece of Greek architecture.

Megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain, 3 km/1.9 mi west of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. The intriguing mysterious prehistoric stone circle known as Stonehenge is one of the world’s oldest and most famous holy sites. While much about Stonehenge remains unknown, it is best understood as the culminating product of the stone-building culture that produced these many monuments across the British Isles.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. The earliest examples date from the end of the 3d millenium B.C., the latest from the 6th century B.C.