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What role did religion play in greek and roman society
Rome and Greece similarities and differences
Rome and Greece similarities and differences
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Each started out as small city-states, ancient Rome and ancient Greece both grew into large empires. From the similar roles they had in religion, both ancient civilizations were quite successful. Both civilization was polytheistic they believed in many gods and goddesses. They thought that performing sacrifices and rituals just to please their gods.
They were focus on their religion but they had different government. Ancient Greece focus on having monarchies until they got to democracies. Greek believed that the Gods would offer protection and guide their city-states. Greek ceremonies and rituals were mainly performed at altars, many things would be left at the altar, such as food, drinks, as well as precious objects.
Believed in many gods
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Most of the Roman was adopted by the Greeks. Their differences between them were their appearance, characteristics, and even share many of the same God with different names.
Greek was focused primarily on life on earth, versus the afterlife. They were believed that their god was determined by his actions during his life, and his immortality was the remembrance of gifts to the world.
Romans are far more disciplined than the Greeks and focused on actions rather than words. Romans help up the warrior as personification of sanctity, was rewarded bravery, and was taken by mortals and duties. They strongly felt that doing honorable deeds on earth they would earn their place among the Gods in the afterlife they would transcend to Gods’ after death.
The architectural style of the Ancient Greeks and Romans was overall constructed that played a foundational role of the history of Western art. The art was made of carving and casting free-standing sculptures and the undertaking of large-scale urban building projects they needed to have skilled to use marble to bronze to concrete. They represented their culture and presented detail on art of mythological, which they accentuated the human traits of the pantheon of
Both Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian believe in gods. Greco-Roman believe in multiple gods. And Judeo-Christian believe in one god. They both believe they are doing that right thing. They both have certain laws they go under certain
It is evident that the Romans emulated much or all of Greek culture into their lives, even down to their philosophies and complete blatancy of using the same gods and goddesses. However, there was an apparent shift of Greco-Roman polytheism to medieval monotheism, which is where persons in this period started to pivot their attention primarily on just God, disregarding old traditions of other gods. They went from issuing deities to make sense of their ancient world, and using rational thought (never was this used before) to probe for questions, to a reliance on just one god for all explanations (the medieval period). However, as time progressed, during the time of the Renaissance, people were using some of the same techniques as Greco-Roman
Ancient Greece and China had similar problems. They both had to deal with civil wars. They also dealt with rivers flooding. Lastly, they both had to deal with plague that killed a lot of the population in the Ancient lands.
The ancient Greeks practiced a religion that was in effect, a building block to many ensuing pagan religions. This religion revolved around their reverence to the gods. Essentially, the Greeks worshipped numerous gods, making their religion polytheistic. They believed that exercising the opportunity to choose between a wide array of gods to worship offered them a great sense of freedom that they treasured. After all, the Greeks were known for their intellectual distinction of which their means of worship played a huge part. Each city-state, or polis, thus had an affiliated god who protected and guided its residents. Within a given polis, the belief in common gods unified the people. Ultimately, the Greeks yearned for this unity and order in the universe, which is a characteristic that is not unlike that of people today. It might seem contradictory that they believed in many gods and sought organization at the same time, for larger numbers are inherently unstable. But, to the god-fearing Greeks, each god represented a different facet of life that together upheld an organized universe if each of these gods was properly appeased. To satisfy these gods, the Greeks participated in activities such as prayer and sacrifice and erected divine temples and centers for oracles in honor of specific gods. There is evidence of this institutionalization early on in the reign of the Olympian gods, thus forming the Olympian religion.
The Organization of Roman Religious Beliefs by Charles King, “The Romans and Greeks lacked similar patterns of development and did not define themselves with a similar type of orthodoxy”. With the Romans, their way of worshipping and beliefs was not systemized and one did not have to take a test to prove whether him or her should be morally accepted while in Greece, “the art of Archaic and Classical Greece illustrates many mythological episodes, including an established iconography of attributes that identify each god. There were twelve principal deities in the Greek pantheon. The Roman religion was not restricted to one god but the was much more convenient for everyone to have any beliefs and practices of their choice.
Another difference in these civilizations is in the architecture of each region. The architecture of the Romans was also more advanced than that of the Greeks; they used concrete and placed emphasis on arches, vaulted ceilings, and domes while Greece emphasized balance and symmetry. Greek temples aimed at impressing by designing intricate, aesthetically pleasing outer views, while Roman architecture's goal was to impress by enclosing a vast amount of space. Thirdly, the Romans were far more advanced than Greece in terms of engineering progress. In both the areas of civil and hydraulic engineering, Rome towered above Greece.
The Greek and Roman civilizations differed from each other in ways, but were more alike than many other cultures. Persia for example, was much different from Greece specifically. Persia was an agricultural based empire with strict capitals throughout, whereas, Greece
...t Greek gods and Roman gods have many similarities. In the cases of Hermes, Mercury, Athena, and Minerva, they are so similar that they might as well be called the same name. With the comparisons of Hera, Ares, and their Roman counterparts, we can see that everything is the same except for their attitudes. Hera seems to be more of a mean goddess than Juno because humans actually offer praises to Juno and actually expect Juno to help her. Hera was too busy causing harm towards Zeus’ mistress. Ares was just the meaner and more aggressive version of Mars. Venus may as well have been Aphrodite because it was believed that her myths were borrowed from Aphrodite. Zeus and Jupiter were similar, but were written in different times, suggesting a heavy coincidence that the Greeks and the Romans were on the same page. Overall, Greek gods and Roman gods are indeed very similar. If they do have differences, they are always fairly petty and do not affect their general purpose within mythology. The interactions between the Greeks and Romans have definitely tied each other’s myths together so close that a story from Greek mythology can easily be interchangeable with a story from Roman Mythology.
