Oct. 21st lesson Flashcards
True or False: Roman religion evolved from the Near East.
FALSE
The Romans got it from the Greeks, mostly through the Etruscans.
True or False: The Roman pantheon does NOT have its own theogony or creation story.
TRUE
Define: Hypostasis
The concept of different epithets (formally considered aspects) for gods, depicting the different facades of their purpose and being
How many epithets did Zeus have?
85
What was Aphrodite Ourania?
- Pious, womanly Aphrodite
What was Aphrodite Pandemos?
- Aphrodite the whore (pandemos means available to all)
Define Aniconic Images:
- Simple stumps of stone instead of a formal statue representing the votive worship of a god/goddess
- Often seen in Arcadia
Why do some Greek coins have holes and letters stamped through them?
- Holes are from the nail that pinned the coin to the temple wall as an offering
- The letters are the initials of the god/goddess the subject wanted to summon
- Ex. letters EA = Eileithyia Athena
What are Daimones?
- Liminal creatures that interact between the human world and that of the gods
True or False: The Daimones in Ancient Greece did NOT have any moral implications.
TRUE
Daimones weren’t seen as good or bad, just beings whose presence was existent
Plato stated that ______ was a Daimones.
Eros
True or False: Many people had personal patron Daimones.
TRUE
What did Socrates claim during his trial pertaining to Daimones?
- He claimed that he made no bad choices, for his Daimon guided him away from wrong choices throughout the period in question.
What were the Lasa?
- Etruscan female demons
What did the Lasa look like?
Naked and winged
What are the Lasa responsible for?
Escorting dead souls to the underworld
Who is the Etruscan god of the underworld?
Charun
Who is the torch-welding Etruscan female underworld deity?
Vanth
What was a common Etruscan (and later Roman) symbol of death?
Doors
(Seen as the gateway to the underworld)
What was Tuchulcha?
An Etruscan chthonic daimon
Explain the Biblical story in Mark about the man possessed by a demon in the presence of Jesus:
- One day, a dirty spirit rips free of his chains in his tombs
- He saw Jesus from a distance and ran to bow down at his knees
- He begged Jesus not to torment him
- Jesus asked him his name
- He (or the demon within him) answered, my name is Legion, for we are many
- AKA he was possessed by a demon
- The man went to the swine herd where the demons left the poor man, and entered the soul of the pigs
- The demon possesses the pigs to run into a cliff into the sea, where they all drowned
YHWH was one of the seventy sons of:
El
Who was Satan?
- A member of YHWH’s heavenly court
What signs of Polytheism are found in Monotheistic Zoroastrianism?
- The lesser deities and forces supporting Ahura Mazda and Ahriman respectively
True or False: Christianity denied the existence of pagan gods.
FALSE
Instead of denying their existence, what did early Christians deem pagan gods?
- Demons
Christian divergence of their god from the Jews began in the __________
Late 1st Century AD
What do many Christian apologists say about YHWH?
- That YHWH is an evil divergence from the one true God
How do the Gnostics interpret Jesus?
- They reject the Trinity, and consider Jesus to be the only incarnation of Christ, whose goal is to save humanity from the evil demiurge
What did Paul say about the Holy Trinity?
- The Son and Spirit are close to God, but are both still inferior
Generally now, the Son is considered to be the ________ of the Father.
Logos
Who came up with the Fallen Angel theory?
Basil of Caesarea
The Christian demon is typically compared with it’s Roman counterpart, __________
The Genius
Why did many Christians deface old Pagan statues?
They thought old pagan statues were possessed (since pagan gods were now considered to be demons).
What did the Muslims accuse Christians of being?
Polytheists
