Do you think that the romans only copyed their gods from other religions?

Question

I have found the Romans stole gods and goddesses from other religions. Including the egyptian goddess Isis (brakes board) I'm not going to get angery if you disagry, just a ponder.

Hehe, some good answers! wootness! god, I need something better to do on my friday nights.

Answer 1

sure

Answer 2

The esoteric texts of medieval Europe say that the southern
part of any land is good at preserving traditions. Of all the
southern countries in Europe, Italy has preserved the
largest of them. And the oldest of them.

Such lands provide homely atmosphere to peace loving
persons.


They have the most original legends of their own.
No other land claims so many descendants of legendary
heros of the yore. From so widely separated lands.
Of all lands in ancient Europe, only Italy got the largest
epic - The Aeneid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aeneas...

Many cognate words have formed due to the interaction.
Some are given below. The second one is a Telugu word
having the same meaning which is being used for more
than a 1000 years:

attic - attaca.
asset - aasti.
beat - baadu.
boat - padava.
bore - boriya.
boy - abbayi.
cavity - guvta.
cattle - goddulu.
cheek - chekku.
chin - chunbu.
cut - kota.
dull - deela.
elope - lepuka.
fat - boddu.
foundation - punaadi.
gale - gaali.
lace - allica.
link - lanke.
mask - musugu.
master - mestri.
mead - metha.
mouth - moothi.
mud - matti.
murky - muriki.
nerve - narav.
oath - ottu.
pale - paali.
pan - penam.
pap - pappa.
piece - pisaru.
put - pettu.
site - chotu.
short - chiruta.
show - choopu.
slice - cheelchu.
suck - cheeku.
surprise - achcheraparachu.
sweat - chewata.
theft - thoepidi
thick - dukka.
thread - thraadu.
value - viluva.
veil - valle.
vomit - vaamthi.
upon - paina.
with - waththa.
wonder - winta.
yean - yeenu.

I am one of the descendants of Aeneas.

Dr, V. Siva Prasad
Retired Professor of Engineering
Andhra University, India.
[e-mail]

Answer 3

Not originally. However from assimilating so many other religions -- especially from the Greeks -- most of the details of the original Roman religious beliefs have been lost in time.

The strongest early Roman mythologies known are primarily concerned with the founding of the city of Rome.

The special thing about early Roman mythology as compared to the Greeks is how they identified deities: Early Romans identified deities through a complex of interrelationships whereas Greeks would identify deities through stories.

I provided a link to a wikipedia article about this.

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A lot of politics/mass psychology is involved in forming a new religion -- the religion has to be acceptable to the people (not too weird or freaky or different) at large who already belong to other religions.

For example the idea of halos (originally spherical, not a floating ring thinger) were an invention from other religions of the time that christians liked and added to their own.

Another notion acquired from an older religion is the idea of baptism -- this was taken straight from the Mythrans who used bull blood in the original ceremony (granted, the Mythrans may have acquired this ceremony from an older, now unknown religion). Christianity made it a little more acceptable (less gross/more healthy perhaps) by using water instead.

By using pre-existing ceremonies and ideas it made it easier for people to jump ship for the then newest hella awesome religion fad (in this case during the time of the Roman Empire, what we currently call christianity).

One of the things the Romans were good at was assimilating other cultures and part of this was possible because they tolerated other religious systems as long as the religions didn't get too rowdy and become what we would now call 'terrorists'. As long as the religion was not causing trouble then the romans were happy to leave it alone.

Any religion that started preaching exclusivity of domain -- started contesting the authority or taxes of Rome -- would have to be stamped out if only to keep the Romans notions of peace/civility.

Answer 4

Their religion evolved, as all do. They didn't "steal" per se, when they heard the Egyptians speak of Isis, they thought, "Hey, that sounds like this goddess and this goddess." Traits are attributed to many goddesses and as time progresses the gods and goddesses pick up more and more stuff. This is because these cultures tended to assimilate rather than shun newreligious ideas. It is hard to understand in christianized western society, but it wasn't stealing, they were really just kind of agreeing with the other societies.

Answer 5

You would be correct to a degree. The Romans were open to the idea of new Gods and Goddesses. Especially if the ones they had been worshiping for a while were getting worn out and not working as well. They created a few and adopted others and made their own adaptions of some.

Answer 6

In a since I agree and disagree. It is more of a cultural asimulation of the gods into the Roman culture. It is not wise to make the people that you have just concurd to give up their god along with their property. If you take the god away then it will anger a comunity and thus a more substantial force then an individual. Not a good idea to **** them off on the individual level and then give them a common cause to unite under. Not very good occupancy principle.

Answer 7

they didn't "steal" anything, they were adopted ideas. it u read myths from other cultures, u'd find that most of the gods and goddesses are similar. all started with sumerians. example: they had a goddess called Inanna, babylonians called her ishtar, egyptians called her osiris, greeks called her aphrodite, and the romans called her venus. the reason for this is that all these cultures studied the stars, Inanna was a goddess named after the planet venus. the story behind Inanna, in short, is that she goes to the underworld to visit her sister, then is brought back to earth three days later. this part is significant. if u study the planet venus, it goes through a cycle. it will disappear from the nght sky for 3 days, then it rises and becomes the morning star. this is also why Inanna (Venus) is the goddess of love and war. she goes to bed at night with a different lover (constellations) every night, and when it becomes the morning star, she fights with the sun so she can shine. i hope this helped.

Answer 8

All religions have taken parts or more than just parts from other religions, including the modern ones. It is an easier way to incorporate a newly conquered people into your society and reduce revolts by giving them something that they can possibly identify with. So yes is the answer.

Answer 9

Our religion unfortunately is handed down to us from our parents.
Most of our beliefs come from pagan orgin. From Santa clause to the Easter bunny to the tooth fairy. The goddess of Valentines to Astrology that we throw in with Christianity.
It is a mindless acceptance without any thought of where it came from or what was the people like who did this before us.
It is fun so we do it not even knowing wether it is condemed by God or not.. Doubtless anyone even cares.

Answer 10

You can't "steal" a religion anymore than you can steal an opinion, a fact, or a philosophy.

In the ancient world, they were less concerned about the exclusive nature of religion as a matter of principle. Back then, similarities among the gods were considered proof of identity. If your beliefs were similar to mine, then we worshiped the same god by different names. Ancient religion was eclectic.

Answer 11

Most of the Roman Gods were carbon-copies of the Greek Gods. The Romans did rename them though.