Class 8 M 09/29/25: Roman Religion Day 1

The word "religion" comes from the Latin religio, meaning "to bind together." Roman religion shared similarities with modern religion in family life, rites of passage, and festivals, but differed significantly in scripture and morality, the afterlife, and conversion.

Similarities to Modern Religion

1. Family Life

   • Household shrines with offerings and prayers for protection and health.

   • Similar to modern familial customs like grace before meals or night prayers.

2. Rites of Passage

   • Important milestones: naming ceremonies, coming-of-age rituals (giving up good luck charms, wearing a male toga), marriage customs (heavily influenced Roman practices), and religious aspects of death/dying.

   • Secular cultures still contain traces of these Roman traditions.

3. Festivals

   • Holidays (Dies festus) celebrating certain gods or times of the year, similar to modern religious holidays like Christmas or Easter.

   • The word "festivity" derives from this tradition.

Differences from Modern Religion

1. Scripture and Morality

   • No formal scripture (like the Bible, Quran, Torah) or codified set of beliefs.

   • Morality was derived from law, ethics, and philosophy (e.g., 12 Tables, Stoicism, Epicureanism), not religion.

   • Religion focused on reverence to the gods, not a moral code for human behavior.

   • Gods were not seen as pillars of excellent behavior; they had vices.

2. The Afterlife

   • Generally a gloomy view: everyone's "shade" went to the underworld (similar to Disney's Hercules depiction).

   • No focus on earthly acts determining afterlife fate, except for the "super awesome" (Elysian Fields) or "super awful" (Tartarus).

   • Immortality was achieved through great deeds and being remembered (e.g., songs about warriors like Odysseus or Aeneas).

   • Cult religions (Isis, Sybil, Christianity) offered a more hopeful view of death, attracting followers.

3. Conversion

   • Romans were largely fluid and tolerant; they didn't actively convert people.

   • Conflict arose with monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity) that refused to sacrifice to or acknowledge the Roman pantheon.

   • Warfare was not religiously motivated; Romans went to war for land, often incorporating aspects of conquered peoples' religions.

   • Modern wars often have religious or ethical components (e.g., Crusades, WWII, Gaza).

Relationship Between Gods and Humans

• Romans were not expected to love their gods, nor did gods love them.

• The human role was to honor and respect the gods' power for their intervention in daily life (childbirth, harvest) and macro events (rulers, war, omens).

• Sacrifice was central: daily household offerings (cake, milk, honey, wine) and larger animal sacrifices for state festivals, weddings, or wars.

• No human sacrifice: A point of Roman propaganda against the Gauls, emphasizing their "anti-Roman" nature.

• The Christian concept of Jesus as the "ultimate sacrifice" contrasted with Roman animal sacrifice.

Development of Roman Religion

• Knowledge based on later writers, steeped in myth.

• Early gods associated with core elements: Earth, harvest, death, nature.

• Borrowed heavily from the Greeks for their polytheistic pantheon.

• Pythonic/Chthonic (Earth, female deities like Minerva, Juno) vs. Aurarian (sky, masculine gods like Jupiter) themes borrowed from Greeks/Egyptians.

• The word colo (to cultivate/worship) connects early gods to farming.

• Gods were anthropomorphic: represented in human forms, with human faults and imperfections, but amplified due to their divine status.

Influences

1. Etruscans

   • Introduced Jupiter, Mars, Minerva (the "Big Three").

   • First Roman temples in Etruscan style.

   • Borrowed divination practices: Augurs (birds) and Haruspex (animal entrails), influencing words like "auspices" and "horoscope."

2. Greeks

   • Adopted many Greek gods (merging with Roman counterparts, accelerating in 3rd century BCE during Punic Wars).

   • Tremendous influence on Roman literature (myths, epics, philosophy, tragedy, comedy), with gods intertwined in plots.

   • By the 1st century, Greek and Roman mythology were nearly indistinguishable.

Major Roman Gods (with Greek Equivalents and Key Attributes)

Emperor Worship

• Developed during the Empire, not in the Republic or Kingship eras; adopted from Eastern cultures (Egypt, Babylon, Assyria).

• Emperors became Pontifex Maximus (head of Roman religion).

• Deified by their successors, not all emperors became gods (e.g., no cult of Nero).

Modern Relevance

• Roman religion continues to influence modern society through art, literature, marketing, and the etymology of English words (borrowing from Latin and Greek).