Household Shrine and Ritual

Lararium fresco from a tavern in Pompeii - on either side of the Lares is
2020Mercury on the left and Bacchus on the right. Sacred snakes appear below.

Over three and a half years after I first set up my household shrine a few things have changed – one of the biggest changes is that after years of wariness of statues I now have a carefully chosen statue of Mercury on my shrine, for he is a God I particularly revere. Initially I held the notion that the household shrine, or lararium, should, to be consistent with the religious practices of ancient Romans, only honour household deities, but I have since come to realise that ancient Romans did not necessarily hold that view. Mary Beard writes:

Interpreting the Lares

What the scholars say

Bronze statuette of Lar holding a rhyton and a patera,
 1st century CE (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK)

In many ways the heart of the Roman way to the Gods can be said to lay with the household shrine and the deities worshipped thereon. The Lares familiares/Lares domestici (Lares of the household/familia – which includes family members, slaves, servants and perhaps animals) are prominent among these but I have struggled to understand their nature – are they guardians of place (where the household resides) or, as some have suggested, ancestor guardians of the family? Respected scholars M Beard et al describe them as follows: 

“Lares, protecting spirits of place, were worshipped in various contexts: in the house, at the crossroads, in the city (as guardians of the state). The Lares 'familiares' (gods of the house and its members) are the best known of these - receiving offerings, sacrifices and prayers within the household, and commonly appealed to as the protectors of its safety and prosperity. But no mythological stories attached to them; nor were they defined as individual personalities [Beard, North and Price, Religions of Rome: Volume 2 at 2.2a].”

The Golden Ass and the Catamite

Patera depicting Cybele and Attis, 4th century CE, source: ancientrome.ru

As the traditional time to mourn and then celebrate the death and resurrection of Cybele's beloved Attis draws near there is perhaps no better time to look at the role of the galli in ancient Rome. The galli were priests of the great Goddess Cybele, also called the Magna Mater. In imitation of her lover, Attis, who was said to have castrated himself after being driven into a frenzy by a jealous Cybele, the galli castrated themselves during the festival of Attis. Thereafter these “mad eunuch priests” (to quote Lucretius) dressed in women’s clothing, which were typically brightly coloured, wore earrings and heavy make up, and became well known for their wild rites in which they ritualistically flogged and mutilated themselves whilst in an ecstatic frenzy brought on by boisterous music and dancing. They were also well known fortune tellers and were perhaps the only priests permitted to beg during the Roman era.

Greco-Roman Pagan Lego

There are no shortage of Lego set ups engaging with Greco-Roman themes, however they tend to be scattered across cyberspace. Here follows my attempt to bring the best of them together in a Pagan setting. I humbly acknowledge that I became aware of many of these set ups through godbricks.blogspot.com, which is a blog dedicated to Lego set ups with a religious motif.

"Legionaries Ready!" by ACPin. The God of the temple is not indicated (presumably a military God would be appropriate, such as Mars or Bellona) but it is still a great set up. The Sphinxes at the front of the temple are a nice touch.



See more at pinlac.com/LegoRomanTempleDeparture

In another Lego tribute to the God of war (in this case it is definitely Mars), this is "Roman Temple" by Casper.



Sourced from www.flickr.com/photos

Even great soldiers may be felled by Cupid's arrows. This beautiful set up is called "Amor's Arrow" by Jojo.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/chutspe

"Templum Vestae" by Gema. Vesta is the Roman Goddess of protecting hearth fire and ritual fire. Within her famous temple/shrine at Rome a continuous fire burnt. Extinguishment of the fire was associated with ill fortune. Indeed, within 20 years of Vesta's protecting flame being permanently put out, during Emperor Theodosius' persecution of Paganism in the 390s, the Visigoths sacked Rome and the fall of the western Roman empire was essentially complete.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/brickilla

"Palladium in ignis" by lokosuperfluoLEGOman. I love this one - it depicts Pontifex Maximus (high priest of Rome), Lucius Caecilius Metellus, rescuing the sacred Palladium (a wooden statue of Minerva/Pallas Athena said to have been brought to Rome by mythological founding father of Rome, Aeneas) from a fire in the temple of Vesta in 241 BCE.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/lokosuperfluolegoman

