Greek and Roman Religion

Democratic

Interpretable

Hierarchical

Polytheistic

Anthropomorphic

RELIGION

Greek and Roman

Democratic

Interpretable

Hierarchical

Polytheistic

Anthropomorphic

RELIGION

Greek and Roman

Gods and goddesses had not only the form but also the behaviour and attitudes of humans. They felt rage, love, sadness, etc. and their feelings were key to understand daily events. What's more, they could interact with and relate to humans. From some of their unions, heroes were born.

There were plenty of gods and goddesses. The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon: that is why most of the gods and goddesses we are going to learn were known with both of their two names. Romans even added gods and cults from other cultures, such as the Egyptian or Persian. For instance, Mitra, the Sun for Persians, was venerated by Legionnaires.

Every God controlled an aspect of humans and nature. Zeus was the supreme ruler of them all.

In Greece and Rome there were no priests, so every citizen could be named one and could interpret the signs gods send to humans. To know Gods' will, and humans' faith and knowing more about the past, present and future, there were ways and places to contact divinities. Among them, the oracles were the most relevant: these were places were gods and goddesses answered people's request by the mean of a priestess. Delfos was the most important one, where Pythia (the high priestess of the oracle of Delfos) passed on the answers on behalf of Apollo. There were other ways to know gods' will: the haruspex was a person trained to inspect the entrails of sacrificed animals; an augur interpreted the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds and thunder. Every communication with deities was paid with prayers, where honey, milk, wine and flowers were offered; and animal sacrifices.

There were magnificent temples all around the cities of Greece and Rome. These weren't places of public cult, but to honour the deities, place their offerings o ask for favours. Public festivities were also common, and then the emperor acted as the High Priest of the State. But there was also a domestic cult celebrated by the pater familias: he was the priest in his family, and celebrated the offerings and libations (a ritual that consisted on spreading a liquid as an offering). The houses had a lararium, a chapel to adore Vesta and other deities: the lares (who kept and guard the house); the penates (who protected the food and larder); the genius (pater familias' spirit); and manes (the dead relatives)