Roman Prayer

[Viggen]

What do we know about how early romans prayed?

 

cheers

viggen

[Lost_Warrior]

Prayers were generally accompanied by offerings of incense or whatever the family happened to be eating for dinner that night, and prayers/offerings were usually given after dinner and before desert. Some Romans prayed in the mornings as well, and occasionally special food offerings were made (the food being cooked specifically for offerings and probably not eaten by the people.)

 

As for the prayers themselves, well, the "main" prayers were probably simple and concise, as were the ceremonies surrounding them. Prayers offered at other times perhaps not so concise, or so simple, but prayer being a highly individual thing I doubt there was any real "set" way to pray outside of the prayers offered at specific times ie. the family offering, except that the prayers would follow the Roman ideals as much as every other aspect of Roman life.

 

Romans prayed to their specific gods (each family had their "preferred set" of gods) as well as all other gods, and some even went as far as to pray to "gods we do not know about" in order to avoid offending any. Romans viewed many of their prayers as "contracts" with the gods, and if the Roman performed the prayer and ceremony improperly in some way, the gods no longer had to hold up their end of the "bargain", so in an attempt to keep all the gods happy and secure a favorable outcome for the family and the state, the "prescribed" prayers were carried out with the utmost of duty and attention to detail.

[Gaius Octavius]

Are any of the 'formulas'. i.e., set piece prayers known? Or, were they simply ad hoc declamations?

Edited March 26, 2006 by Gaius Octavius

[Andrew Dalby]

Are any of the 'formulas'. i.e., set piece prayers known? Or, were they simply ad hoc declamations?

 

Two prayers are carefully specified in Cato's /On Farming/ (see my translation, on which there's more information at ...

 

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dalby/books/CatoFarming.html

 

One tells you what to do and say when you clear and begin to farm a new piece of land. Naturally, you have to pray to the unknown spirits who have possessed the land up to now. The other tells you what to do and say when you sacrifice a sow before beginning the harvest. In this case you are making the offering to Ceres and you are addressing Janus, Jupiter and Juno.

 

Although clearly expressed, these two prayers are in a distinctly older form of Latin than the rest of Cato's text, and they have some links with formulaic phrases in other early Indo-European languages -- on this, and for a studies of early prayers and rituals in related languages, it's worth looking at Calvert Watkins's book, /How to Kill a Dragon/.

[Gaius Octavius]

I understand that at a sacrifice, the gods were served up the entrails and the people ate the 'good' stuff. Isn't there an Italian delicatessen meat todat, that is prepared in the salted way Cato suggests?

[Pertinax]

and one here in Brigantia...

 

http://www.richardwoodall.com/

[Pantagathus]

I understand that at a sacrifice, the gods were served up the entrails and the people ate the 'good' stuff.

 

Not really the entrails per se but bones, fat & scraps yes (as far as I understand)

[Gaius Octavius]

I understand that at a sacrifice, the gods were served up the entrails and the people ate the 'good' stuff.

 

Not really the entrails per se but bones, fat & scraps yes (as far as I understand)

 

Now that I think that my brain is in gear, wasn't it the smoke from burning the inedibles that was supposed to satisfy the gods?