period. Heracles destroyed injustice and lawlessness on the earth, and Zeus conferred immortality upon him because of his virtue (ἀρετή).24 3.2. Greek temple in Paestum, south of Naples (fifth cent. BCE) Norbert Nagel, CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons Greek religion is shaped by ritual practices, the actions determined by the custom of the ancestors or the city. The central concern (also among the Romans) was purification. “Our ancestors believed that every sin and every cause of ill could be wiped