Role of Gods and Goddesses in the Lives of the Romans and Greeks - Research Paper Example

? “Role of Gods and Goddesses in the lives of the Romans and Greeks” Gods and goddesses played an important role in the lives of the Greeks and Romans. Their religions incorporated the worship of many gods and goddesses. They have gods of sun, poetry, music, fortune, war, marriage, wisdom, underworld, death, love, sea, fire etc. The Greek gods originated 700 years before the Roman civilization. Greek gods and goddesses were based on human characteristics like love, hatred, jealousy etc. The roles of these gods in their lives were determined by what they were actually gods of. For example, Zeus was god of sky, Hades of death etc. Their gods and goddesses believed in the importance of physical life on earth as compared to immortality. The actions and contribution of each individual god in the society was of utmost importance. They were physically strong, beautiful and creative. In this way, Greek life centered totally on them. Every problem had a god or goddess to fix it. Their general religion was based on sky gods. The people used to pay high respect and offer sacrifice to them, hoping to receive a warning or benefits from the gods for the state and the inhabitants. Even they used to play games and perform in theatres during religious festivals and dedicated each such act to their gods. The Roman gods and goddesses were named after objects. Many of the Roman gods got borrowed from the Greek mythology. They were eager to do noble deeds in their mortal life and believed to be rewarded afterwards in afterlife. They were warriors and considered war as sacred action. They had no physical appearance and were only imagined by people in their thoughts and dreams. Roman people considered the worship of gods as a major part of their religion. They had certain principles, traditions, ceremonies and sacrifices for them. They had temples where they used to offer human and animal sacrifices. The Greek and Roman scholars discovered the origins of their gods and goddesses by relating to various stories and myths. The Greek myths were created by human desire to better understand the world and its happenings. Similarly, the Roman myths and legends surrounded Mount Olympus which highly contributed to the stories about the Roman gods. Following are some stories from Greek and Roman myths that highlight the roles of gods and goddesses in their history: 1. The Epic of Gilgamesh: It tells the story of friendship of a superhuman Gilgamesh and Enkidu, their decline, Enkidu death and Gilgamesh fear of his own mortality. It also tells how they got punished when went against the will of gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses required sacrifices from both of the friends when they did not respected them. One goddess asked companionship of Gilgamesh and got rejected. Out of sheer anger, she decided to use Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. On the other hand, Enkidu got killed after insulting a goddess. Another side of this story reflects the significance of women as a symbol of beauty, lust and weakness for man. That’s why a woman was sent to tame Enkidu who, through her lust, overcame his instinct of animal (Peterson and Dunworth 69). 2. The Ilaid and Odyssey: The Iliad was a war story and reflected the effects of Achilleus’s anger. On the other hand, the Odyssey was a story of a man’s journey back to his home. But the main theme of both is the attitude of Greek people toward death at that time (Homer xi). Each emphasizes the importance of death by describing the trips to the underworld. Moreover, death during battle is showed to be sacred as compared to an accidental death. Proper rituals were performed for the dead one to complete his/her journey to the underworld. Another theme of both poems is “revenge”. In a nutshell, both poems depict a clear picture of how honor and death was viewed in early Greek society. 3. Production of Medea: This story presents passion as a main subject and describes its outcome i.e. suffering and sensitiveness of injured love and ending in form of revenge. It tells how a love god Aphrodite made Medea falls in love with a man Jason who later betrays her (King 118). She, in revenge and jealousy, killed the woman who was about to marry Jason and in sheer agony killed her own children later. This portrays her as a mother having extreme degree of pitiful tenderness. This shows how passionate emotions, when uncontrolled, result in troubled outcomes and destruction. 4. Works of Aeschyles: Aeschylus offered great services to Greek drama in his early age. He is called as the “father of Greek tragedy”. According to myths, he was asked by a god in the dream to write tragic dramas in order to glorify the gods in the religious festivals. The motive of his all plays was to show the persistent power of Fate and importance of wisdom. He was the ever first dramatist to give meanings to tragedy. His plays were mostly mesmerizing, majestic, disturbing and raised issues that are valid to the present day. They showed the severe need of justice, civil duty and challenged the gods in this way so that they apply those principles. 5. Sophocles: He was one of the greatest playwrights of the golden age of Greek drama. He was one of the greatest innovators of theatre who introduced a third actor for the first time. His plays also comprised of tragedies and passion. His masterpieces included Oedipus the King, a tragic story that shows modern psycho-analysis of human nature (Sophocles). Another play is Antigone which shows a passionate woman. 6. Euripedes: He was also a Greek dramatist. He composed around 92 plays, each of which reflected his personal attitude toward religious belief and ancient myths. The characters of his plays ended in the same tragic fates as their true flawed natures depicted. In his last days of life, he began to write romantic dramas and tragic stories but with happy endings. 7. The Ovid: He was a famous poet of first century Rome. He always found pleasure in art and wrote some masterpieces of poetry in Roman history. His famous writings include Medea, Heroids, Amores, the Art of Love etc. His poems begin with creation of world, creation of human beings, the four ages of early mankind etc. He also talked in his poem about the occurrence of gods, demigods and mortals. His poems ended with prayer for future of Rome. In short, his poems explain both the earliest past and the distant future also. 8. The Aeneid: It is a national epic poem of its own kind. It tells the story of survival of Trojan prince Aeneas after the Trojan War “Troy” and explains the heroic deeds of the prince in a very beautiful manner. It throws light on the foundations of Rome afterwards and justifies that how Rome had a right to expand its empire (Virgil). It is comprised of 12 books, each describing the major events occurring such as arrival at carthage, the fall of Troy, strange sights, passion of the queen, funeral games, underworld, promised land, war in Italy and the deaths of Pallas, Camilla and Turnus. 9. Beowulf: He was a tragic hero. His story is more of a mournful occurrence than a traditional one. The story explains his character in terms of series of occurring events i.e. his match with Breca, the barehanded fight against Grendel who was right on taking revenge from him, the insulting talks with Unferth and finally his un-heroic death in fighting with a dragon which was not a primary characteristic of heroes of that time. Hence, it can be well seen from the above ancient stories and epic poems that they message they all deliver is to tell about who he gods were, how were they like and why they were so different from mortals. They all showed that there existed variety of gods in Roman and Greek history i.e. Gods who deceived or mislead; gods who helped in killing or making other fall in love; god who always kept a distance with the mortals. Such myths helped the mortals to realize the limit of their power, understanding and other virtues. They showed that how a mortal cannot escape his terrible fate by simply relying on his mere intelligence. The myths tell in many ways that how life can never be easy and how it can be made comfortable if they had the will and help of their gods. In a nutshell, the gods and goddesses made the religion of Greeks and Romans centered upon themselves. The study of such ancient myths depicts the supernatural powers of those gods and a clear understanding of the limitations of humans. Works Cited Homer. Chapman's Homer: The Iliad ; The Odyssey. Wordsworth Editions, 1997. King, Katherine Callen. Ancient Epic. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Peterson, Amy T. and David J. Dunworth. Mythology in Our Midst: A Guide to Cultural References. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Sophocles. Oedipus the King. University of Chicago Press, 2010. Virgil. The Aeneid. Filiquarian Publishing, 2007. Read More