The Roman Crucible: Blending Greek, Pagan Mythology and Philosophy with Middle Eastern, Judeo-Christian Religion
Intro: What did the Romans ever do for us?
The Fall
of Greece, the rise of Rome:
Although the glory and genius of Classical Greece was short lived, the Romans
adopted Greek literature, architecture, religion, art, republicanism and
philosophy, ensuring that Athenian ideas would outlast Athens. For all practical purposes,
the Romans picked up the Greek Empire where
Alexander had left it at his death in 323 BCE, and then they expanded it,
further spreading Hellenism throughout Europe, the Middle East and N. Africa.
The Fall of Israel
Recall first that after the Hebrews returned from the exile to Babylon
(605-539 BCE), the
Persians (who freed them) still occupied Israel from 538-332 BCE; after
Alexander defeated the Persians, Israel was then occupied by Greeks from 332-167
BCE; the Hebrews achieved independence for about 100 years, from 167-63 BCE, when they
then fell under Roman control. In 60 AD (c. 30 years after Christ's death)
the Hebrews waged a war for independence against the Romans, which they
decisively lost.
The Romans destroyed Jerusalem, tore down the Second Temple (70 AD) and dispersed the Jews, along with the fledging religion that would blossom into Christianity, throughout the Roman Empire. In their attempt to utterly annihilate the Jewish Empire the Romans wound up spreading Jewish and then Christian theology and culture throughout the Western world.
Arch to Titus for victory over Israelites, 81 AD (entering the Roman Forum):
Christianity was spread throughout the Roman Empire by the original 12 Apostles and their followers (most notably Paul of Tarsus). Simon Peter (or Saint Peter) and Paul were perhaps the first to bring Christianity to the city of Rome itself (you can today stand where they were both imprisoned, outside the Forum, Rome) and there Peter was martyred – in legend, crucified upside down – in 64 AD, under the orders of Emperor Nero, who blamed the nascent Christian community for the great fire that destroyed so much of Rome...and helped Nero grow his own palace.
Although followers were often severely persecuted (we’re all familiar with the image of Christians being fed to the lions in the coliseum), the religion continued to spread underground, at first among slaves and women, two groups that, as we've been reading, were long oppressed in Greco-Roman world.
Fall Of Paganism And Rome, And The Rise Of Christianity:
This tide of suppression
was reversed beginning with the Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to
Christianity c. 312 AD. Constantine had already moved the seat of the Roman
Empire from the city of Rome to what is now Istanbul (Constantinople),
then as now the geographical meeting point between Europe and Asia and the
strategic gateway between the Mediterranean and Black seas. This move reminds
us that the religious shift from European Paganism to Asian Judeo-Christianity takes place within the context of a larger cultural
and socio-economic shift; Constantine and the Roman Empire had, so to speak,
gone native when they moved "Rome" from Europe to Asia/The Middle East.
Pagan polytheists like the Greeks and Romans had always believed in and worshipped the specific gods of the specific geographical locale, accepting the gods of their enemies as every bit as real as their own gods; that is the very nature of poytheism.
Christianity became the official Roman religion under Emperor Theodosius in 380 AD.
Long after the city of
Rome and the so called Roman Empire itself declined and fell (c. 475 AD)* and
Europe slipped into its long Dark Ages, Constantinople would continue to be the
seat of Euro-Asian power and culture, the seat of the Byzantine Empire.
For me, this symbolizes
perfectly how the two major cultural forces, or “stories”, we’ve followed so far
– the Middle Eastern Sumerian and Jewish and the Greco-Roman Pagan – wound up
coming together at the exact meeting place of the two continents…and only a few
hours’ drive away from Troy.
(*Arguably, only the city
of Rome, or "Italian" Rome fell, and the Empire itself moved from Rome and
Western Europe to Constantinople and the Middle East and N. Africa, much as the
British Empire essentially evolved into the American Empire.
More On Rome And Christianity Here
What’s
The Point, Drake?
We have been reading the
literature of two separate cultures: the Greeks in Europe and the Jewish and
Christian in the Middle East. Traditionally we see these two cultures as
opposed and distant, but the history of Medieval Europe is not just a
battle of one culture against another; it is the history of these two ancient
cultures melding into one over a period of at least 2,000 years.
Later we'll discuss how this was especially true on the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and
Spain) during the rest of Europe's "Dark Ages", where this melding of Middle
Eastern and "Greek" culture flourished under the Muslim "Moors" for 800 years, .)
So, the Romans both crushed and blended these cultures, with each other and with their own, and then blew the blended mixture to the four corners of Europe. There, this mixture in turn blended with other ancient European cultural beliefs, such as those of the northern Norse, Celtic and Druidic cultures. (and then a similar event takes place in Iberia, with Jews, Muslims and Christians)
We tend to see the collision between these ancient cultures and religions, or any two cultures and religions colliding, as inherently combative, and certainly much of the history plays itself out as a drawn out Holy War -- first the Pagan Romans defeated the Jews, then they persecuted the Christians for about 200 years, and then the tables turned and the Roman Christians persecuted Jews and Pagans (largely during the 1000 year-long Inquisition) -- but as we’ll see in the literature covered in this class, for most Europeans, ancient Pagan beliefs lived, and continue to live, side by side with Christianity, if not as religion then as mythology and lore and thus "literature".
