Essay On Greek Influence On The Romans

In the third century B.C.E., Roman society and cultures were heavily impacted by the Greeks. One of the other major influences that the Greeks had over Romans was religion. The Romans have experienced Greek influence through Greek cities in southern Italy which resulted in the blend of religious influences. This blend resulted in two separate religions, Roman religion and Greek religion, which also had many similarities, and was referred to as the “Greco-Roman” religion.
Early forms of Roman religion were focused primarily on non-human entities, such as animals, plants and inanimate objects, and was believed that these natural objects have souls that exist separately from their materialistic bodies. The Romans believed that religion was more of a constitutional relationship between mankind, and the forces that were believed to control people’s existence and well-being. Due to the influence of Greek colonies in southern Italy, the Romans adopted some of the Greek gods into their religion. This adaptation resulted in these newly adopted Roman gods to have human …show more content…
Nonetheless, the position to become priest was open to whomever desired the title, therefore were not religious experts. Instead, an exegetes, a state official, was knowledgeable in religious affairs. (Cartwright, n.d.) In Greek religion the priest was the same gender as the god they represented, therefore women were able to become priestesses but were only selected if they were virgins or have reached beyond menopause, similarly to the Vestal Virgins of the Roman religion. Unlike the Greek religion, the Roman religion was a state religion which included more rituals and ceremonies. Greek and Roman gods had similar roles and duties but different names. For example, in the Greek religion the God of love is named Eros while in the Roman religion he is referred to as Cupid, but they both represent the god of