Rome's Religious History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Rome's Religious History - Essay Example In fact, Beard, North and Price (1998) did not provide any definition of 'religion' in their work on religions of Rome because according to them, modern categories for thinking about religion are coloured by Christian ideas. They would not, therefore, be applicable for understanding the religion in ancient Rome. This was the same idea espoused by Imber (2007). Meanhile, Dumezil and Krapp (1996) described Roman religions as not only influenced by other religions, but influenced them as well. The worship of certain gods became the special concerns of certain parts of society, all of which needed attention to assure Rome's success in war, civil administration, and the production of food and goods. In trying to identify "religion" in the Graeco-Roman world, James Rives (2006) said the concept of "religion" does not seem to be a part of their traditional culture although it perhaps began in the second century. The religious history of Rome started from mythical origins, with its character and development running through the later Republican centuries with pagan response, to the coming of new religious forms during the centuries of Roman imperial rule (North, 2000). There were 12 or 15 major deities of the Romans familiar from art and myth where some are more popular than others (Rives, 2006) For example, it is said that the rural god, Silvanus, appears in more than 1,100 inscriptions from the western empire. In categorizing Roman deities, Mirza and Tsang (2007) virtually adopted the same ones of Turcan (2002) as follows: religions of the family, religions of the state, and religions in the imperial age. The only difference is that while Turcan (2000) promised to look into Roman religions the way Romans looked at them, Mirza and Tsang (2007) said they are exposing Rome for what its religions were. This paper looks into Roman religions from both stances of various authors. Finally, it presents the difficulties involved in studying Roman religions and makes a conclusion on this issue. Aspects of Roman Religions Numina. Religions in ancient Rome combined several different cult practices and embraced more than a single set of beliefs. The Romans originally followed a rural animistic tradition in which many spirits or gods were each responsible for specific, limited aspects of the cosmos and human activities. The early Romans referred to these gods as numina. For example, there were different numina for ploughing, for horses, and for cattle. There were no temples or statues, but the rites were clean and simple and they were practiced with an exactness believed pleasing to gods (Mirza and Tsang, 2007). Influences. Early in the history of the Roman Republic, foreign gods were imported especially from Greece, which had a great cultural influence on the Romans. In addition, the Romans connected some of their indigenous deities with Greek gods and goddesses. As the Roman Empire expanded and included people from a variety of cultures, there were more and more gods. The legions brought home cults originating from Egypt, Britain, Iberia, Germany, India and Persia. The cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras were particularly important. The ancient Roman beliefs and practices continued, including the worship of the lares and penates or spirits specific to a family, with altars in the home, the festivals such as the Lupercalia and Saturnalia, and a complex system of lucky and unlucky days (Mirza and

Personal Narrative- The Move that Transformed my Life Essay -- Persona

Personal Narrative- The Move that Transformed my Life After reviewing my life, I have decided my life defining moment was when my family and I moved to Texas from Oklahoma. I consider this move my life changing moment because it changed so many things in my life. This move set the stage for an entirely new life for me. Moving six hours away from the only home I knew certainly called for many changes. Until I was thirteen years old, I had lived in the same area, mostly Healdton, Oklahoma. After my parents divorced, my mother, sister, and I left my father and moved to Healdton. After a couple of years, both of my parents remarried. Soon conflicts arose between all sides. After several violent confrontations and threats on our lives, we decided the best thing to do was to pac...

