For example, Juno and Minerva were of Etruscan descent.

The limited sphere of their influence extended only to certain moments in the cultivation of the land, the growth of bread, cattle breeding, beekeeping, and human life.

And so it was in everything. Every failure, even the smallest, and every success, even the slightest, was thought to be a manifestation of the wrath or benevolence of the deity.

The Roman did not dare to claim that he could distinguish between a god or a goddess. In prayer, he was also careful and said: “Jupiter, the Most Merciful, the Great, or, if you want, call yourself by some other name. And when he had offered the sacrifice, he said, Thou art God, or Goddess ;

The Roman gods did not descend to earth and did not appear to people as willingly as the Greeks. They kept their distance from the person.

All that was known about the gods in Rome was how to worship them and at what point to ask them for help. They imagined gods as praetors and were certain that in them, as in the judge, the case was lost by one who did not understand the formalities. Therefore, there were books in which everything was foreseen and where you could find prayers for all occasions. It was necessary to strictly follow the rules, any violation nullified the consequences of worship.

The Roman was always afraid that he had performed the rite incorrectly. The slightest omission in prayer, some unforeseen movement, the breakage of a musical instrument during the sacrifice was enough for the same rite to be repeated at first. There were cases when thirty times everything started again, until the sacrifices were performed flawlessly. Saying a prayer in which the priest asked God, he had to be careful not to miss a sentence or say it in the wrong place.

So someone read, and the priest repeated after him word for word; an assistant was assigned to the reader to see if everything was being read correctly. Uzhertsa had another special servant who made sure that those present were silent, and at the same time the trumpet player trumpeted with all his might so that nothing but the words of the prayer could be heard.

Just as carefully and honestly performed all sorts of divinations, which were of great importance to the Romans. The most popular divination was the flight of birds. When the senate or consuls had to decide something, they first turned to the augurs (priests who interpreted divination), asking them if the right time was chosen for this. Augurus offered a sacrifice, prayed, and at midnight went to the Capitol, the holiest hill in Rome, and, facing south, looked at the sky. Birds flew in at dawn, and depending on which side they flew from, who they were, and how they behaved, the augur foretold whether the plan would be successful or unsuccessful.

Chickens were kept in cages, and in important cases a board of priests threw grain at them. If the chickens ate willingly, it was a good sign, and if they turned away from food – it portended failure. So capricious chickens “ruled” the most powerful republic, military leaders in front of the enemy were forced to obey their whims.

In Rome, it was easy to accept other people’s gods. It was customary for the Romans, after the conquest of a city, to move the defeated gods to their capital to arouse their affection.

This is how, for example, the Romans invoked the Carthaginian gods. The priest proclaimed the solemn incantation: “God or goddess, who extends the care of the people and the state of the Carthaginians, you, who are the patron saint of this city, I address you with prayers, I honor you, I ask you for mercy to leave the people and state of the Carthaginians to leave their temples, to leave them. Come to me, to Rome. May our city and temples be more pleasant to you. Be merciful and kind to me, and to the people of Rome, and to our soldiers as we wish and as we understand it. If you do so, I promise that temples will be built for you and games will be held in your honor. “

Later, the Romans came into direct contact with the Greeks, their mythology and learned much from it.

Religious ceremonies of the ancient Romans

The family, the patriarchal family, is the foundation of the ancient Roman community. The family was to be protected by the gods. First of all, the patrons of the genus were the souls of deceased ancestors. They cared for the descendants. In Rome there was a cult of ancestors. Their images were preserved and passed down from generation to generation. Many sculptural portraits from such “family albums” have survived.

These images, carved mainly of stone, mostly, and more often in a naturalistic style, deserve the attention of anthropologists, ethnographers and art critics. Of course, it was not just a “family album”, but cult things in the home temple: cults, according to Roman tradition, were divided into family, communal, common.

The Ancestors were “involved” in solemn family ceremonies. When someone in the family died, statues of ancestors accompanied the funeral. Funeral speeches were delivered before them and the merits and merits of the deceased’s great-grandparents were always mentioned. Everyone had to know what kind of parents the son was. There descriptive narrative essay topics was a special psychology. Man has learned to respect the tribe and feel part of the whole. Later, Emperor Augustus will try to revive the so-called Roman virtues, in particular to force young people to respect their parents and family.

In addition to dead ancestors, the guardians of the family could be famous heroes. Peasants and soldiers often sought to have the “guarantee” of Hercules – a strongman who did not require any work – neither hard nor dirty (cleaned the stables, etc.). There was a cult of heroes in Rome.

