Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
As our ancestors in ancient times did—so do we now." [8] Founding myths unite people and tend to include mystical events along the way to make "founders" seem more desirable and heroic. Ruling monarchs or aristocracies may allege descent from mythical founders, gods or heroes in order to legitimate their control.
An was the ancient Sumerian god of the heavens. He was the ancestor of all the other major deities [42] and the original patron deity of Uruk. Most major gods had a so-called sukkal, a minor deity serving as their vizier, messenger or doorkeeper. [43]
The philosophy that "this world is but a vale of tears" and that to die and be with God is a better existence than an earthly one was relatively unknown among the ancient Egyptians. This was not to say that they were unacquainted with the harshness of life; rather, their ethos included a sense of continuity between this life and the next.
An altar built under a tree for Pitr veneration in Haryana, India. Ancestor veneration is an ancient Indian practice. The custom of a death anniversary is still practised in India, where the deathday of one's parents involves a number of rituals and offerings, that are elaborated in the Puranas. [5]
Etrusco-Roman culture, developed from the Greek where each "gens" (family or house) had their own deified hero, prince or demi-god along with various household deities. The expansion of family trees to include heroic or legendary ancestors was used to boost social status and amass personal finances.
For example, the similarities between the names of gods in different cultures. One particularly successful example of this approach is the study of Indo-European mythology. Scholars have found striking similarities between the mythological and religious terms used in different cultures of Europe and India.
In the ancient Greek philosophical Hermetica, the ultimate reality is called by many names, such as God, Lord, Father, Mind , the Creator, the All, the One, etc. [1] However, peculiar to the Hermetic view of the divinity is that it is both the all (Greek: to pan) and the creator of the all: all created things pre-exist in God, [2] and God is ...
The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks (interpretatio graeca), adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature and Roman art, as the Etruscans had. Etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury, used by the state to seek the will of the gods.