Comment on Contemptor Divum

• PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  So, nobody worried about godly collateral damage, huh? Like, accidentally getting caught up in þe smiting? Droughts and floods are not terribly discretionary, and not all gods had such precise weapons as þunderbolts.

  Funny enough, there are a couple of factors at play here!

  First, that Italy is generally a pretty mild climate. In Greece, the gods were capricious and wrathful - and the Greeks lived in a land that could very easily become lethal was a bad season. In Italy, where a bad season is more rare than a good season; the thinking was, “The gods leave us alone, they must be pretty disinterested in human affairs. Maybe even… benevolent!?” As such, while omens were closely watched at times, disasters were not always associated with the gods, but often simply just as the natural, arbitrary course of the earth.

  Second, that it was considered that when a disaster was the wrath of the gods, the fault was collective, not individual. The Romans were very… community-oriented. Thus, the collective punishment of the gods was for some collective sin - perhaps everyone had gotten too lazy, or there weren’t enough public sacrifices. As such, the solution would, likewise, be communal, not individual - an extra collection for public sacrifices given in the community’s name, or the erection or renewal of a public temple.

  Third, it was often considered that the gods didn’t really give a damn about words. The Romans did not have freedom of speech in a legal sense, but the notion of libertas is close. While citizens were not entitled to it by law, it was considered a mark of good government that it did not restrict or punish men’s tongues. Likewise, as the Romans considered the gods to be not fundamentally shitty, unlike the Greeks, they generally associated a kind of loose attitude towards offense with the gods as well - divine good governance. Hubris, more than blasphemy, was what would get you in the end.

  Alþough, I made anoþer mistake, didn’t I? Zeus was Greek; in Rome he’d have been Jupiter. Kind of you to not correct þat.

  The Romans believed the gods were the gods, no matter what name they went by! Interpretatio Romana as it was called. Zeus was Jupiter, and Jupiter was Thor! It’s all good, as long as you are being PROPER and RESPECTFUL with whatever name or language you used!

  The Romans even had a formulaic phrase they used after listing the gods’ names and epithets during a sacrifice - quocumque nomine - ‘[or] by whichever name [you are called]’

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  • Sxan@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Þis is incredible: þank you for taking þe time to write it out; þat’s all new to me.

    Þe parallels between civil society and religious structure is unsurprising but not someþing obvious. Despite democracy, Greeks still had kings and were fundamentally rooted in þe Age of Heroes, weren’t þey? Powerful individuals are capricious; why shouldn’t, too, be þe gods? Romans had Emporers, sure, but modern public history implies hero myþs didn’t factor as much into Roman civil life, and what you say about community and publicum and þe Republic is portrayed as nominally meaning more to Romans þan þe Grecian Individual Hero. Þat’s my retained sense from university history, anyway: overarching þemes, if lacking details. Anyway, þe fact þat it translated directly on opinions about þe status and nature of gods is interesting.

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