THE DAILY LIFE OF
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS

The religion of the Greek and Roman peoples was composed of many elements, and presents throughout their history a great variety of cults and observances. Religious tenets were not defined, and no priestly hierarchy attempted to coerce the people in their beliefs or actions. A Greek or a Roman was not under the necessity of worshipping the gods, though he might incur the anger of his fellow-citizens by outraging their feelings. To the ordinary man or woman, however, the service of the gods was a daily duty and each important event of human life had its appropriate observance. The head of every family was its priest, and the children his assistants in carrying out the worship of the divine beings who guarded the house and fields and all the living creatures therein. Similarly the great gods of the city were served by the priests and priestesses appointed to represent the city, conceived of as one great family. Each city had its recurring festivals, its rest days sacredly kept, and its days of commemoration of the dead.

Public worship in Greece and Italy consisted of prayers and hymns, and of sacrifices offered both within the temples and shrines and in other places, such as groves and springs, which were held to be sacred. The temples were built and adorned with all possible care, and were the pride of the community. An amphora (on the bottom of Case S in the Fourth Room) decorated with a religious scene shows a common type of altar. It is shaped rather like a pedestal with an architectural moulding and “horns” on either side. A miniature terracotta shrine from Cyprus (on the right side of the top shelf in Case 1), made for household use, gives us an idea of the shape of the larger ones which held a statue at crossroads and street corners. Incense, a frequent accompaniment of worship, was burned in a covered vessel, often provided with a high stand, such as the incense burner painted on a small oinochoë in Case G in the Fifth Room; or a little altar was used for the purpose. An example from Cyprus, which still shows traces of fire, stands on the top shelf of Case 1. A marble lamp from a temple is in Case G in the Third Room. It was made to be set in a support, probably a bronze tripod, and was filled with oil in which a wick floated.

In prayer the worshipper looked upward and raised both hands. This attitude is perhaps represented in a bronze statuette, probably a votive offering, in Case D in the Fifth Room (fig. 1). A small wine-jug (Case 1, middle shelf) is decorated with a scene no doubt very common in Athens; before a statue of Athena raised on a low column stands a man saluting the goddess by kissing his fingers and raising them toward her (fig. 2). A bronze votive statuette in Case D in the Fourth Room is making the same gesture.

The universal custom of offering to a divinity gifts in supplication and thanksgiving has many interesting illustrations in the collection. A remnant of the ancient religion of Crete is the die for moulding miniature bronze axes in Case B in the First Room. The little bronze figure of a man carrying a pig in Case C2 in the Third Room served as a memorial of a burnt sacrifice (fig. 3). The terracotta warriors from Cyprus (Case 1 and the wall-cases in the corridor), and the Italic bronze warriors (Case 3 and Case J in the Third Room) were probably thank-offerings for a victorious home-coming. The group of terracotta figures holding one another’s hands gives a rude picture of a ring-dance such as was performed in honor of Aphrodite in Cyprus (Case 1, top shelf). The painted terracotta face above this shelf is an example of the many little masks called “oscilla” which were hung by cords in sanctuaries or on the branches of trees outside (see tail-piece, p. xvii). They seem to have been a substitute for the worshipper when he was obliged to be away about his daily occupation. Several other examples will be found in wall-cases in the corridor. Fourteen miniature bronze greaves in Case 4 were probably dedications, perhaps made by soldiers after a battle. Food and drink were the simplest and commonest gifts, but were often beyond the means of the worshipper. If this were true, he gave a representation in some cheap material of the offering he wished to make, thus expressing pressing his good-will. In Case 1 are three little tables with articles of food in relief upon the surface. We see a ham, a whole boar, some cakes, fruit, and various dishes of food (fig. 4). Near these tables is a little tray with several cakes represented in relief upon it, a substitute for the cakes which were placed on tables in the temples, like the shew-bread of the Hebrews. The group of vases connected by a ring was used for offering small portions of liquid, probably oil, wine, honey, or milk. Gratitude for the cure of disease was often exhibited by dedicating a representation of the affected part. On the top shelf at the left are terracotta plaques showing eyes, eyes and mouth, and an ear (fig. 5). Other examples are in Cases 47 and 75 in the Cesnola Collection. The manufacture and sale of such objects formed an industry in ancient times, and the records of the temple of Asklepios at Athens which are still preserved contain long lists of them.

