Question by robby09_2000: Ancient Greece was nothing if complex. How is it possible that a culture that produced democracy and…..?
rational scientific inquiry could produce wars and irrational cults like that which revolved around the “Eleusinian Mysteries?”
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Answer by nancy21
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090920164447AA0id51
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Democracy was limited to adult male citizens, and excluded most of the population, including women,foreigners, and slaves (slaves made uop 50% of the populace). And their philosophers were not necessarily particularly enlightened. Aristotle for instance thought that women and slaves were born inferior and were naturally intended to be subject.
The Eleusian mysteries developed in response to the rather negative view that Greeks in general took of the afterlife. Hades was a dismal place, but the fortunate few might get to Elysium. The Eleusian mysteries were a way of ensuring that you would get to Elysium rather than being stuck in dismal Hades, so they were quite sensible from the ancient Greek point of view. who wouldn’t prefer Elysium to Hades?
And since when have war and scientific inquiry been mutually incompatible?