Eliza Barocio 7/1/2023 RELIGION 14B 50435 Pagan Religions of Antiquity “Paganism” or “Pagans” was a concept that was labeled and invented by the Christians to describe them since they weren’t Christian or a Jew. In fact, it was a word to refer to a variety of pre-Christian religions belonging to ancient cultures such as ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, etc. These listed authentic religions had a polytheistic belief in multiple gods and were defined as polytheists rather than monotheists who only worshiped their one and only divine God. These terms were only invented during the Renaissance because Christian writers were trying to separate and differentiate the pre-Christian old traditions from their modern Christian faith. The writers wanted to make it very clear that they did not want to insult or downgrade these religions with the term “paganism” or “pagans” because it wasn’t an intention to differentiate polytheistic religions from monotheistic religions due to how many gods they worship? It was just a term that was invented to refer to them as non-Christians and non-Jews. After Christianity took over power in the Roman Empire, they combined all of these religions into one term to target them so it could be easier to outlaw and remove them. In this ancient age, Christianity was born and was ready to take control, and so that’s exactly what they did. According to Wade, “Since Christianity was a monotheistic faith, demanding exclusive membership, where worshiping any other false, pagan gods was a sin against the Christian God, many Christians perished for failing to pay tribute and sacrifice to pagan gods on festival days or when tested by Roman officials.” (Woo Wade, 2023). Before the Roman Empire was overruled by Christianity, Rome had always been a pagan empire, and throughout ancient history, there were these different Gods or deities associated with all different functions that involved everything from life to death to health, climate, humans, animals, plant fertility, etc. There were gods of various places and gods of various functions that all had their own purpose in their city, family, mountain, town, or anything you could really think of. They probably had a god for it because any purpose you might think it’s for, a God or Goddess serves and protects their function. And the Romans honored multiple deities that served a role in their civilization as well as paid their allegiance to worship them for all that they got in return. The Romans were in constant contact with the Greek people, so it’s safe to say that the Romans adopted aspects of Greek culture. Nevertheless, Greek culture and Roman culture were not the same. They shared similar characteristics and aspects; Although the Romans were influenced, these deities were renamed, and in a way, they were rebranded for the Roman context. With that being said, “Roman gods and goddesses were named after objects and did not possess a gender, whereas Greek gods were decided by human characteristics and traits. As Greek gods predated Roman gods, Roman mythology would take the Greek deity and assign a Roman object that would fit the description of the Greek god.”(Madeleine, 2019). The main god and goddesses in the Roman culture were Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), Minerva (Athena), Venus (Aphrodite), Pluto (Hades), Neptune (Poseidon), Mars (Ares), and Mercury (Hermes). The citizens of Rome built temples to their gods to perform rituals and throw festivals to celebrate as well as honor them because given any circumstance, whether it’s favorable or unfavorable, it would be attributed to the Roman people. In the ancient Greek world, religion was a lot more different than other religions, and it was more spiritual and personal in all areas of life. Greek religion involved numerous Gods, each representing something different no matter if it was nature, justice, wisdom, etc. Greek religion served the Olympian Gods. Though there are many of these gods and goddesses, they were all led by the most important one, Zeus. 12 Olympian gods were believed to live on Mt. Olympus which consists of Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hephaistos, and Dionysos. In Greek literature and myths, the gods lived in their own human bodies, the majority of them were good, but some of them were bad. They all had lives of their own with husbands, wives, children, and families, but a majority of them had affairs with humans that weren’t gods or had affairs with other gods or goddesses. In ancient Greek religion, the Olympian gods were called up for many things such as for wars, they would call Ares, for love, they would call for Aphrodite, for women and marriage, they would call for Hera. There were temples for every God, they would make it a temple if that’s where a God has come to or has visited for a short while during festivals, but the most famous one that still stands strongly today would be Athena’s temple in Athens, Greece. With multiple temples built, they weren’t all for religious practices, but they were for performing sacrificial rituals that included sacrificing cows, pigs, sheep, or goats. After sacrifices, priests would orchestrate religious ceremonies and give prayers to the gods to either give thanks or ask for something in return of the Gods such as love, healing, strength, wisdom, and views on the afterlife. The festivals they would have would be superiorly grand, and they would have these athletic Olympic games that were attended by citizens all over Greece. Citizens looked for any signs that the Gods would give them, no matter if it was simply a bird in the sky. They were very aware that an omen could be absolutely anything. All of these myths and origins give an explanation of how things were built and why things are made, as well as why things are the way they are because of the influence of Greek religion. The root of civilization was built in Mesopotamia, where humans first settled around 14,000 BC. Mesopotamia is located in the now known as the Middle East. Mesopotamian religion was also a polytheistic religion with followers worshipping several major gods and several minor gods. The three main gods were Ea, god of water, magic, and creation, Enlil, god of wind, air, earth, storms, agriculture, and controller of fates, and thirdly, the king of gods Anu, god of the sky and the heavens. The Mesopotamians were ruled by priests that were a representative of a certain god, and when the city needed a king well, a king was also a priest that ruled in the god’s favor. Clay tablets were also used to describe certain myths, observations, as well as religious practices. According to the text, “ Some Mesopotamian myths were reflected in Biblical stories including that of the Garden of Eden, the Flood, the Creation and the Tower of Babel. As the world’s oldest religion, Mesopotamian beliefs influenced the monotheistic religions that came after Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” When the gods took care of their humans and loyalists in every aspect of their lives, the people would pray and live their life around these Gods. The Mesopotamians built temples and sacrificed animals for usually a meal to their gods and, on a rare occasion, would sacrifice humans. These Polytheistic religions were once ruled by multiple Gods and Goddesses all over the world before Christianity and Judaism took over the world completely. It is very important in human history that we still learn about polytheism because it records from the first human civilization in Mesopotamia all the way to Roman polytheism before there was the divine God, there was once a time that these Gods once controlled and characterized all of life. MLA CITATION ● ( Woo Wade, “Rome's Conversion to Christianity and its Lasting Legacy”, 2023) https://sites.rhodes.edu/coins/romes-conversion-christianity-and-its-lasting-legacy#:~:text =Since%20Christianity%20was%20a%20monothesitic,when%20tested%20by%20Roma n%20officials. ● (Madeline, “Roman Gods vs. Greek Gods: Know the Difference”, 2019) https://www.theoi.com/articles/roman-gods-vs-greek-gods-know-the-difference/ ● (Mark Cartwright, “Ancient Greek Religion”, 2018) https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Religion/ ● "Mesopotamian Religion: Gods, Practice, And Priests" History on the Net © 2000-2023, Salem Media. July 6, 2023 <https://www.historyonthenet.com/mesopotamian-religion>
