Greco-Roman Religion
| Doctrines | Religion in both Greece
and Rome was polytheistic, embracing a multitude of gods and goddesses,
especially in the Roman Empire which tended to absorb the deities of the
countries it conquered. Below are the main Greek deities and their Roman
names; the first twelve are the traditional Olympic deities:
Two important mystery cults thrived in Greece - the Eleusinian and
Orphic Mysteries. There is considerable speculation regarding the nature
of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were a closely guarded secret,
punishable by death by the Athenian court if anyone probed them. The
Mysteries were said to have originated somewhere around 1800BC and
provided the Greeks with a mystical system equivalent to anything the
Egyptians had to offer at the time. When the mysteries were at their
height, three grades were involved: the Small Mysteries, the Great
Mysteries, and Epoptism. Every respectable citizen of Athens who was not
ritually impure and could afford the initiation fee endeavoured to become
initiated at the higher or more secret levels, and the Eleusis temple was
built to hold 10,000 people; but there was also a public side of glorious
pageantry. The lesser mysteries were celebrated towards the end of
winter, in the town of Agra, a suburb of Athens and anyone, including
foreigners, was allowed to attend these. The Greater Mysteries were held
in September/October, between the time of harvesting and sowing the new
seeds; they were celebrated in Eleusis itself, involving processions and
sacrifices of pigs to Demeter, and the enactment of the Demeter/Persephone
legend, but there is much disagreement among scholars and historians
regarding what actually took place. Epoptism was considered the highest
and most secret initiation to be undergone; Plutarch wrote that one could
not hope these mysteries until late in life.
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| History | The Ancient history of
Greece covers around 6,000 years, from the first permanent settlement
until Greece was absorbed by Rome; the ancient history of Rome on the
other hand, begins in the 8th century BCE and extends into the 5th century
CE. The Minoans of Crete seem to have worshipped bulls and sacrificed
them; bull leapers performed acrobatics over a bull for religious
purposes. Their chief religious symbol was the double-headed axe,
probably used for animal sacrifice. The Mycenaen age ended in destruction
in 1100BCE, to be followed by the more popularly recognisable Classical
Greek civilisation. However, the Greeks tended to look to Egypt for
learning and culture rather than to their own forebears, until at the end
of the 6th century there was a new arousal of interest in the old legends
of Greece, which were retranslated in a new and more spiritual light,
whilst the growth of the Greek cities and Hellenization of the
Mediterranean led to the declaration of the divinity of rulers such as
Alexander the Great (356-323CE). After the death of Alexander the Great,
his successor, Ptolemy I revealed the importance of Egyptian religion to
Greece by incorporating the Egyptian cults of Isis and Osiris (now called
Serapis) into Greek religion in the 4th century BC. The cult spread
rapidly throughout the Mediterranean and from there throughout the Roman
Empire, reaching as far from Egypt as Britain, with centres in London and
York. Rome first grew from a few villages into a city in the 6th century BCE, influenced by its Etruscan overlords whom the Romans expelled in 510 BCE, establishing a Republic in their place. Political upheaval in the Mediterranean in the 4th century BCE allowed Rome to bring all Italy south of the River Po under their role within a century, as towns joined together in mutual support against the surrounding tribes (Sabines, Aequi, Volsci and Samnites). Roman citizenship was extended to all the conquered peoples, and with this increase in manpower and territory, Rome became a potential world power. Rome captured Sicily and Corsica (238BCE) and later Spain (201BCE) from the Carthaginians, and then moved into Greek territories; Italy became united under Roman rule, and once the whole of the Mediterranean fell under her control, the Empire expanded North and West into Europe. At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in Britain to the Persian Gulf. When Diocletian came to power in 284CE, the Empire was too diverse and weak in structure, and could no longer be ruled by one Emperor; power was divided between two rulers and two subordinates, but although theoretically these rulers were joint, the Empire gradually broke into an Eastern and Western half, and outlying provinces fell to barbarian invaders. Rome was sacked by the Visigoths (410) and the Vandals (455), and the Emperor Justinian's attempt to reunite the Empire was successful only for a short period. The persecution of early Christianity ended with the proclamation of the Edict of Milan (313 CE) which allowed Christians to worship freely, and in 324CE the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and imposed it on the Empire. All other religions were proscribed by Theodosius I just over fifty years later, in 381CE. After the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths in 410CE, the imperial government was removed to Ravenna until the western empire ceased to exist altogether in 476CE, leaving the city of Rome in the hands of the Christian church and its bishop, Leo the Great, who assumed the title of pontifex maximus (Supreme Pontiff). The Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire), however, lasted another thousand years until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.
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| Symbols | Some of the important
symbols of Greek religion, later incorporated into Roman religion, were:
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| Adherents | No Known Contemporary
Adherents
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| Headquarters | Major religious
centres were to be found at important cities throughout the Greek
Mediterranean and the Roman Empire, including Rome, Athens, London.
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