Biological Criminal Behavior

Tariff, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic In 1 991, has a very long psychiatric history. After years and years of his family trying to et him committed and just going from one hospital to another the story was not getting any better. One week before the murder he was arrested for a violent behavior at one of the hospitals. With Just a slap on the hand, he was released Into the community to go on to kill Kathy Vaughan just the next week. David Tariff has been evaluated and committed more then a dozen times in his life time.Over the years he has been put on many of drugs to treat schizophrenic and bipolar such as lithium, Departed, Hallo, Carousel and Zappers and along with that, shock treatments have been given. After months of being in state hospitals and psychiatric reports, it has been determined that David Tariff is unfit to stand trial. After being found fit to stand trial in one county in Queens, New York another county in Manhattan says he Is not fit to stand trial.Tariff I s now back at Rulers Island, where his attorney says he is not taking his medication all the time and has been suicidal in the last couple of months. The psychopath is unable to feel sorry for others in unfortunate situations or put himself in another's place, whether or not they have been harmed by him. â€Å"They are all very egocentric individuals with no empathy for there, and they are Incapable of feeling remorse or guilt† (The Psychopath:Rebecca Horton, April 1999).The study of the psychopath reveals a person who is not capable 1 OFF the difference between right and wrong but think it does not apply to them. The psychopath is incapable of normal emotions such as love and they generally do things without first considering the consequences. So, the question is, Does biology play a key role in explaining the offender's criminality? Is there a real answer to this question? In this paper we are going to look at behaviors that constitute psychopath.We will also discuss the sp ecific behaviors demonstrated by David Tariff that align with behaviors of a psychopathic individual. We will also discuss the genetic or physiological evidence that supports the notion that biology played a key role in explaining the offender's crimes. Is David Tariff a psychopath or Just another person trying to get away murder? The answer is up to the reader I guess but so far Mr.. Tariff is where he wants to be and going to court in the near future.

The Poet Sarah Olds Writes Poetry That Is Very Descriptive

The poet Sarah Olds writes poetry that is very descriptive and intense. She depicts events and occurrences that she has either experienced or seen in a very picturesque manner. A comparison will be made of two of her poems, â€Å"Still Life in Landscape† and â€Å"The Planned Child†. These two poems are very detailed and provide significant visual images to the reader. The themes of these poems are polar opposites of each other, almost exactly one hundred and eighty degree opposites. In â€Å"Still Life in Landscape† the reader gets a view from the front seat of the author’s family car. The reader experiences the effect and can visualize a woman hit and killed by a drunk driver, which is done using vivid imagery. The poem gives an explanation that†¦show more content†¦Certain things are mentioned and things are described in a way that brings the poem into reality. In the poem â€Å"Still Life in Landscape† the author writes, â€Å"[i t] was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars and half-cars strewn, it was still, and bright† (Olds). This phase describes the lighting during the time of day in this poem. It also provides the reader with the weather condition. The phrase also gives vivid descriptions to things that were seen in the road, obviously after an accident involving a drunk driver. The author later states, â€Å"approached it out of neutral twilight, broken glass on wet black macadam† (Olds). This statement provides the setting necessary so the reader can visually see not just the lighting but also the conditions of the road surface. The author then states, â€Å"like an underlying midnight abristle with stars (Olds). This phrase presents the reader with a visual representation of the night sky and the outer lying planets. It was dark outside and very late at night. The reader can mentally picture this dark night on this road where life ended for a woman. When looking at th e poem â€Å"The Planned Child† visual descriptions are given that bring the setting in the poem into a visual reality for the reader. The author states, â€Å"she took the cardboards out of his shirts as if pulling the backbone up out of his body and made a chart of the month and put her temperature on it† (Olds). This sentence allows the reader to actuallyShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis Of Wallace Stevens : The Emperor Of Ice Cream1463 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"The Emperor of Ice-Cream†: Works Cited Allen, Austin. â€Å"Wallace Stevens: ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream’.† Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70138/wallace-stevens-the-emperor-of-ice-cream The article was written by Austin Allen. His biography on the site reads that he has won a poetry award and that he frequently writes poems and essays that are known world-wide. This means his article is at least somewhat reliable. This site analyzes the poem thoroughly, diggingRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesKing Jr. could have been elected president if he hadn’t been assassinated. Try to discipline yourself to read and answer these sample exercises before looking up the correct answer in the footnote below, and before reading on. You do not need to write out the answer. The exercises are designed to test your understanding of concepts in the material you have just read. If you can answer the Concept Checks, then you will be ready to tackle the more difficult Exercises at the end of each chapter