Section 12 Flashcards
a goddess who averted plant rust
Robigo
who was originally associated with vegetation and could easily have passed into oblivion as well. Instead, however, when later Romans began to militarize, Mars managed somehow to shed his agrarian trappings, flee the silo and head out onto the battlefield, by morphing himself into a war-god
Mars (“Ares”)
whose celestial authority in origin rested on theological foundations no sturdier than the native Roman gods’
Greek Gods
if any enduring “theology” guided early Rome, if there was an abiding moral principle that governed the burgeoning super-power, it was
Patriotism
according to Roman tradition, was out plowing in his field when a report arrived that an enemy was at that very moment invading the land. Upon hearing this news, Cincinnatus set down his plow, picked up his sword and led the counter-charge which defeated this foe. He then returned home to the “triumph” of finishing work on his field.
Cincinnatus
Their attempt to unify Rome under a single system of worship by merging of state and religion in a belief system which today is called
Emperor-Worship
One of the oldest cults imported into ancient Rome was that of the earth-mother goddess
Cybele
The rites of Cybele revolved around not only the goddess herself but also a young male consort of hers named ________ who was said to die and be reborn annually
Attis
means literally “standing outside (oneself),” in other words, the transportation of a person out of his or her body which allows spirits to possess it, much the same way mediums at séances act today
Ecstasy
Both wife and sister of Osiris, the prototype of deceased pharaohs, she was said to have restored her husband/brother to life after death.
Isis
In this Hellenized form, she had grown into a universal symbol of renewed life and fertility, and like Cybele, there’s almost nothing she wasn’t at some point somewhere to someone. Thus, with no clear image or guiding principle and, what’s worse, worshiped in secret rites called
mysteries
belonging to a club with a secret that only a chosen people know is a perennial formula for popularity
Mystery Cults
a form of divination which rests on the premise that, by studying the movements of celestial bodies, it’s possible to predict affairs in the human sphere
Astrology
a sense that whatever happens was fated to because the gods control everything
Fatalism
wandering stars”—planetes means “wandering” in Greek
Planets
