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The devotio was the most extreme offering a Roman general could make, promising to offer his own life in battle along with the enemy as an offering to the underworld gods. Livy offers a detailed account of the devotio carried out by Decius Mus ; family tradition maintained that his son and grandson , all bearing the same name, also devoted ...
As the result of this verbal action, a votum is also that which fulfills a vow, that is, the thing promised, such as offerings, a statue, or even a temple building. The votum is thus an aspect of the contractual nature of Roman religion, a bargaining expressed by do ut des, "I give that you might give." [1]
In ancient Roman religion, the devotio was an extreme form of votum in which a Roman general vowed to sacrifice his own life in battle along with the enemy to chthonic gods in exchange for a victory. The most extended description of the ritual is given by the Augustan historian Livy, regarding the self-sacrifice of Decius Mus. [1]
Fata deum is a theme of the Aeneid, Virgil's national epic of Rome. [237] The Sibylline Books (Fata Sibyllina or Libri Fatales), composed in Greek hexameters, are an example of written fata. These were not Roman in origin but were believed to have been acquired in only partial form by Lucius Tarquinius Superbus.
Religious sites and rituals for the di inferi were properly outside the pomerium, Rome's sacred boundary, as were tombs. [11] Horse racing along with the propitiation of underworld gods was characteristic of "old and obscure" Roman festivals such as the Consualia, the October Horse, the Taurian Games, and sites in the Campus Martius such as the Tarentum and the Trigarium.
Classical mythology, also known as Greco-Roman mythology or Greek and Roman mythology, is the collective body and study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Mythology, along with philosophy and political thought , is one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later, including modern, Western culture . [ 1 ]
Offerings of food were made to the gods in very early Roman times on such occasions as the ceremony of confarreatio, and the epulum Jovis (often conflated with the lectisternium). The lectisternia, however, are likely of Greek origin. [citation needed] The Greek theoxenia (Θεοξένια) is similar, except that the gods played the part of ...
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the subject matter as represented in the literature and art of other cultures in any period.