1. Introduction
Both the Greeks and the Romans were very religious and religion was a large part of their culture. They were both polytheistic, cultic religions. Greek religion was a very sophisticated and complex religion that developed and evolved with the time. On the other hand, Roman religion was very old and a simplified version of the Greek religion. Despite the differences between these two religions, these polytheistic religions had much in common and had many effects on culture.
The Greeks are a very religious people. However, there is no real Greek word for religion. The closest Greek words were eusebeia, which means piety, and threskeia, which means cult. Its effects were widespread. They stretched from Spain to the Indus River Valley and throughout the Mediterranean kingdoms. The Greek religion greatly affected the Roman religion. Both Greek and Roman cultic religions were polytheistic. Neither had a system of ethics or a specific set of laws or a creed to guide the day-to-day. Neither had specific idols or objects of worship however they did have temples to the specific gods and goddesses. Each god and their respective temples had a large network of priests and priestesses. The more important gods and goddesses, the Olympians, had a larger network than the lesser, non-Olympian gods. The priests, unlike Christianity, did not have much influence in the government and politics.
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Greek Rituals
The Greeks had two basic duties: to believe the gods existed and to perform the necessary rituals or sacrifices to appease the gods and goddesses. If a Greek did not perform the sacrifices and rituals, they would risk retaliation or not receiving a god or goddess’s blessing. There were many festivals that were performed to honor the gods and