All three societies had some form of belief in higher powers such as gods and other polytheistic beliefs. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt had more duties involving their beliefs compared to Greece because both of those societies had ways of taking care of their religious sites such as feeding the gods daily or cleaning the temple area daily whereas there was not a huge emphasis on daily chores for Greece. Each society had originated around an ecologically useful area. Greece had a better advantage when compared to Egypt and Mesopotamia because both were prone to flooding. The Nile in Egypt constantly overflowed or ran dry causing harm to those who lived off of the river. The laws of each society were very male centered. Men were dominant over women in each society, but women in Egypt and Greece had more rights than those of Mesopotamia. Egyptian women could sue and file for divorce while Greek women could get jobs and retain property. The men gained more repercussions in Greece seeing as how rape and adultery would initiate a fine in Athens and not joining the army in Sparta would make you lose citizenship and the right to marry. Each society was also governed in some way making them similar, but the way they were governed makes them different. Mesopotamia was ruled by whoever conquered them, Egypt was ruled by a king, and Greece also had a king or an elected official. Each society did have slaves in some way, along with lower class. Egypt and Greece gave the middle lower class the option to become somewhat of a higher class through education and money. Power was determined mainly by wealth, birth, and income in the societies in some shape or form. Military was more of an important focus in Egypt and Greece than in Mesopotamia. The family structure of each civilization is still male centered and the male typically controls the family. Marriage and divorce is common in all
They had similar beliefs, but also immeasurable differences. It was composed of many meaningful gods and goddesses that all played a part in the everyday life of the average Roman and Greek person of that time.
Roman mythology, on the other hand, grew around the same time as Greek mythology. It all began around 800 B.C. when the Roman Empire was at its peak. However, the unique thing about the Romans is that their origin traces back to Latin and Italian cultures. They also share the same gods and heroes as Greeks but with different names. Rome was the first nation to have a set government that is similar to ours today.
If this is an essay about the similarities and difference between the Greek and Roman gods then it would only make sense to start with the kings of the gods, Zeus and Jupiter. They are both the rulers of the heavens and are the gods of lightning. Since they are both the rulers of the gods they also are to uphold the rules of Greece and Rome. They both have the same stories of how they came to power. Their fathers Saturn and Cronus had eaten all of their brothers and sisters because they were told that one of their children would over throw them. But their mothers Hera and Rhea hid them and gave Cronus and Saturn a rock in baby clothing. When Zeus and Jupiter had reached maturity they returned and defeated their fathers releasing their siblings. That is really where the similarities end though. Zeus was a total pervert. He was the illegitimate father of many children but not only with other goddesses but with mortals. One of his most famous children was the Greek hero Perseus, “Zeus visited a princess by the name of Danae as golden rain. From this Perseus was born” (“Encyclopedia Mythica”, n.d.). Zeus also had a son, the popular hero Heracles. Zeus was a god that was known for throwing lightnin...
The word “ancient” can be a hard word to describe. It has no specific time period, but also does at the same time. When something is described as ancient, it is something that is extremely old, or was in the very distant past. Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek civilizations co-existed from 1150BC to 146BC. They had different systems, beliefs, and life styles, just like how different countries do today. There were also similarities, such as both having a single person be the ruler, not giving equal power to everyone. For Greeks, this would be a king and for Egyptians, and Pharaoh. Both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece believed in mythology – a similarity between the two. However, much of their mythology was different. Although both Egypt
Both the Greek and the Roman civilization were polytheistic. Greeks were a very religious people. In Greece each city-state had a patron god or goddess that protected their city. Greeks believed that their Gods appeared in human form but had superhuman strength and ageless beauty. Many of the Gods are depicted on various painted scenes on vases, and stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures by themselves or in mythological scenes interacting with humans and lesser Gods (Realign and Death). Rome’s Gods and Goddesses were from a blend of a variety of cultures including Greece. They too believed the gods were actively involved in their everyday life, so much so that they held sacred meals for their Gods during religious festivals in which the invitations were sent in the God’s name and a place was set for them at the table. The oldest male in the family preformed religious rituals for the whole household to the family God, while the state employed priests and Priestesses to worship at the temple. Though they could not predict the future the priests were the one who could read signs to see if the Gods were happy or angry with the people. In the first century a new religion was born in the Rome that spread all throughout the empire and corners of the world, Christianity (Life in
One of the most renowned inspirations from the Greeks would be the Greek philosophy of citizenship and Roman impact on the legal world. In Greece, a true member of society was a participating citizen which directly correlates with the modern world in how we as societies view participation in government. In contrast, Roman inspiration on the modern world is heavily seen through architecture especially with columns and the pantheon. In the United States, the US Capitol Building was built with a dome shaped rotunda resembling the pantheon in a way to symbolize power and strength as such the Romans did through their temples. In regards to religion, the ancient Romans are responsible for the spread of Christianity which is today the most followed religion in the world. Both ancient Greece and Rome have influenced the daily aspects of modern life through the Greek style of showering which is a daily ritual for most decent humans and the Roman style of eating three-meals a day and even dessert which are special daily rituals especially for college students. Even so, both civilizations have directly influenced the American system of government from the basis of democracy in Greece to the bicameral legislature of Rome that was a defining factor is the establishment of our nation through the Great Compromise. Furthermore, the seventh amendment to the United States Constitution establishing a trial by jury is a direct reflection of ancient Greece policies as well as the checks and balances system of Rome that the federal government cherishes. A popular reincarnation of the Greek life on modern culture is the use of the Greek alphabet to name fraternities and sororities. While this is not a direct reincarnation of the Greek lifestyle, the fraternities and sororities use the Greek alphabet to give themselves a