There was also a cult of geniuses – spirits who were supposed to take care of relatives. In ancient times in Rome, every man had his genius, and a woman – Juno. These gods embodied the productive forces of man and woman. Genius was later associated with human temperament, mental abilities, and so on. The family had its patron genius, and then – the village, the city.

The family hearth was guarded by the goddess Vesta, penates, lari. The lari of the community members were common – they cared about the neighbors: territorial proximity will eventually be no less important than blood ties.

The cult of ancestors, according to researchers, in ancient times was associated with the cult of the gods, who ruled in the land of the dead underground. This is mania, lemurs, mana. Mania sent madness (her name became common). Her children were once killed on offer. Then the dolls redeem the victims.

At night, lemurs, the souls of the dead, circled near the graves. In Goethe’s Faust, lemurs dig Faust’s grave, and he, blind, thinks that the workers are building dams, realizing his grand plans.

The Romans sometimes identified lemurs with laras as well as manas, although lemurs were considered insidious and manas were good. Mani took care of the souls of the dead, guarded the tombs. When the memorial service was held, food and flowers were brought to the grave by the manas. In the epitaphs they were asked to give the deceased the afterlife bliss.

Like the Greeks, the Romans believed that the underground gods liked even numbers, and those who took care of the living – odd. Flowers, for example, for the dead were chosen to be an even number.

The Romans often did not call their gods by name, but used nicknames, for example, instead of Bacchus they said – Liber (free), instead of the name Jupiter they used different epithets and so on. And there were gods whose names were forbidden to be pronounced at all. Such a prohibition (taboo) applied to the Good Goddess. Her name is unknown. Later, the Greek goddess Hygieia, who helped her father Asclepius to heal people and on whose behalf the word hygiene originated, was identified in Rome with the Good Goddess. The good goddess was also identified with Cybele, Proserpine, fauna and other goddesses. Like Diana, she helped women in labor and was respected by the people. Women considered her their patroness.

While the Romans were engaged in agriculture, one of the leading places in their beliefs was occupied by cults associated with nature. They adored trees (especially oak), animals, birds, mountains, springs, stones… Scholars have noticed that all Albanian kings had one nickname: Sylvia (ie – foresters). Foresters (silvans) were especially respected in rural areas. They were the patrons of forests, animals and flocks.

They worshiped the goddess of fruits Pomona and the goddess of flowers Flora, in whose honor they arranged the festival of floralia. Goat-legged faunas and faunes were believed to live in groves and fields. Faunalia holidays were held in their honor. There was even a wolf festival – luperkali. It is possible that the wolf was once the totem of the tribes that lived on the Tiber. According to a well-known legend, the founders of Rome – the brothers Romulus and Remus – were fed their milk by a wolf. The Romans associated wolves with many different rituals and legends.

A well-designed system of sacrifices and rites constituted the entire religious life of the Romans. Among the priests stood out the college of pontiffs, headed by the “great pontiff” (pontifex maximus). As a result of constant contact with other peoples, the Roman religion was greatly influenced by foreign beliefs. For example, Juno and Minerva were of Etruscan descent.

Numerous religious rites and the organization of priestly colleges were borrowed from the Etruscans. Under the influence of the Greeks there was an almost complete identification of the Roman gods with the Greeks. It was the custom of the Romans, after the conquest of a city, to relocate to their capital the gods of the vanquished, in order to arouse their favor and to guard against their wrath.

This is how, for example, the Romans invoked the Carthaginian gods. The priest proclaimed a solemn incantation: “God or goddess, who extends the care of the people and the state of the Carthaginians, you, who are the patrons of this city, address you with prayers, I honor you, I ask you for mercy to leave the people and the state of the Carthaginians they left their temples to depart from them.

Come to me, to Rome. May our city and temples be more pleasant to you. Be kind and gracious to me, and to the people of Rome, and to our soldiers as we wish and as we understand it. If you do so, I promise that temples will be built for you and games will be held in your honor. “The transformation of Rome into a Mediterranean state caused considerable influence of Eastern cultures.

01.07.2011

The essence and features of the confessional and ethnographic area of ​​Ukraine. Abstract

The connection between the religious and the national in the ethnohistorical process of Ukraine. Ethnic composition of the population and confessional diversity in Ukraine. Polyconfessional composition of the population of Ukraine.

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