How was Roman religion influenced by Greeks?

Answer 1

Roman religion was an offshoot of Greek religion. They essentially had the same gods, but they redefined the terms to accommodate their ideals of power. The Roman words for their greek gods added alot more power to the words that they used. Zeus, the king of all greek gods is simply the king of the gods. In the Roman context, Jupiter implied the fury and anger and strength under which the Roman armies fought.

Answer 2

Well, first off Ancient Greece influenced ancient Rome in many ways they where the most influenced place for Greek cultures.

Religion was just fallowed people created religion to figure out why things happened for example it raining, so the rain god must be rewarding us for our hard work and giving a nice drink to the crops. or in Greece's case, its lightening out so Zeus must be mad at us for not worshipping him as much as we are Athena.

If religion is created to explain things, and the ancient Rome was influence by Greece in so many other things, it only makes sense that they would be influenced in religion and had the same way of explaining things. The Roman gods do differ from the Greek gods in some way though.

Answer 3

The Hellenism of Judaism is a large topic that is discussed in many books. But at the time and in Medieval times especially, the mainstream Judaism can be identified as trying to remain separate from the surrounding religions.

The use of rote prayers, especially in leader-response prayers, is one thing that modern Judaism took from early Greek Gnostic religions. Before that, Jewish celebration of the Sabbath was only reading a portion of the Torah and resting. It wasn't a whole service, sermon, etc.

Answer 4

It was completely dissimilar.One of the reasons that the Greeks and Romans hated the Jews was the stark difference of the Jewish practices (and not just the monotheistic belief), as compared to those of the Greeks and Romans. The Jews, by and large, adhered to the practices of the Torah, which calls for kindness, charity, scholarliness, the value of human life, and the abhorrence of promiscuity.
Just a very few examples:
1) Aristotle, who was among the greatest of the Greeks, and Seneca, the famous Roman, both write that killing one's unwanted young babies is perfectly acceptable.
2) In Europe, the Druids practiced human sacrifice throughout Roman Gaul and the British isles. Virgins were sacrificed by casting them into wells.
3) In the Roman cities, the Bacchanalian feasts became so wild that a royal decree was promulgated that they be held outside city limits.
4) Prostitution was a fixed part of temple worship.
5) Children had no rights. In Carthage, babies were sacrificed in fire. Roman law (Patrias Potestas) permitted a man to kill his male descendants of any age and for any reason. Professor and former President of the American Historical Association, William L. Langer (in The History of Childhood), writes: "Children, being physically unable to resist aggression, were the victims of forces over which they had no control, and they were abused in almost unimaginable ways."
6) Under Israelite law, "an eye for an eye" has always meant the monetary value placed upon it by the court (Talmud, Bava Kama 83b). Roman law, however, included literal retaliation (Twelve Tables of Roman Law, 7:9).
7) Romans were killed for the crime of slander (Twelve Tables, 7:8).
8) A Roman could be killed for assembling a noisy crowd at night and disturbing the town (Twelve Tables, 9:6).

Given the vast difference between the two peoples, the Romans found it hard to stomach the kindliness and temperance of the Jews, and they lashed out with physical cruelty as well as slander.