"Temple of Claudius, Colchester" by peggyjdb. The temple of the deified emperor Claudius (Templum Divi Claudii) was built in Camulodunum (Roman Colchester) after the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 CE. In 60 or 61 CE, during Boudica's uprising, Camulodunum was laid to siege. Boudica's army set fire to the temple and the whole city was eventually destroyed by fire.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/peggyjdb

"Pantheon, Rome" also by peggyjdb. Originality the Pantheon was a Pagan temple dedicated to the Gods of Rome. In the 7th century (by which time Paganism in Rome had been suppressed for over 200 years) the temple was repurposed by the Pope as a Church, as it remains today. 



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/peggyjdb

"The Mithraeum" by mikey. A Mithraeum was a place of worship for the followers of Mithraism - a mystery religion, adapted from Persian religion, that was especially popular with the Roman military. Mithraea were usually either an adapted natural cave or cavern, or a building imitating a cave.



See more at flickr.com/photos/37943614@N06

"Nikaia Antipolis" by Krazy Kastle Krak Guy. A reconstruction of the ancient city of Nikaia in Illyria, Greece.



See more at www.brickshelf.com

"Lego Temple to the Gods (Greek)" by Anthony Callaghan.



See more at anthony-callaghan.deviantart.com

"Temple of Athena" by Justin R Stebbins. The design of this set up is inspired by the Parthenon. 



See more at www.saber-scorpion.com/lego

"Greek Temple" by Matija Grguric. Greek temple in Doric style; dedicated to Poseidon, God of the sea.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/matijagrguric

"Plato's Allegory of the Cave" by lokosuperfluoLEGOman. The allegory of the cave describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.



See more at www.flickr.com/photos/lokosuperfluolegoman

If you are looking for official Greco-Roman Lego set ups the best option definitely lies with Lego's "City of Atlantis" - a legendary island first mentioned by Plato (in circa 360 BCE). According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BCE. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune".



See more at www.brickset.com

Lego also has some great mini figures:

Series 9 - Roman Emperor


Series 9 - Cyclops


Series 7 - Ocean King


Series 6 - Roman Soldier

Series 6 - Minotaur


Series 5 - Gladiator


Series 5 - Egyptian Queen/Cleopatra


Series 2 - Spartan Warrior


If you are still hungry for more Lego with a Greek or Roman Pagan theme check out these websites:
www.flickr.com/groups/greco-roman_lego (collections celebrating ancient Greece and Rome)
www.flickr.com/photos/legoadam (tomb of the Julii)
www.flickr.com/photos/acpin (Roman temple interior)
www.flickr.com/photos/gvafol (Temple of Neptune)
www.flickr.com/photos/77626063@N08 (Greek temple)
www.flickr.com/photos/spiderpudel (Hephaestus)
www.flickr.com/photos/mylegocreations (Pallas Athena)
www.flickr.com/photos/iamzeessi (Ares and Hercules)
www.flickr.com/photos/shadowviking (the Olympians)
www.flickr.com/photos/wiredforsound23 (Mount Olympus over Athens)

Postscript (Dec 2013): here is my own Lego tribute to Saturnalia - it is meant to be Saturn and his wife Ops on a dais, with a mill and barn in the background, and farmers in the foreground, as tribute to Saturn's agricultural nature. The legionary adds an added touch of Roman-ness and the Wizard is just for fun.