The ceremonies and sacrifices in temples were few compared to the frequent occasions for private and family worship. No meal was eaten without offering a portion of food and drink to the gods, and statuettes and symbols of divinities were kept in various rooms of the house and near the house-door. The rude bust of Hermes on a pillar (Case 1, middle shelf) is of the same type as the much larger pillars which in Athens were placed near house-doors, in schools, and in the market-place (fig. 6). It was the mutilation of these images which caused such consternation immediately before the sailing of Nikias on the disastrous Sicilian expedition in 415 B.C.

An interesting terracotta relief in Case 4 represents two warriors clasping hands (fig. 7). Perhaps it may be regarded as a votive offering made to commemorate a treaty or an alliance, either of which with the Greeks and also the Romans was an agreement made in the sight of the gods and accompanied by sacrifices. Readers of the Anabasis will remember the treaty made by the Greeks and the Persians after Cyrus’s death (II, ii, 8, 9), when the sword-blades and spear-heads were dipped in the blood of the victims caught in a shield, and the leaders on both sides gave their right hands as a pledge of fidelity.

The superstitious and fearful aspect of ancient religion is represented by the grotesque faces called apotropaia, “turners away,” which were thought to avert misfortune. They were worn especially by children, and large ones of various materials were often fastened up in workshops and houses. A number of small examples in glass are in Case C in the Third Room (fig. 8).

Perhaps the first divinities we think of when we turn to the native Roman religion are the Lares, the guardians of house and field. The Lar was represented as a youth holding a horn of plenty and a patera, a shallow bowl used in sacrificing (fig. 9). Two of these figures stood side by side near the hearth in the principal room of the early Roman house, but at a later period they were placed in a little shrine usually adjoining the atrium. A statuette of rather careless workmanship stands on the middle shelf in Case 1 and a much better example in Case J in the Eighth Room. A fine statuette of the Imperial period represents a priest with his toga drawn up over his head in preparation for sacrificing, in accordance with the custom which Virgil mentions in the Aeneid: “Veil thine hair with a purple garment for covering, that no hostile face at thy divine worship may meet thee amid the holy fires and make void the omens” (III, vv. 405ff. Mackail) (Case J in the Eighth Room, fig. 10). A life-size statue of a camillus, a boy assistant at religious rites, is in this room (fig. 11). The office of camillus was an honorable one bestowed upon the young sons of distinguished families.

We have several interesting objects related to special cults. A goddess revered by both Greeks and Romans was Tyche or Fortuna. A small bronze statuette (Seventh Room, Case H 2) represents the Fortune of Antioch seated on a rock, crowned with turrets, and holding in her hand a sheaf of grain. Fortuna had many temples in Rome, where she was worshipped under different titles. The popular belief in her power is attested by Caesar, who tells of the confidence felt by his men in him and in his success because they believed him to be a favorite of Fortune. A rather rude statuette of this divinity stands on the second shelf of Case 1.

The worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis gradually spread from Egypt into Asia Minor and thence into Greece and Rome. The bronze sistrum or rattle was used in her rites, and she is often represented holding it in her hand (Case 1, fig. 14).

An especially interesting memorial of an Eastern cult established in Rome is the statuette of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, on her processional car drawn by lions (Case M in the Eighth Room, fig. 12). The worship of Cybele, a very ancient one, was introduced into Rome during the Second Punic War at a time of great danger and anxiety. Our statuette represents not the goddess herself but her cult statue, and probably commemorates one of the annual festivals at which the image on its car was taken to the river Almo to receive a ritual bath. The god-companion of Cybele, Attis, was not worshipped at Rome before the time of Claudius, though his cult was diffused over many parts of the East. A little terracotta from Cyprus shows him in Phrygian dress on a horse (Case 1).

A glass relief (on the tray above the middle shelf) gives a realistic picture of a Roman sacrifice (fig. 13); an ox is being led through the portico of a temple by four men carrying knives and an axe. A priestess walks before them with veiled head, holding a box containing incense, meal, or other articles used at sacrifices.