Hellenic and Roman Traditions
These items test the Greek pantheon and its limits, civic and mystery cult, Roman religious offices and imported cults, and the philosophical schools that shaped elite religion.
Greek religion
The Olympians include Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and Hestia, with Dionysus sometimes replacing Hestia. Homer and Hesiod shaped the myths. The gods are powerful but not omnipotent or omniscient, and even Zeus is bound by moira, fate. Hubris invites nemesis. Cult centered on sacrifice, libation and festivals at temples, with oracles at Delphi and Dodona, panhellenic games, hero cults, and household cult of Hestia.
Mystery religions
The Eleusinian Mysteries honored Demeter and Persephone and promised initiates a better lot after death. Orphism linked Dionysus to reincarnation and ascetic practice. The Dionysian mysteries used ecstatic possession. Secrecy and initiation, not public doctrine, defined these cults.
Roman religion
Roman religion organized numina, divine powers, alongside named gods; the lares and penates guarded home and store, and each person had a genius. Jupiter Optimus Maximus headed the state cult; the Vestal Virgins tended the eternal flame; the pontifex maximus supervised state religion; augurs read the auspices; pietas and religio were civic virtues opposed to superstitio. Interpretatio romana identified foreign gods with Roman ones. The imperial cult honored deified emperors. Imported cults included Cybele, Isis, Mithras and Sol Invictus. Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state religion in 380 and moved against pagan sacrifice in the 390s.
Philosophy
Stoicism taught a rational logos pervading the cosmos and virtue as the only good; Epicureanism taught atomism, ataraxia and unconcerned gods; Neoplatonism, through Plotinus, described emanation from the One.
Worked example
A general consults the sacred chickens, and when they refuse to eat, postpones battle. Reasoning: this is augury, reading divine approval through signs; the general holds the auspices. It is divination, not sacrifice, and the refusal is a bad omen rather than a punishment.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating Greek and Roman gods as identical; interpretatio romana is a Roman interpretive practice.
- Confusing Mithraism with Persian Mithra worship.
- Assuming mystery cults had public creeds; initiation and secrecy defined them.