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Chapter Twenty-Two Lecture One

Explore the Greek myths and Roman legends that shaped early Rome, from the influences of Greek and Near Eastern cultures to the rise of the Roman Empire. Learn about Roman religion, the significance of numina and sacrificium, the equating of Roman and Greek deities, and the gods of the family and state. Discover how these legends and beliefs justified the rule of the patricians and shaped the identity of ancient Rome.

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Chapter Twenty-Two Lecture One

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  1. Chapter Twenty-TwoLecture One Legends of Aeneas

  2. Legends of Aeneas • Greek myths developed later by the Romans • They bring to them their own cultural heritage • Romans had no creation account or divine myths • Mostly Roman legend for national and social functions

  3. Early Rome: Myth, Legend, History

  4. Early Rome • Rome was one of many small towns • Earliest influences were Greek and Near Eastern by way of the Etruscans • Rome first ruled by Etruscan kings

  5. Early Rome • Replaced in 500 by the “republic” • Patricians (senate) • Consuls (two-year terms of office) • Symbolism of the fasces • Plebeians not in the government at first • Gradually acquire a role • Legendary traditions justify the rule of the patricians

  6. Early Rome • Rome expanded greatly under its republic • New duties of running an empire brought down the Republic and ended in the Roman Empire, with an emperor

  7. Roman Religion

  8. Roman Religion • Latini arrive in 1500 BC • Had different practices and attitudes from the Greeks whom we’ve studied

  9. Numina and Sacrificium

  10. Numina and Sacrificium • Religion of the Latini had deities that weren’t anthropomorphic • Theirs were the “nodders,” who inhabited certain functions of daily life • Robigus/o • Fungus on grain

  11. Numina and Sacrificium • The Robigalia • Priest of the Quirinus (co + viri) • wine, incense, gut of a sheep, entrails of a dirty, red dog . . . • Sacrificium • do ut des • Carefully scripted rituals that had to be observed • Appius Claudius Pulcher’s chickens

  12. Numina and Sacrificium • Potentially innumerable • First-Plower, Second-Plower, Maker-of-Ridges-between-Furrows, Implanter . . . • Some central to the state as a whole • Janus • Some numina become identified with Greek deities and assume their myths

  13. Roman Deities Equated with Greek

  14. Roman/Greek Deities Equated • Identification mostly poetic innovation • Made by poets • Pushed during the reign of the emperors for political reasons

  15. Roman/Greek Deities Equated

  16. Roman/Greek Deities Equated

  17. Roman/Greek Deities Equated

  18. Hercules and the Meat Market

  19. Hercules and the Meat Market • Shows mixture of sources • The Forum Boarium • Hercules passed through Rome with the cattle of Geryon and freed Rome from the cattle-rustler Cacus • Numerous honorific statues and buildings erected to him there

  20. Gods of the Family and State

  21. Gods of the Family and State • Gods of the family weren’t absorbed by Greek deities • No Greek equivalent for them • Lar (plural Lares) • Etruscan for a ghost • Of the fertile field first => of many places • Worshipped in shrines at crossroads • Family members in the shrines

  22. Gods of the Family and State • Penates • Protected a household’s things • Portable • The gens • Paterfamilias • A man’s genius • All of Rome a family • Vesta (Hestia) • Pietas

  23. Gods of the Family and State • “No doubt it was the native Roman predisposition to regard abstractions as divine that enabled them to transfer pious devotion from the head of a family to an invisible entity of great power, the Roman state. Greek religious anthropomorphism, by contrast, stood in the way of granting obedience to a divine abstraction, and the Greeks never did evolve a nation state.”

  24. End

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