CLAS / PHIL 2610. Paganism to Christianity

Lecture 8. Roman Ritual: Religious Formalism and Adaptability

I. The Gods of Household

A. Penates (gods of the grain store)

B. Lares (guardian spirits of the household)

Ancestor worship; death masks in Atrium / funeral processions; Plautus "Pot of Gold"

II. Sacrifice

A. Non-Blood Sacrifice: Wheat cakes, wine, flowers, incense

B. Blood Sacrifice

-Choice of Animal; Procession

-Prayer: Formalism / conservatism

-Killing: "immolation"; agone ("Should I strike")

C. Private v. Public: e.g. suovetaurlia (pig, sheep, bull...to purify fields)

III. Divination

A. Definition and Function: determining the will of the divine through signs

-Pre-Scientific World = Tradition

-Rational World = Stoicism; fate; Sympatheia

B. Private Divination

Astrology; Dreams; Superstition

C. Public Divination

1. Impetrativa (solicited signs)

-Auspicia (bird watching): flying v. squawking

-Tripudia (chicken feeding): esp. military

-Haruspices (gut-gazers): esp. liver

2. Oblativa (unsolicited signs)

-Ligthning

-Portents: Annales Maximi (Pontiffs)

-Sibylline Books (15 men for Sacrifices)

IV. Continuity and Change

A.Foreign Deities: Asclepius and plague of 293

B. Augustus Adapts Tradition:

-Arval Brothers: agriculture / imperial cult

-Compitalia neighborhood / crossroads lares