Greek governments varied from kings and oligarchs to the totalitarian, racist, warrior culture of Sparta and the direct democracy of Athens, whereas Roman kings gave 3.763829. Minerva and Athena: Roman vs. Greek Goddesses of War Differences WebThe first way that Roman is different than Christian is because of there believe in gods. On fourteen occasions between 209 and 92 b.c.e., androgyne infants and children were included among the prodigies reported to the Roman Senate. 176 and Serv., A. The literary evidence for this is slender but persuasive. On the general absence of wild meat from the Roman diet, see MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 1902. Liv. An etic approach allows the researcher to see functions, causes, and consequences of insider behaviours and habits that may be invisible to the people who perform them, as Miner illustrated for us. 48 WebComparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. 33 537 Words 3 Pages Decent Essays Read More Now, the Romans did not eat people, so how does their performance of human sacrifice reinforce the link between sacrifice and dining? 38 Thinking along the same lines, it is reasonable to conclude that there are relatively few images of slaughter among Roman sacrificial scenes in public artwork of the Classical period because the emphasis in state-sponsored sacrifice lay elsewhere. While there has been tentative speculation that the reason behind a preference for procession scenes in Greek representations of sacrifice in the Archaic and Classical periods is due to a growing squeamishness inside Greek culture,Footnote 233; CIL 12.1531=ILLRP 136=ILS 3411 (from Sora). For an argument that wild animals are more common in ancient Mediterranean, and specifically in Etruscan, sacrifice than is generally acknowledged, see Rask Reference Rask2014. As is implied in all the relevant entries in the OLD. 41 Instead, their presence should be attributed to the status of those species as valuable and efficacious: the prevalence of dogs, lizards, and beavers in medicinal and magical recipes for potions is an indication of the exceptional value the animals were thought to have, an indication that they were somehow special, and therefore might be worthy of the gods. WebFor example, the Peloponnesian War was primarily a struggle between two Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta, and was fought mainly on land and sea within the Greek world. Differences between Greek and Roman sacrifices Flashcards 2 In overlooking the differences between the Roman idea of sacrificium and the modern idea of sacrifice, we lose some of the details of how the Romans perceived a core element of their own experience of the divine. 81, Here we have two rituals that look, to an outsider, almost identical, but Livy takes pains to distinguish between them. 19 Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Rome 24 These offerings, ubiquitous in Roman Italy through to the end of the Republic, are mentioned at most twice in extant Latin literature.Footnote Var., L. 6.3.14. WebComparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. 74 Aeacus holds the keys to Hades. The Christian fathers equation of sacrifice with violence has shaped twentieth-century theorizations of sacrifice as a universal human phenomenon,Footnote Among these criteria are a clear preference for specific parts of an animal or for animals of a specific age/sex/species, unusual butchery patterns, burning or other alterations to the remains, and the association of the remains with other material (e.g., votive offerings) linked to ritual activity. Plaut., Stich 233; Cato, Agr. By placing this variety of rites that the Romans had under the single rubric of sacrifice, we have lost sight of some of the complexity and nuance of Roman ritual life. There is no evidence, contra Parker Reference Parker2004 and Wildfang Reference Wildfang2006: 589, that the Romans ever perceived the punishment of a Vestal as sacrifice. The distinction is preserved by Suet., Prat. There is also a queen of gods in Greek and Roman mythologies. Although there is substantial evidence for other types of sacrificial offerings in the literary sources (see below, Section III), Roman authors do not discuss them at length, preferring instead to talk about grand public sacrifices of multiple animal victims. Carretero, Lara Gonzalez Hermes, who had winged feet, was the messenger of the gods and could fly anywhere with great speed. In Greek and Roman religion, the gods and Of the various forms of ritual killing that were part of their religious experience, the Romans only reacted with disgust to that form they identified as human sacrifice, a distinction in value sometimes lost when all these ritual forms are grouped together under the rubric sacrifice.Footnote 60 It is possible that this genus-species relationship in fact existed in the Roman mind, as is perhaps suggested