response four

docx

School

The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

1200

Subject

Philosophy

Date

Oct 30, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by BarristerStrawKouprey2118

John Abernathy Roman Divinity Throughout time humans have proposed many ideas trying to explain how the world came to be and why certain aspects of the natural world work the way they do. Before humans put their faith in science, they would put faith in a god or the case of Rome a pantheon of gods. Gods have the ability to shape and manipulate the mortal world around them and being in their favor is usually a good thing. The way a god’s story is developed or told can reveal different insights into a culture’s values or social needs. Having multiple gods with complex relationships with each other and the mortals builds a world that is dynamic and explains the causation of different events. The outcome may show a particular god might have them in good graces or instead that you are not so blessed. The Romans believed that despite their anthropomorphic flaws the gods acted in Rome's best interest as shown in the works of our Roman authors. The Roman gods used mortals for whatever they wanted with little regard to how it directly affected them. If we look back on the foundation story the founder of Rome, Romulus, was conceived after Mars, God of war in an aggressive sense, came down and raped his mother. She was a vestal virgin or a priestess to Vesta, the goddess of virginity. (Livy 34) Hearing this segment of Roman history sounds just as appalling now as it did to the Romans then but from this, we get to see how the gods use mortals for their will without any consideration. Meanwhile, the founder is elevated to a semi-divine status, making him more fit and just in his purpose of founding Rome. Being elevated to a divine level in the story makes his will, the will of the gods which is in the greater interests of Rome. We see this throughout Virgil’s work The Aeneid , which tells how the gods pulled the strings so that one day Rome would come into existence and be a great nation and the main character of that story is also the son of the god Venus. It almost seems as if the only beings that are of real importance are divine ore become divine.

John Abernathy The Roman pantheon has been greatly humanized to make their characters more relatable as well as innately flawed rather than perfect omnipotent beings. They have relationships with one another that dictate the interactions they have with each other. For instance, Juno is the wife of Jupiter who is the king of all the gods and the top Patriarchal figure in Rome, and together they have children some of whom have other children. Together with other gods who are all related in a familiar sense. In The Aeneid, we see that Venus sends Cupid down to get Dido to fall in love in an attempt to avoid angering Juno. (Virgil 27-28) This shows how intricate the relationships between all of the divine characters in the Roman pantheon. The gods are capable of doing things that mortals would consider immoral like forcing someone to be in love with someone ultimately resulting in their death due to being too obsessed or raping a woman so that she births a good founder for Rome. These things that we see as being imperfect and to be divine is to be more than that of a normal person, yet they have these flaws that make them less perfect and more human-like. The Roman pantheon, with its complex web of divine relationships and actions, serves as a mirror to the human condition, reflecting the desires, conflicts, and moral dilemmas that were deeply embedded in Roman culture. These gods, despite their immense power, were often depicted as flawed and driven by the same passions that governed mortals. Such portrayals not only made the gods more accessible and relatable to the common Roman citizen but also underscored the belief that the divine and the human are inextricably intertwined. By attributing human emotions and motives to their gods, the Romans sought to explain the unpredictable nature of the world around them, as well as legitimize their own actions and aspirations, especially those of their leaders. This deeply anthropomorphic view of divinity thus served as

John Abernathy both a cultural narrative and a societal validation, emphasizing that even in the unpredictable play of fate and divine whim, Rome's destiny was divinely ordained and protected.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version