1.1 Greek and Roman Religion: An Introduction

Fill in the blanks in the passage below that explains what religion meant to the Greeks and Romans. The Greeks and Romans did not have a term for religion. The word the greek used was hiera which meant 'holy affairs. The Roman word was religio 'the correct worship of the state gods' when referring to religious acts.It is really important to understand this as unlike monotheistic religions the Romans and Greeks did not have a religion based on faith. It was not enough just to believe in the gods. For the Greeks and Romans religion was about action. You had to physically worship the gods by performing sacrifices and making offerings which you did either in private or public. Polytheism The religion of the Greeks and Romans was polytheistic. What this means is poly (many) and theos (gods). So it is a religion with many gods.This is in contrast to many modern religions which are monotheistic. What do you think monotheism means? Anthropomorphism When we say that the gods in Greece and Rome were anthropomorphic we mean that they looked and acted just like human beings. Anthropomorphic meansanthropos = humanmorphe = formThe word just means human formTo ancient civilisations it was necessary to make the gods just like them so that they could understand the world around them.We need to remember that with very little advanced science the next best way to understand things like the seasons or illness or any natural phenomena it would be completely natural to imagine gods who were just extreme versions of them with massive amounts of power and who were immortal.The alternative would be to think of the universe as empty and random and that is actually quite a terrifying prospect!! What do you think the personalities of the gods in Greece and Rome were like? Caring Cruel Just like us Take notes on why the ancients made their gods behave this way Listen to your teacher and fill in the blanks An epithet was a word or phrase applied to the gods to describe a quality or skill they had. For example, an athlete at Olympia may swear an oath to Zeus Horkios, 'keeper of oaths', or a sailor about to embark on a journey may sacrifice to Poseidon Enosichthon, 'earth shaker' Lesson 1 Key Words A game of hangman with the keywords from today. Lesson 1 Exit Exit Slip