And here is another fabulous Roman setup:

Source: www.flickr.com/photos/jaredchan

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist

 

After Reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations

Fragment of a bronze head of Marcus Aurelius,
2nd century CE

I recently read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – a book I had long been curious about. The Meditations are essentially the spiritual diary of a Roman emperor and that in itself is interesting, better still, every now and again he writes with great wisdom, though reading the Meditations from cover to cover is not always very engaging. However, despite my respect for the Meditations, I will admit that the view expressed therein that the world is somehow fundamentally ordered and that the universe is ruled by some kind of divine and ultimately benevolent plan (see, eg, Books 8.5, and12.5) strikes me as deeply flawed. Try telling all the children who are periodically raped by their fathers in their own bedrooms that the universe is ruled by principals of justice and benevolent order. And how easy to live “according to nature” – this is another recurrent theme throughout the Meditations – when your nature is to be the emperor of Rome! When it comes to the power of (a pantheist or ultimate) God, as identified with the Stoic concept of the benevolent and ordered universe, I share the following concerns as expressed by Cicero:

3D Paganism – Philosophy Matters

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony" by van Craesbeeck (1650)

It all started when I had an argument with my partner. Something about it (perhaps being accused of living in an escapist's dream-world) dragged me into an intensely vicious depression. Like the Romans who overturned their altars and attacked the Lares when their beloved Germanicus died, I turned my back on the household Gods, who I felt had failed to protect me and my familia, despite years of almost daily offerings at my household shrine. I did not resort to violence, but I let my shrine fall into dusty disuse.

Venus – Love and Life

"Cupid Undoing Venus' Belt by Reynolds (c. 1788)

Few among the red-blooded (Pagan) women of today can resist the allure of Venus. She is among the most celebrated of all the Goddesses, evidenced by the incredible number of artworks that have been made in her honour. Her blessing is that worth courting, for she is the divine embodiment of sexual love and fertility. One of the things that makes her so appealing is that she seems to celebrate female sexuality, but this great Goddess is not just about sex, she is also about love, and about divine, life-affirming protection. Here follows a look at some ancient sources dealing with Venus, so to help us understand her multi-faceted nature a little better.

Venus and ladies of the night

As a Goddess associated so closely with sex it is no surprise that ancient Romans associated her with sex work. In Plautus’ Poenulus one character says: 

The Nature of Mercury

Bronze pendant of Mercury, circa 100-300 CE (2.5cm x 1.9cm)

Something I have noticed whenever I find a book about pre-Christian religions of Europe is that there is very little written up about the nature of each of the Gods themselves. This is undoubtedly because scholars are more interested in what ancient religion can tell us about ancient societies, rather than to know or understand the Gods themselves. However, like many Pagans I seek to understand both the Gods and the people who believed in them and, like many Pagans, there are certain Deities for whom I feel a strong pull towards – in my case Mercury is prominent among these Gods – and so I have read up as much as I can about this most wonderful of Gods and here share my knowledge as best as I can.

The first thing to do when looking to the nature of Mercury (or Mercurius, as the Romans knew him) is to look to the ancient sources. Fortunately we have a fairly good idea of how the Romans perceived him, as there are a number of ancient descriptions relating to him. For example, he is playfully written in as a character in Amphitryo by Plautus. He says:

“… you wish me … to endow you with profit in all the purchasing and purveying of your wares, and to assist you in all your affairs; and … you wish me to speed a happy outcome for you all in your matters of business both at home and in foreign lands and to increase for evermore with fine and glorious profit those endeavours which you have begun and those which you are about to begin; and … you wish me to endow you and yours, every one, with glad tidings, bringing before you and proclaiming only those things which may contribute to your common weal (for verily you have long known that it is an honour granted and bestowed upon me by the other gods that I should hold sway over messages and profit) … [cited in Beard et al, Religions of Rome: Volume 2: A Sourcebook at 29]”

Pagan Resources

Whilst not comprehensive, here are some Pagan friendly resources that I can personally recommend.

Movies/TV

• Gladiator (2000) There are only a few Pagan references in this film but where they occur they are brilliant, in particular the references to the afterlife.
• Rome (2005-2007). One of the best television series I have ever seen - set in ancient Rome during Caesar's time. Some of the historical detail is blatantly wrong, but the atmosphere and story line of the series is brilliantly engaging. 
• Pan's Labyrinth (orig. El Laberinto del Fauno, 2006). The Pagan themes are subtle, but the magic is not. This is a really beautiful, haunting film with much depth. 
• Agora (2009). Already a Pagan classic - based on the life of Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician Hypatia, who was murdered by Christian fanatics in the 5th century CE. This is a really fantastic, inspiring film.