And, in fact, we still live in that world: where these two competing world views have blended into one, one in which most of us don't even know which was which, the Pagan or the Judeo-Christian.
This should be clear as we Beowulf, the Arthurian legends, especially Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Examples Of These Cultures Blending:
Our Pagan Holidays
Easter:
As we see in Ovid’s retelling of the Greek Pagan myth “"Ceres and Proserpina"
the Greeks and Romans were primed to receive stories centered around death and
resurrection, and the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection in the
spring coincided with Pagan holidays that precede even the most ancient Greek
beliefs.
Ceres, or Demeter to the Greeks, is the goddess of grain and fertility, and descends from the same tradition as Ishtar, Gilgamesh’s saucy protector-ess. The Saxons (Northern Europeans) called her “Eostre”, and many traditions associated her with eggs (ovum has the same root), a clear sign of fertility, as well as with bunny rabbits (which of course breed like, well, rabbits).
The celebration of rebirth was also a central theme of the Jewish Passover or "Pesach", which celebrates the Jews freedom Egyptian slavery -- a rebirth into freedom. The holiday falls on the first full moon of the first month of the Jewish calendar, “Nisan”, (first full moon after the vernal equinox), so depending on the year, it occurs within a week or so of Easter. Christ’s last supper was a seder or Passover dinner.
Note: Most predominately Catholic countries use some derivation of "Pesach" for "Easter": French: Paques, Italian: Pasque, Spanish: Pascua.
Christmas:
There
are of course no references in the Bible to the date of Christ’s birth, but
Romans already celebrated the winter solstice around December 25th.
The History Channel’s
Christmas Unwrapped
is an interesting look at the rocky history of this holiday. Even as late as 100
years ago devout Christians considered “Christmas” a demonic pagan holiday.
Also see The Green Knight
Our Pagan
Week
In English, the days of the week remain to this day named after
a combination of Greco-Roman and
Norse pagan gods:
Sun-day
Moon-day
Tiw's-day (or "Tyr" -- the
one handed god of war)
Woden's-day (or "Odin" -- the
chief Norse god)
Thor's-day (yep, the guy with the hammer or "Thunor" as in "thunder");
in Latin Ioves for "Jove" or Jupiter (Spanish: jeuves, French: Jeudi)
Frig's-day (or "Freyr", godess of fertility); in Latin Veneris for
Venus (Spanish: Viernes, French: Vendredi)
Saturn's-day is of course Roman
Our Pagan Months
Of course the similar is true of our calendar months, formulized in the era of
Emperor Augustus:
January from Roman god Janus (god of gates and door: beginnings and endings)
February from Etrustran (pre-Roman) god Februur (god of underworld)
March from Roman Mars (god of war)
April from Roman Aphrodite (goddess of love, fertility)
May from Roman Maeista (goddess of reverence)
June from Roman Juno (daughter of Saturn, protector of Rome)
July for Julius Caesar's birth month
August for Emperor Augustus
September through December of course refer to Roman "seventh" through "tenth"
Roman
Churches: Pagan-Christian Architecture
We can
see a similar blending of traditions in some of the most beautiful and ancient
churches from the Roman Empire, and chart the slow but steady blending of
ancient European beliefs with those of the Middle East.
Pope Gregory I's (601 AD) letter to the Abbot Mellitus suggests how willing the Church was to blend pagan and Christian elements, in this case during attempts to convert Brits to the new religion: "Tell Augustine that he should be no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples. Let him, after he has purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints in them." Continued here.
The Duomo, Ortygia,
Sicilia
Begun c. 650 BCE, as a
Greek temple to Athena. It then became a Roman temple to Minerva. Then it
was converted to a Catholic church. The front/facade dates from 1693 (Late
Italian Renaissance), after much of the entire island was wiped out by a massive
earthquake.
(c. 100 yards from the Fountain of Arethusa mentioned in "Ceres and Proserpina"; 85 miles from Henna/Enna, where Proserpina descended to the underworld)
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Assisi
Minerva = Athena
Originally: 1st century BC. Abandoned in the 5th century (AD) with the outlawing of Paganism. Adopted as a Benedictine church in the 6th century. Gutters for draining the blood of sacrificial bulls can still be seen beside the altar.
Assisi is the home of Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscan Order of Catholicism, and the seat of the Franciscan Catholic Order.
The Pantheon:
Pan-theon =
temple of "all gods”
The Pantheon: Classical Mathematical Order As Beauty and Truth
1) The Romans applied Greek geometry to create astounding architectural, engineering marvels. Built in roughly 125 AD, no one would be able to build a dome of this size until the middle of the 1700s.
2) The Pantheon's engineering genius mirrors its aesthetic brilliance; the same mathematical/geometrical principles that make the enormous dome physically possible also make it aesthetically perfect. (Remember Plato's obsession with geometry as a representation of the Ideal?)
3) Converted to Catholic church in the 7th century.
