Unit 05: Ancient Roman Religion
Contents and layout ©1999 Joseph J. Hughes, Ph.D.
Revised 09 November 2000
numina Lupercalia
lares/penates Saturnalia
Jupiter pontifex
Juno Vestal Virgins
Sterculinus divination
pax deorum Sibylline Books
I. Primitive Roman religion
A. scantily attested
1. preceded literate society
2. frozen religious formulae
a. repeated and passed along orally
b. eventually lost almost all their meaning
B. animism
1. numina
a. vaguely conceived woodland deities
b. belonged to physical features of the outdoors
c. that's "animism" if you will
2. lares
a. household cult of external fertility
b. worshipped by individual family units
c. Rome had its own lares
3. penates
a. deities of the house's pantry
b. guardians of the house's plenty
C. archaic religious rites
1. prayer to Marmar
a. formulaic, survives on tablet from AD 218
b. antique, repeated unchanged
c. went like this, with 3-step rhythm:
Help us, Lares! (3x)
Marmar, let not plague or ruin attack the multitude (3x)
Be filled, fierce Mars. Leap the threshold. Halt, wild one. (3x)
By turns call on all the gods of Sowing (3x)
Help us, Marmor! (3x)
Triumph! (3x)
d. part of the silliness which was Ancient Rome!
2. instauratio
a. screw up any part of a ritual, and it must be performed correctly
1). no matter how long it takes or how much it costs
2). no matter how stupid or boring it may be
3). sometimes done intentionally
b. LET'S DO THE MARMAR AGAIN!
3. various prayers
a. harvest prayer described by Cato (R 366)
b. Manius Acilius's prayer before Macedonian War (191 BC)
II. The Roman pantheon
A. syncretism: merging of traditions
1. "Olympian" gods (anthropomorphic)
a. borrowed, as it were, from the Greex
b. assimilation of Roman numina and Greek anthropomorphs
2. Etruscan influence
a. Zeus-Hera-Athena (Greek)
b. Tinia-Uni-Menerfa (Etruscan)
c. Jupiter-Juno-Minerva (Roman)
3. "Oh, so that's who our lightning god turns out to be!"
B. major divinities
1. Jupiter, god of lightning = Zeus
2. Juno, goddess of woman's concerns = Hera
3. Mars, agriculture god = Ares
4. Apollo
5. Diana, generic woodland spirit = Artemis
6. Mercury
7. Ceres, spirit of plant growth = Demeter
8. Venus, spirit of fertility = Aphrodite
9. Vulcan
10. Pluto
11. Vesta
12. Liber Pater
C. retained minor divinities a feature of everyday life
1. numina changed names
2. some figures concerned with everyday activity
a. Sarritor, god of hoeing
b. Sterculinus, god of spreading manure
3. testimony to the mos maiorum
III. Function of "state" religion
A. Not a religion of beliefs and ideas
1. concerned with maintaining pax deorum
a. maintenance of a quid pro quo with gods
b. little sincere religious faith
c. did not provide emotional satisfaction
d. we will deal with other religions later
1). "philosophical" religion
2). Judaism
3). Isiac religion
4). Mithraism
5). Christianity
2. organized by and for the government
a. built popular unity
b. created popular diversions
c. sometimes cynically motivated
3. important component of -mos- -maiorum-
a. not everyone believed in it
b. everyone had to pay attention to it.
c. important part of what had made spqRome great
B. religious festivals
1. purpose: honor Roman gods
a. often performed by the state
b. sometimes performed by rural people
c. also a lot of fun
2. instauratio
a. all rites must be performed perfectly
b. otherwise gods are angry
3. Lupercalia
a. "purificatory" ceremony
b. goats sacrificed
c. young men in loincloths run around whipping others
4. Saturnalia
a. honors Saturn on 17 December
b. public dinners, gift giving
c. slaves become masters for a day
d. antecedent to Xmas holiday
5. features of some other festivals
a. theatrical performances
b. games
C. "importation" of gods
1. Roman tolerance
a. generally willing to accept new religions
b. saw the world as full of gods
c. every little bit helps
2. foreign religious cults brought to Rome
a. sometimes at instigation of state
b. sometimes by foreign immigrants
1). filled a spiritual void
2). offered salvation
3. much more about this later
a. mysteries of Bacchus
b. mysteries of Isis
c. mysteries of Mithras
d. Christianity
D. elected priesthoods
1. pontifices (16)
a. chief: pontifex maximus (= pope)
b. oversee religious matters
1). sacrifices to the gods
2). punish infractions
c. serve as religious consultants
2. Vestal Virgins (6)
a. keep holy fire of Vesta burning
b. must remain virgins
1). theoryetically could leave after 30 years
2). killed for breaking vows
E. "superstition" and fortunetelling
1. Roman fondness for fortunetelling
a. Romans raised it to an art form
b. very important for the state religion
1). determined public holidays
2). could obstruct public business
c. used to foretell official matters
1). had to be obtained before wars, etc.
2). disastrous when ignored
d. not to be confused with astrology
2. divination (interpretation of signs in the sky)
a. augury (interp. of birds and flight patterns)
1). two types: "sought" and "unsought"
2). Romulus and Remus interpreted bird signs
b. extispicium (interp. of organs of sacrifices)
c. weather signs
1). storms, meteorites, earthquakes, eclipses
2). tended to happen before disasters
3. Sibylline Books
a. consulted only in time of woe
b. collected from all sorts of different sources
c. modern analogy: Nostradamus
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