Imported divinities
Characters:
Theme: Mystery and eastern worship in Rome
Competencies
Competence in Linguistic Communication
Personal, social and learning to learn competence
Competence in cultural awareness and expressions
Subjects and year by Educational System
Spain > Classical culture > 4th ESO > Continuity of cultural heritage. Mythology and religion
Enunciation
Aconia Fabia Paulina was a poet in the 4th century AD who took part in different religious cults. Her husband was a notorious politician and religious authority in Rome; in his epitaph, she laments both his absence and the disappearance of pagan values in the face of strong pressure from Christianity.
Read some selected verses from the epitaph and answer the questions about them and other Roman forms of worship.
…in templa ducis ac famulam diuis dicas.
te teste cunctis imbuor mysteriis,
tu Dindymenes Atteosque antistitem
teletis honoras taureis consors pius.
Hecates ministram trina secreta edoces
Cererisque Graiae tu sacris dignam paras.
te propter omnes me beatam, me piam
celebrant, quod ipse me bonam disseminas...
( https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Epitaphium_Vettii_Agorii_Praetextati)
...Led me into temples, dedicated me
In service to the Sacred Ones, stood by me
In love as I partook of mystery.
Devoted consort, with the blood of bulls
You honored me, anointed me a priestess
To fertile Cybele and fruitful Attis,
Prepared me for Demeter's liturgy
And taught me moon-dark Hekaté's three secrets,
And you have made of me a woman famed
Across the lands as blessed and devoted.
1.- Mystery and eastern worship.
a.- Comment on Aconia's relationship with her husband.
b.- What three foreign goddesses does she worship? Write their names under each picture, taking into account that one of them identifies with the goddess Cybele.
c- Which of these goddesses is connected to the taurobolium ceremony? What did it consist of?
d.- What Greek goddess was Ceres? What mysteries were dedicated to her in Greece? Summarise the myth explaining those mysteries. What natural phenomenon is explained through this myth? Do you think it is a cosmogonic, foundational, aetiological or theogonic myth?
e.- Which goddess has power over the air, the sea and the land and also represents the three stages of a woman's biological cycle? According to Hesiod, whose daughter was she? What does the name 'Trivia', the Roman goddess of crossroads who was assimilated to Hekate, mean?
f.- In Rome, although not featured in the excerpt, they also worshipped Isis and Mytra. Where were these goddesses from?
g.- Write whether these statements about mystery and oriental forms of cult are true (T) or false (F).
- They were an official practice by the State:
- They insisted on the moral perfection of the individual:
- They had initiation rites:
- They admitted all citizens:
- They encouraged expectations of life after death:
- They were done at home, directed by the pater familias:
- They had a secret aspect:
- They admitted women and slaves:
- Priestly colleges existed to organise worship and festivals:
- They were connected to the figure of the emperor:
h.- Select and comment the two characteristics that you consider the most important so that these cults could spread easily.
2.- Traditional worship.
a.- What three gods were the most important in Rome's public worship? What name were they given? Why?
b.- Within homes, several deities were worshipped: Lares, Manes, Penates. Add the name to each definition.
· gods who protected families:
· gods who protected pantries:
· spirits of dead ancestors:
c.- In Imperial times, the cult of the emperor was added to the private and public cults, under the influence of the Hellenistic monarchs. Reason why it was a way to unify and unite the empire.
3.- End of paganism.
a.- Which decrees did Emperor Theodosius issue in 380 AD and 392 AD concerning Christianity?
b.- If Aconia wrote the epitaph in 384 AD, was her fear regarding the disappearance of the classical world justified?
c.- A Christian author called her diabolica ancilla “the devil's servant". Why do you think she called her that?
d.- Why do you think that Christianity, an eastern religion, never adapted or syncretised with other Roman cults?
e.- If the word 'pagan' comes from paganus, someone who lived in a pagus (village), reason where there was most resistance to the introduction of Christianity and why.
f.- What three monotheist religions have been the most connected to the history of the Western world? On the basis of these, have a short discussion on the positive and negative aspects of monotheism.
Observations and context
Sappho's poetry originate a long list of women who, until the 4th century AD, captured their voices in various styles, both in Greek and Latin. From the Roman period, and mentioning only the poets of whom a minimum testimony remains, we find Sulpicia 'the elegiac', Melinno, Herenia Procula, Claudia Trofime, Sulpicia 'the satirist', Julia Balbilla, Caecilia Trebulla, Damo, Terentia, Theosebia and Aconia Fabia Paulina.
The activity is aimed at 4th ESO in CUC, block Continuity of cultural heritage. Mythology and Religion, or in Latin, Legacy and Heritage block.
Description
Reading and commenting an excerpt of a poem by Aconia Fabia Paulina, in which several mystery and eastern forms of worship are cited; reviewing some traditional Roman cults and reflecting on the end of all of them.