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Last Page Update
11/05/2006 |
Religion in the ancient Pompei
The violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii's sudden burial in AD 79 sealed public buildings and private homes as well as other manmade works and natural features preserving them from the effects of weathering. The excavation of temples and private chapels and the recovery of their furnishings and fittings together with the remains of sacrifices, preserved as though they had been freezed, testify to the religious attitude of its
inhabitants.
The religious beliefs of Pompeii's inhabitants were closely linked to the typical traits of a basically agricultural community which identified elements and aspects of Nature with a series of deities regulating and determining human
lives. Hence the special devotion dedicated to
Hercules, Bacchus and Venus quoted by Martial as tutelary deities of the region buried by lapilli and ashes from Mount
Vesuvius. This worship conceived man's relations with God as governed by reciprocal duties consisting in a series of prescribed
rites, actions and standardized formulas to be undertaken in exchange for the deity's support in the various circumstances of life.
Priests, as ritual
experts, ensured the accurate performance of religious services in the temples devoted to each single deity according to strictly prescribed
procedures. In public rites the sacrifice was presided over by a judge whereas in private ceremonies this role was performed by the head of the family
(paterfawilias) who acted as the custodian of a tradition learnt by the forefathers and to be transmitted to the
children.
Public rites featured a list of feasts held throughout the year including both libations and animal
sacrifices. Libations involved various
staples: honey, wine, milk,
spelt, firstlings, loaves of spelt bread mixed with oil and honey and could also be held in private
chapels. Blood sacrifîces usually consisted in the killing of an ox
(victima), a ram or a pig
(hostia). However,
horses, dogs, cockerels and hens could also be
sacrificed. Some special
ceremonies, such as the lustratio of the city held every five
years, required the sacrifice of several
animals, as was also the case with the ceremony of
suovetaurilia, when a
pig, a ram and a bull were sacrificed
together.
The victims belonged to categories which were distinguished by
age, sex and sometimes by the colour of the pelt and, for ritual
reasons, could not have any physical
defect. The animal was led to the altar dressed up with garlands and sometimes with a saddlecloth
(dorsuale). After the beast had been strewed with a sauce of spelt mixed with salt (mola salsa) and libations of wine, milk and honey had been carried out, it was slaughtered and its blood recovered and poured onto the altar. The bowels of the victim after being analysed by haruspexes for knowing the future, were covered with wine and oil and then offered to the deities through the altar, while the rest of the animal was consumed by the participants in the
rite. Private worship involved all the events of family life, both ordinary ones and special occasions such as the birth of a
child, the granting of the toga, marriage and
death, which took place within private
homes, as well as agricultural activities whose augural ceremonies for the preservation of
fields, forests and cattle were performed in the farm
(such as oblations of wine and agricultural produce for the preservation of
oxen, or the sacrifice of a sow before harvesting or of a pig before cutting down a
wood) in the proximity of the entrance of the estate or in the crossroads
(compitum). In private
homes, private worship was practised before a
larnrium, a sort of small household altar, the most elegant of
which, such as the monumental altar of Casa del
Menandro, were located in the atrium and in peristylium reserved for the entertainment of
guests. In areas devoted to housework or the processing of
staples, the larariurn would be painted on walls matched to a niche and a brick altar. In the kitchens the lararium was positioned close to the fireplace which was thus used as an altar for libations at dinner time.
Even servants were involved in the family's religious ceremonies and paintings of simple votive gifts such as pig
heads, hams, spits with meal or ce] bave been
found, as in the lararium in the house of C. Sulpicius Rufus in Pompeii or the one in the so-called Villa 6 in
Terzigno. Through these
altars, Lares were primarily worshipped as tutelary deities of the house, together with Penaies as custodians of stock and the Genius
(which was identified with the generating capacity of the head of the family) as
well.  These
deities were offered
eggs, pine cones,
hazelnuts, cakes,
faithflully reproduced
in the shrines painted
where they are shown
lying on the altar with
two, or sometimes one
snake agathodaimon,
symbol of wealth and
fertility, stretching
out for them.
Source
Soprintendenza
Archeologica di Pompei |
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