OVtline of Presentation

Section A. FundamentalsI – IntroductionII –Di Indigentes

III – The Greek InfluencesSection B. Further Detail

IV – Daily life And ReligionV – Art and Architecture*

VI – Discussion of textsVII – Conclusion

*Online Component Only

Part I. IntrodVction

• What is Mythology?• Roman vs. Greek? What has been lost? Why?• Fundamental Concepts:

– Native Gods vs. Adopted Gods– What is important to the Romans?– What is the influence on the daily life of an

average Roman?

What is Mythology?

The study, analysis, and interpretation of the collected myths of a society and how they relate back to the core values of the culture.

What are Myths?

• Tells a traditional story• involving supernatural beings or forces

(not always)• embodies and provides an explanation for

something such as– the early history of a society– a religious belief or ritual– a natural phenomenon– (a cultural\moral allegory)

Why StVdy Myths?

• Provide a new perspective on the culture• Highlights the values and demands of a

society• Allows us to more accurately compare and

contrast different civilizations and their belief systems

What are oVr SoVrces?

• Poetry and Epic Poetry• Art – Pottery\Frescos\Sculpture, etc.• Plays• Legal Documents• Historical Accounts from Roman Historians• Letters, Personal Documents

Basic Time Table

Four Significant Dates\Periods

8th Century BCE - Estruscan and Di Indigentes

1st Century BCE – Domination of Greek thought

325 CE – Constantine and the Council of Nicea

391 CE - Theodosius I declares Christianity as the only acceptable religion.

Part II. di indigetes

di indigetes

• Translates from Latin to “speaker within”• Complex group of gods, goddesses, and spirits• Opposes the di novensides the “newcomer gods”• Primarily female – very few male indigenous gods• Indigenous male gods had positions of power• Abstractions of a particular quality or natural

form• Georg Wissowa's terminology.

Who did they Serve?

• Early Romans: Agrarian Society• Also Bellicose; fond of fighting and war• Gods fit the daily needs of everyday life• Jupiter, ruler of the other deities and spirits,

was responsible for the rain• Early Roman cult was not so much polytheistic

as polyspiritualistic

What were the Roman gods like?

• little individuality• personal histories lacked marriages and

genealogies• Unlike the gods of the Greeks, they were not

considered to function in the manner of mortals.

Who were the most important Roman gods?

At the head of the earliest pantheon in Rome was:

• Jupiter – Chief god, god of rain, lightning and ruled over laws and social order

• Mars – god of vegetation and war

What does this tell us about early Roman society?

What happened to the early roman gods?

• Many survived!• Assimilated into developing Roman Mythos• Adopted various personalities• Connections made (where appropriate) to

comparable Greek gods

Imperial Roman Coins

• Honored the past might of Rome and her religion

• Connected the current administration with the past – emphasized its power

VirtVs

•helmeted•right breast exposed•standing left•Victory symbol in right hand•left hand resting on shield•spear against left arm

Represents:Courage, Virtue

HONOS

• Holding Cornacopia and olive branch

Represents:chivalry, honor, military

justice

PVdicitia

• Veiled • Right hand on breast• Scepter in left hand

Represents:Virtue, Chastity

JanVs

• Double head• Could see past and future• Doorways and gateways• Reversed Spear in one hand• Thunderbolt in other• “Janitor”

Represents:Time/Ages

Part Iv. The Greek INflVence

Why did it happen?

• More established and richer legacy of stories of the gods

• More advanced architectural treatment of temples and shrines

• More emphasis on the human form and anatomy on their sculptures

What changed the most?

• The gods were personified and organized into a geneology

• Temples and shrines, like the pantheon were now more architecturally complex

• The power of religion shifted away from the individual family and into the priest (flamen)

Part IV. Daily Life and Religion

Primary ConcernsPontifex Maximus

Pax Deorum

Daily ExamplesThe Cults

The Business WorldVestal Virgins

The Lararium at home

Pontifex MaxiMVs

• The high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs (bridgebuilders).

• The pontifex maximus, the Vestal Virgins, the Rex Sacrorum, and the flamines.

• Augustus and later emperors became the religious leaders

Pax Deorvm

The Temple of Hercules Victor, in the Forum Boarium.

The Cvlts• Mystery cults offered their

adherents a very specific vision of the nature of the world

• organization of cults was highly specific.

• The Cult of the Emperor

• The Cult of Isis

• The Cult of Christianity

Divine Bvsiness

• immediately interrupted or postponed• priest or a magistrate that he had seen

a flash of lighting or some other form of divine disapproval

Sacerdos VEstalis• virgin holy female

priests of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth.

• The objects of the Virgins were essentially the hearth fire and pure water drawn into a clay vase.

• Chosen between 6 and 10 years of age.

The Lararivm• sacred place of the

home where offerings and prayers are made to the Gods.

• A private station to pray to the “Lar”

• Lar is Roman household deity who protected the land that the family lived upon

The Lararivm

"Salve lar familiaris (adoratio). Salvete Di Penates (adoratio). Salve Gen Patris Familias. Salve Vesta Mater.”

“It is so!”

Part V. Art, ArchitectVre and Religion

Online ComponentCheck the Wiki page for some examples

of religion in art and architecture

Part VI. DiscVssion

Livy: The Rape of LucretiaSextus Tarquinius returned to the house of Conlatinus, with one of his companions. He was well received and given the hospitality of the house, and maddened with love, he waited until he was sure everyone else was asleep.

"When I have killed you, I will put next to you the body of a nude servant, and everyone will say that you were killed during a dishonorable act of adultery.“ "how can anothing go well for a woman who has lost her honor? There are the marks of another man in your bed, Conlatinus. My body is greatly soiled, though my heart is still pure, as my death will prove.

"By this blood, which was so pure before the crime of the prince, I swear before you, O gods, to chase the King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, with his criminal wife and all their offspring, by fire, iron, and all the methods I have at my disposal, and never to tolerate Kings in Rome evermore, whether of that family of any other."

Part VI. DiscVssion

Livy: The Rape of Lucretia, Page Two"how can anything go well for a woman who has lost her honor? There are the marks of another man in your bed, Conlatinus. My body is greatly soiled, though my heart is still pure, as my death will prove.

"By this blood, which was so pure before the crime of the prince, I swear before you, O gods, to chase the King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, with his criminal wife and all their offspring, by fire, iron, and all the methods I have at my disposal, and never to tolerate Kings in Rome evermore, whether of that family of any other."

Part VI. DiscVssion

Ovid: The Creation MythThere was opposition in all things: hot conflicted with cold, wet with dry, heavy with light, and hard with soft.

The earth he organized into five zones, the same number that exist in heaven, which is divided into two regions on the right, two on the left, and one in the center. On earth the middle zone is too hot for habitation and the two outer zones are too cold, but between these extremes the god created two temperate zones where heat and cold are balanced.

Part VI. DiscVssion

Ovid: The Creation MythJove was about to strike the earth with a barrage of thunderbolts when he realized that the conflagration caused by such an attack might threaten heaven itself, so he resolved to destroy the earth's inhabitants by water instead of by fiery lightning. To this end he fettered the North Wind, then charged the South Wind to bring forth endless rains. Jove's brother Neptune, god of the seas, caused the tides and the waves to rise upon the land and the rivers to overflow their banks.

Creation comes about through the resolution of opposing forces.

Part VII. ConclVsion

Native Gods vs. Adopted Gods

What is important to the Romans?

What is the influence on the daily life of an average Roman?