Religion Part 1 : Paganism

It is the religion that existed right from the Neolithic times (9500 BC) and survived up until Christianity became powerful enough to erase it. It was Polytheistic in nature in which people use to worship various elements of the Nature viz. fire,air,water,trees,sun..Pagans were literally indoctrinated country-folk who clung to the old,rural religions of Nature Worship. The status of a God was determined by the element they belonged to and the extent they helped people. Hence whichever element made them survive and flourish,they worshiped it.

Pagans (followers of Paganism) began to personify the energies of nature,and in this way several Gods and Goddesses got their name and existence.With the development of civilizations Gods grew up in number and marked some change.
As things changed,so were our views and the aspects of Gods. When people were entirely dependent on crops,the God of Agriculture was the prominent one.When war became prominent(due to expansionism) people valued the God of War.
Ancient Roman Religion and the Ancient Greek Religion were the two significant examples of early Paganism.

Pagans envisioned their world in two halves--Masculine and Feminine. Their Gods and Goddesses worked to keep a balance of power--Yin and Yang.When male and female were balanced,there was harmony in the world.When they were unbalanced,there was chaos !
Pagans personified planets and instated some attributes in them.Although the inception was not quixotic,they were based on facts.
We can better understand this through an example of Venus--the Goddess of Beauty and Perfection. It was astonishing to ancient observers that Venus traced a perfect pentacle across the elliptic sky every eight years. As a tribute to the Venus,Greeks used her eight-year cycle to organise their Olympics.Although the period was later made as four year ,still denoting the half-cycle of the Venus) . Venus was considered as the symbol of Feminism owing to the fact that the five edges of her pentacle denotes the five stages of a women's life--Birth,Menstruation,Maternity,Menopause,and Death.

In order to placate the Gods,the Romans believed that certain rituals and rites must be performed in appreciation of the God's work.With rituals came Priesthood who managed to perform them and held high status/rank in the society. I think this coud be the start of the division of society on the basis of one's job.
As the Roman empire expanded,new religions were absorbed. Religious tolerance was one of the policy and it became easier for Romans to worship whoever they liked as long as it not interferes with others.

I am enlisting some prevalent Roman's Gods and Goddesses below :-
1. God of War--Mars.
2. God of Agriculture--Ceres.
3. Goddess of beauty and perfection--Venus.

Greeks were similar on most of the beliefs that Romans held,except on their differing views about after-death. Romans considered reincarnation to be the part of after-death scenario,while the Greeks centered on the belief that soul just moves into Hell and Heaven.

Greeks used to bury dead bodies along with the entire necessities he/she would need,moreover the body were well preserved and embalmed so that they are not ruined.

Lets have a look upon the Gods and Goddesses they worshiped :-
1. God of the Underworlds--Hades.
2. Goddess of Love--Aphrodite.
3. God of Light and Purity--Apollo.
4. King of Gods,the God of Thunder and Lightning--Zeus.

In my next blog we will see how Christianity took over the Paganism and how it managed to become the effective religion of that time. Bye for now..