Roman Religion Essays - Greco-Roman Mysteries,

Roman Religion Roman Religion in A Romans Everyday Life vs. Religion's Effects on Today We Romans, said Cicero, owe our supremacy overall other peoples to our piety and religious observances and to our wisdom in believing that the spirit of the gods rules and directs everything. Roman rites and observances took two main forms. One was the domestic reverence of the spirit or genius of the family. The other was the public attitude to the gods and goddesses by whom the destiny and welfare of the Roman people as a whole were supposed to be guided and controlled. During the Classical period, religious observance accompanied all important private and public events and transactions and, no successful outcome went without a vow of thanks or public dedication. Temples, priests and sacred rites were provided by the State. Nothing in the nature of religious services as we know them, in which the body of worshipers as a whole were able to participate, seems to have been celebrated in the temples. Any set forms of prayers, hymns or chants were performed solely by the official priest s whose secrets they remained. The ordinary Roman man or woman had little personal part to play in such rites (Handbook To Life In Ancient Greece). While they were being undertaken and fulfilled it was the duty of the ordinary citizen not to interfere or make any disturbance and to refrain from any business affairs. When religiously minded Roman dropped in to a temple in order to worship the god or goddess whose house it was , they had some practical object in view : some personal favor or advantage. They came and perhaps burn incenses. When praying they stood with upturned palms. Sometimes they got as close to the image of the god as they could in order to whisper their pleas; the feet of some of the images were worn by the kisses of generations of worshipers. In addition to paying a fee for admission, the grateful petitioner for divine aid also brought sacrifices and thankful offerings to the temples. Enormous numbers of livestock and cattle went to augment the wealth of the templ es, and to swell the incomes of the priests and attendants, many of whom became extremely wealthy. Temple worship was no essential part of Roman life. If it had been, it is difficult to understand why there were not more than about a hundred within the city confines, which is no large number in a city of some million inhabitants. Romans kept their religious faith because they grew up with it in their homes. Its strength did not depend so much upon visits to the temples or upon the services of the priests because every home had a domestic shrine and alter before which daily act of reverence could take place. There were lares of the cross roads also, who could be worshiped out doors by the homeless or by those too poor to maintain their own family shrine (Handbook To Life In Ancient Greece). Roman religion had been heavily influenced by its surrounding civilizations, especially Greek and Etruscan. Characteristic for early Roman religion are the so called function gods : gods that perf orm only one specific function that was mostly agricultural. Rome used to be an agricultural community before evolving into a world power. Apart from these , gods as Stercutus the god of the power of manure , nature itself was full of godly powers. In a later stage the Romans transformed under Greek influence. Since the beginning of their existence Romans tended to take over other cults and incorporate them into their own religion ; cults like the one of Cybele, originally from Anatolia, Mithras from the Persians and even Isis from Egypt where adapted and incorporated in Roman society. During the Empire an important new cult was institutionalized , the cult of the Emperor. Starting from Augustus onwards the emperor was deified and worshiped (Home Work Help : History). This was very handy to unify the empire and show loyalty to the emperor. Roman religion was intended to keep the relation god/human healthy. The relation between god and man was kept somewhat like a contract, I give yo u something and you give