RE: Were other European religions better than Christianity?
December 26, 2011 at 9:26 am
(This post was last modified: December 26, 2011 at 9:27 am by Epimethean.)
A. Gladiatorial spectacles were political and social in nature. The dollop of "religion" on them was a mere formality-a nod to the by-then not very sacred state cult.
B. You are stuck thinking only of Zeus/Jupiter and his ilk, which shows that you no nothing about the familial cult.
C. The Romans did not portray themselves to be descendants of the Greeks, save in poetic ways and tropes, nor were they. Re-read the Aeneid, and reconsider the meaning of the Trojan War in it. The Romans considered themselves very "other" than Greek. They absorbed the Greek state cult because it preserved a tradition of learning they found engaging, and it made for good showmanship.
You should put "pagan" in quotes there, as the contests were not ritualistic.
B. You are stuck thinking only of Zeus/Jupiter and his ilk, which shows that you no nothing about the familial cult.
C. The Romans did not portray themselves to be descendants of the Greeks, save in poetic ways and tropes, nor were they. Re-read the Aeneid, and reconsider the meaning of the Trojan War in it. The Romans considered themselves very "other" than Greek. They absorbed the Greek state cult because it preserved a tradition of learning they found engaging, and it made for good showmanship.
You should put "pagan" in quotes there, as the contests were not ritualistic.
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