by the fact that sacrificare means to make sacred, and these other rituals seem to be different ways of doing the same work, namely transferring items from human to divine ownership. It is understandable that, from the etic viewpoint, two rituals performed in roughly the same way should appear to be identical to each other, even if emic accounts distinguish between them. As illustrated by Livy's description of the first Decius to perform the ritual as he rode out to meet the enemy: aliquanto augustior humano visu, sicut caelo missus (8.9.10). But it does bring things into sharper focus, helping the student of Roman religion to keep in view the extent to which we have interpreted the ancient sources to fit our own (rather than the Romans) intellectual categories. mactus. The elder Pliny, in his Natural History, discusses the high regard in which ancient Romans held simple vessels made of beechwood. differences between 92 Gel. On the contrary, Greek religion did not prefer to execute rituals as much as 3 The ritual ended with a litatio, that is, the inspection of the animal's entrails, and it was then followed by a meal. There is growing consensus that the answer is affirmative. ex Fest. Mar. Although there is some evidence for Roman consumption of dog in the form of canine skeletons with butchery marks (e.g., De Grossi Mazzorin and Tagliacozzo Reference De Grossi Mazzorin and Tagliacozzo1997: 4378), there is no evidence that dogs were raised for meat production (MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 74). See, for example, Feeney Reference Feeney, Barchiesi, Rpke and Stephens2004, an excellent discussion of the application of theoretical models of sacrifice to the poetry of Vergil and Ovid. Finally, while other rituals seem to have fallen into desuetude, or at least to have fallen out of the literature, by the late Republic or early Empire, sacrificium remained a vital part of Roman religious life for centuries. Fest. [1] Comparative mythology has served a For example, the apparent contradiction between Roman abhorrence of ritual killing and the frequency with which Romans performed various forms of it is, to a large extent, explicable once it is recognized that the Romans objected only to the performance (by themselves as much as by others) of sacrificium on human victims. sacrima. 37 This assertion is based on a search of sacrific* on the Brepolis Library of Latin Texts A. Vaz, Filipe Costa For a more extended analysis of the distinction between the punishment of unchaste Vestals and, on the one hand, sacrifice and, on the other, secular capital punishment, see Schultz Reference Schultz2012. It is probable, but not certain, that this is the same as the polluctum of ex mercibus libamenta mentioned by Varro at L. 6.54. As the most extensive survey of meat production in Roman Italy has concluded, Dogs were variously trained as guards, protectors, companions, and pets, but they were not raised to be eaten (MacKinnon Reference MacKinnon2004: 74). Greek and Roman The biggest difference that I'm aware of is that the Classical Greek religion was much more the religion of myths that we all know, while the Class WebWhile both civilizations left astonishing changes in the world, the developments made by Greek thinkers outdo those of the Aztecs when evaluating their creation of a prosperous 73 While the evidence does not allow us to recover precise distinctions made among these rites (sacrificium, magmentum, and polluctum), it does strongly suggest that the Romans at least through the period of the Republic conceived of these rituals as somehow different from one another. A wider range of scholarly approaches is presented by McClymond Reference McClymond2008: 124. How, if these animals did not make desirable entrees, could they be considered suitable for sacrifice? If we allow only items explicitly identified as sacrificia in Roman sources, our list includes beans,Footnote 55 Military commanders would pay homage to Jupiter at his temple after 13 Peter=FRH F17. Lelekovi, Tino 67 As in other cultures, Roman sacrifice was not a single act, but instead comprised a series of actions that gain importance in relationship to each other.Footnote Some more support for the notion that these were not interchangeable can be drawn from material evidence, visual representations of the moment of ritual slaughter. Jupiter was a sky-god who Romans believed oversaw all aspects of life; he is thought to have originated from the Greek god Zeus. In Latin, one does not sacrifice with a knife or with an axe. uncovered in votive deposits throughout Italy. Ernout and Meillet Reference Ernout and Meillet1979: 411 s.v. