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    Religious Practice & Beliefs in Pompeii & Herculaneum

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    Elisabeth Maye
    The residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum, like other Romans, were polytheistic and worshipped many gods from Greek and other traditions. They had public religious festivals and ceremonies as well as household worship of gods like Lares and Genius who protected homes and families. Archaeological evidence shows residents took household gods with them when fleeing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Personal deities representing fertility and prosperity were also worshipped alongside traditional gods at home altars and shrines in gardens and throughout the towns.

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    Religious Practice & Beliefs in Pompeii & Herculaneum

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    Elisabeth Maye
    38 views14 pages
    The residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum, like other Romans, were polytheistic and worshipped many gods from Greek and other traditions. They had public religious festivals and ceremonies as well as household worship of gods like Lares and Genius who protected homes and families. Archaeological evidence shows residents took household gods with them when fleeing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Personal deities representing fertility and prosperity were also worshipped alongside traditional gods at home altars and shrines in gardens and throughout the towns.

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    Religious Practice & Beliefs in Pompeii & Herculaneum (1)

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    The residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum, like other Romans, were polytheistic and worshipped many gods from Greek and other traditions. They had public religious festivals and ceremonies as well as household worship of gods like Lares and Genius who protected homes and families. Archaeological evidence shows residents took household gods with them when fleeing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Personal deities representing fertility and prosperity were also worshipped alongside traditional gods at home altars and shrines in gardens and throughout the towns.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    38 views14 pages

    Religious Practice & Beliefs in Pompeii & Herculaneum

    Uploaded by

    Elisabeth Maye
    The residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum, like other Romans, were polytheistic and worshipped many gods from Greek and other traditions. They had public religious festivals and ceremonies as well as household worship of gods like Lares and Genius who protected homes and families. Archaeological evidence shows residents took household gods with them when fleeing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Personal deities representing fertility and prosperity were also worshipped alongside traditional gods at home altars and shrines in gardens and throughout the towns.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 14

    Religious Practice &

    Beliefs in Pompeii &


    Herculaneum

    Priapus
    (Source 1)

    A World of Polytheism

    The Romans worshipped many gods and


    adopted gods from every part of their
    conquered world.
    Like the Greek tradition, the Romans had
    the pantheon, which consisted of Jupiter,
    Juno, Minerva, Vesta, Ceres, Diana,
    Venus, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Vulcan
    and Apollo.
    These were the chosen celestial 12.
    However like other Roman towns, Pompeii &
    Herculaneums religious practice was
    different to others.

    Like the Greeks, Romans believed the


    bound between gods and mankind
    united the people in their community.
    Greek religion practice influenced all
    aspects of Roman society. E.g.
    Emperor Augustuss sister was
    married to Mark Antony, who left her
    for Cleopatra. Augustus sought
    revenge and after Augustus defeated
    Mark Antony, he dedicated his victory
    to the Greek god Apollo and as a
    result built a house beside his temple.

    Because

    of this all citizens were


    expected to be involved in religious
    rituals and were expected to behave
    in an appropriate manner so not to
    upset the gods.
    In times of misfortune and disaster,
    the people of the town were
    expected to win back the favour of
    the gods through prayer and
    sacrifices.

    Whole

    town religious festivals and


    ceremonies were major events in the
    societys calendar and were taken
    very seriously.
    In both Pompeii & Herculaneum there
    were important priests who came
    from the towns important families.
    Their role was to oversee the
    organising and running of the
    festivals and celebrations.
    Women held priestess positions only
    in the cult religions.

    Like every other provincial town Pompeii &


    Herculaneum were polytheist in faith
    Gods were worshipped in a variety of ways both in
    public and in the privacy of their homes, which
    was an extremely important practice in Roman
    society.
    Cicero
    The most sacred, the most hallowed place on
    earth is the home of each and every citizen.
    There are his sacred hearth and his household
    gods, there the very centre of his worship,
    religion and domestic ritual. (Source 2)

    In the houses of both towns there were small


    shrines called Lararia with small statues or
    painted images of the Lares household gods
    who protected the home and family

    Household
    Lararium
    (Source 3)

    Garden Shrines

    (source 4)

    Some houses had images of a genius who


    was the spirit of the paterfamilias master
    of the house.
    Each morning the master of the house would
    gather his family around the lararium, make
    an offering to the lare and say a prayer for
    the protection and prosperity of the
    household.
    However special celebrations occurred once a
    month and for births, marriages and special
    anniversaries.
    Archaeological diggings have discovered that
    when the eruption in 79AD occurred the
    majority of people took the lares from the
    lararium for protection.

    Larari
    a

    (Source 5)

    Personal deities were important to individuals. The


    ones below represented fertility, prosperity and
    good fortune. (Source 6)

    Other household gods included the likes of Vesta


    goddess of the hearth, Panates guardian of
    the pantry.

    Cult religions
    Cult

    following was common in Pompeii


    & Herculaneum and this came from the
    adoption of foreign gods.
    Dionysos Greek god of fertility and
    divine intoxication was worshipped in
    the Roman world under the name of
    Bacchus- who is seen as a man
    covered in grapes, usually positioned at
    the foot of Vesuvius.
    This particular cult had mixed feelings.

    HSC 2007
    Using

    the previous sources 1-6 and


    your own knowledge of other
    sources, describe what the evidence
    shows about religion in Pompeii and
    Herculaneum.

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