Greek God Of Wine example essay topic

The ancient Romans worshiped many gods, goddesses and spirits, each of whom was responsible for a different part of life. Juno was the goddess of woman; Jupiter, the king of the gods was also the god of the sky; Mercury was the god of merchants; Wulcan the god of fire; Mars the god of war; Minerva the goddess of wisdom; Venus the goddess of fertility and love. The ancient Romans adopted gods and goddesses from other cultures as well. Bacchus or or Dionysus, the Greek god of wine; Cybele, the Turkish goddess of motherhood; and Isis from the Egyptian pantheon who was concerned with reincarnation. Emperors and empresses were sometimes worshiped after their deaths. Emperors showed their devotion to their favored deities by building temples to them.

Roman citizens left offerings such as food, milk, wine, money, jewels or statues at temple alters and engaged in ceremonies and animal sacrifices to win the gods approval. The Romans were generally accepting of other people's religions but persecuted the Christians because, among other things, they displeased the gods by refusing to patriciate in such animal sacrifices and unjust ceremonies. Christianity finally because the official religion during the 4th century in Rome. The Romans built large temples for these many gods.

They were often built in places that people believed were special to their gods. The Acropolis, in Greece is one of these places. In ancient Greece, the Greeks als on believed in many gods and goddesses. The gods behaved much like ordinary people, but they had great wisd on. They were wiser, more cunning, and more powerful.

The gods not only controlled nature, but they also controlled people's fate. There were 12 main gods of the Greek belief, known as the Olympians. Some of the most famous included Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and Apollo. When you walked into a Greek or Roman temple, you would find a statue of a god or goddess at the end of a long, dark room. A row of columns ran down the center of the room along both sides. A worshiper of the time might have visited the temple to thank the god for a favor and leave them a gift.

The inside of the temple wasn't a gathering place for worship like churches and sacred buildings of today. Worship services were held outside on an alter. The temple protects the status of the god from the weather and anyone who would come along and harm it. Sometimes after winning a war, a temple was built as a gift to a god or goddess.

The Parthenon was a gift to Athena for the Greeks' victory in the Persian Wars. 'The Greeks participated in rough and some timed deadly sports and contests. The Greeks believed that winning contests pleased their gods. Athletes from all over came to compete at Olympia, near the large temple of Zeus. Training tracks and a stadium surrounded the temple. The first Olympics were held there.

The Romans and Greeks believed that a ritual must be performed exactly before they could hope for the expected outcome of their prayers. Before any important event such as a wedding, journey, or battle, the Romans tried to find out if the god approved. To learn the will of the gods, they consulted oracles or a fortuneteller. Every household had it's own protective gods.

They acted as priests and made offerings of food, wine, oil, or cakes on the alter of the household shrine or throw food into the hearth fire to be consumed by the gods. Just as each hone had a hearth, the state had a sacred hearth. In a small near the Forum, priestesses of the goddess Vesta tended an eternal flame, which could not be allowed to go out for fear that harm would come to Rome. A priestess who let the eternal flame die could be put to death. The temple of Jupiter in central Rome was important for state and business functions. For example, to make agreement binding, both parties swore an oath of good faith before Jupiter.

And victorious generals marched in triumph to Jupiter's alter. The history and development of Rome is much related to their Religion. What began as a village of primitive huts beside the Tiber River grew to be a huge and astonishing city that would change modern government and the world alike. The gods were always thought to be watching over the people and were placed high on a pedestal.

They were at the very heart of Greek and Roman social life. The Greeks did not worship their gods in the earliest times with the aid of temples and statues; rather, they believed that objects and events had some kind of supernatural force. The Greek gods were only given human like personalities after the Romans had made contact with the Greeks and shared their human looking, human like gods with them, and they adopted the characteristics of the gods. The Romans were very concerned about the death and well being of those who had died. The dead were thought to bring a sort of bad luck to those living they had left behind. This bad luck could only be changed if the correct rituals were performed.

These rituals also guaranteed that the soul of the dead person made a safe journey from the world of the living to the world of the "good people" or Manes. Fire was believed to be powerful against the bad influences brought by death. That is probably why the bodies were burned and why torches were carried at funerals". Often the body was simply buried in the ground but usually it was burned on a pyre first and then buried". The dead, once buried, were by no means neglected, every year during February 3 they were remembered at the Parentalia 4. This was traditionally a time when graves and tombs were visited and decorated with flowers.

It was usually during a burial to leave food and drink inside the tomb, and at each Parentalia this food and drink was renewed. Without it the manes were liable to become very hungry and might emerge from their graves and haunt the people that they had left behind. Bowker, John. World Religions.

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