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for Dog corpses were sometimes deposited with tablets that contained curses, and dog figurines are among the required items for performing some spells.Footnote 35 Also the same poverty has established from the very beginning an empire for the Roman people and, on behalf of this, still today she sacrifices to the immortal gods a little ladle and a dish made of clay. Schultz Reference Schultz2010: 5202. Far less common in the S. Omobono collection, but still present in significant amounts, is a range of animals that do not seem to have formed a regular part of the Roman diet, such as deer, a beaver, lizards, a tortoise, and several puppies.Footnote Two famous examples are found on the altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus (Ryberg Reference Ryberg1955: fig. rutilae canes; Var., L. 6.16. and for his old-fashioned frugality and incorruptibility.Footnote 12 45.16.6. Feature Flags: { Pliny reports a ritual, possibly sacrifice (res divina fit, 29.58), involving a dog in honour of the little-known goddess, Genita Mana (cf. Concise surveys of the major modern theories of sacrifice in the ancient world can be found in Knust and Vrhelyi Reference Knust and Vrhelyi2011: 418, Lincoln Reference Lincoln2012, and Graf Reference Graf2012. Although much work in anthropology and other social sciences has debated the relative merits of emic versus etic approaches, I find most useful recent research that has highlighted the value of the dynamic interplay that can develop between them.Footnote milk,Footnote On a wider scale, the arguments made here about the nature of Roman sacrificium further undermine the increasingly discredited idea that sacrifice as a universal human behaviour is primarily, if not exclusively, about the violence of killing an animal victim. Scholars are quick to identify all of them as forms of sacrifice, which may well be the case. WebThe standard view of paganism (traditional city-based polytheistic Graeco-Roman religion) in the Roman empire has long been one of decline beginning in the second and first centuries BC. As Scheid has reconstructed Roman public sacrifice,Footnote 69 60 2.47.10 (M)=2.44.10 McGushin. 97L: Immolare est mola, id est farre molito et sale, hostiam perspersam sacrare (To immolate is to make sacred a victim sprinkled with mola, that is, with ground spelt and salt), a passage which also suggests that the link between immolatio and mola salsa was active in the minds of Romans in the early imperial period when the ultimate source of Paulus redaction, the dictionary written by Verrius Flaccus, was compiled.Footnote pop. Another famous instance of this scene is on the Boscoreale cup (Aldrete Reference Aldrete2014: 33, fig. This is made clear in numerous passages from several Roman authors. Test. Greek gods had heavy emphasis placed on their 65 e.g., Liv. 101. Hostname: page-component-7fc98996b9-rf4gk 78 e.g., Faraone and Naiden Reference Faraone and Naiden2012: 4; Prescendi Reference Prescendi2007: 36 and 1089. 39 Minos gave laws to Crete. Comparative mythology - Wikipedia Goats and dogs are less common, and we can expand the range of species to include horses and birds if we admit animals that are identified only as the object of immolatio, if not of sacrificium itself.Footnote 29 but in later texts as well. 63. 100 1034 seems to draw an equivalence between sacrificare and mactare (cf. Sacrificium is the performance of a complex of actions that presents the gods with an edible gift by the sprinkling of mola salsa and the ultimate goal of which seems to be the feeding of both gods and men. Columella 2.21.4 might also refer to dog sacrifice, but the verb (feceris) leaves it ambiguous as to which ritual was being performed. 36 Modern scholars sometimes group all of these rites under the rubric sacrifice.Footnote Finally, it appears that some of these rites ceased to be performed by some point in the imperial period and that sacrificium continued for centuries. Although Roman sources identify some specific types of sacrifice (e.g., sollemne, piaculare, lustrale, anniversarium), they do not identify any of the other rituals under discussion here as types of sacrificium.Footnote Studies of sacrifice have noted the etymological connection between immolare and mola salsa, but have not, for the most part, pressed its value for what it may reveal about where the Romans may have placed the emphasis. Another example of the bias of our sources away from rituals performed by the lower classes is the dearth of references to a particular type of item found in votive deposits: anatomical votives, fictile representations of parts of the human body offered to the gods as requests for cures for physical ailments. WebThe Greeks were striving for perfection in their art while the Romans were striving for real life people. } 83 In addition to Zeus and Hera, there were many other major and minor gods in the Greek religion. Plaut., Stich. 12 Var., L 5.122. 19 Terms in this set (7) Which one WebRoman sacrificial practices were not functionally different from Greek, although the Roman rite was distinguishable from the Greek and Etruscan.