Classics

• Hiereus


  Greek for priest (male). Looked after male gods.
• Hiereia


  Greek priestess. They usually looked after goddesses
• Difference between modern and ancient Greek priesthood

  In Greece, a priesthood was a temporary role that a good citizen would hope to do once in a lifetime.
• Role of Greek priest

  Look after their temple and oversee correct ritual for sacrifices at the correct time
• mantis


  Greek soothsayer
• What did a mantis use to predict future?

  Entrails of animals/flight of birds
• Importance of a mantis is shown how?

  They would accompany an army and make a reading before a battle
• hecatomb


  a great public sacrifice of 100 oxen. Done at Great Panathenaia and Olympic Games
• Gilding horns


  Covering the surface of the horns of a sacrificial animal in a thin layer of gold. To make the animal more special for the god
• barley grains or cake and a sacrificial knife


  Inside the basket carried by a maiden who was an attendant at the sacrifice (Rome)
• barley grains or cake and a sacrificial knife


  Inside the basket carried by a maiden who was an attendant at the sacrifice (Greece)
• If the animal took fright


  The whole sacrifice had to start again because this symbolised a negative sign from the gods (Greece)
• Altar was outside the temple

  So that all participants could take part in the sacrifice and so that the god's home did not get covered in blood
• Water was poured on the animal and it nodded


  This symbolised that the animal agreed to be sacrificed (Greece)
• Women screamed as the animal's throat was cut


  (Greek) This marked the animal's passage from life to death
• thigh bones wrapped in fat


  This was the bit the god received before the participants ate the meat in a Greek sacrifice
• Benefits for participants of the sacrifice for Greeks


  Communal spirit and meat (meat was not a regular part of the Greek or Roman diet)
• Role of Roman priests


  Uphold state religion by maintenance of the pax deorum (peace of the gods)
• Pax Deorum (Peace of the gods)


  The harmony between man and gods in Rome. The Romans believed that this was achieved by following correct religious ritual
• How was pax deorum achieved?

  Uttering correct prayer, completing appropriate sacrifice and fulfilling priestly roles at festivals
• Veiled heads when engaged in religious duties

  Roman priests were required to do this, but not Greek
• Another difference between Roman and Greek priests

  Roman priests were not assigned a specific temple
• Pontifex


  Roman priest in charge of protecting temples, regulating religious law and overseeing the religious calendar
• 15


  usual number of pontifices
• Pontifex Maximus


  Head of the pontifices. This was a job for life. Held by the emperor from 13BC
• Bridge builder


  Meaning of pontifex. It probably alludes to the role that the pontifex had of being a mediator between man and god
• augur


  Roman. Works out the will of the gods by following the flight of birds
• What was the problem with the Romulus and Remus augury

  Remus received his augury of 6 vultures first, but Romulus received 12. Both claimed they ought to be the founder of Rome
• lituus


  the curved staff carried by an augur
• Vestal Virgins (Rome)


  6 priestesses of the goddess Vesta
• Who was eligible to be a Vestal Virgin


  Fit and healthy girls between 6 and 10 with two healthy parents from Rome's most prestigious families
• Who selected the Vestal Virgins?

  Pontifex Maximus
• What was the level of commitment for a Vestal Virgin?

  30 years and a vow of chastity
• Roles of the Vestal Virgin


  Protecting the sacred flame in the Temple of Vesta, making mola salsa
• Privileges of the Vestal Virgins

  Live in House of the Vestals, front row at certain Games, own property, make wills and vote
• haruspex (haruspices)


  Roman soothsayer, who specialised in the reading of the entrails of sacrificial animals.
• What did the haruspex particularly study?

  How an animal fell when killed, the smoke and flames when it was burned and the entrails (especially the liver)
• Roman sacrifice differences to Greek


  In Rome, the priest would be veiled and mola salsa was sprinkled on the animal's head + the popa and cultarius
• popa


  Strikes the animal on the head to stun it. (Rome)
• cultarius


  slits the animals throat (Rome)