Essay On Sacrifice In Roman Religion

In Roman minds, there was an agreement between the gods and the humans that must be upheld. Each side would give, and in return would receive services from one another. The role of the humans was of course to worship the gods by prayer and sacrifice. Each god had a defined prayer, sacrifice or ritual and it was of great importance that the rituals were performed correctly as it was a symbol of your worship and love towards the god. A prayer almost always would have been accompanied with a small offering to the deity. Sacrifices had to be a symbol of life in some form. For example sacrificial symbols included things such as milk, cheese, fruit and numerous other things. Human sacrifice was extremely rare, however there are cases of this action being performed. Animal sacrifice was the most common form of sacrifice and were used for the official rituals for the state gods. Each god had a different animal. For example a ram was sacrificed for Janus. Before the sacrifice is undertaken the animal is to be disembowled for the inspection of its intestines to ensure the god wasn't being offered an animal with a bad sign. The sex of the animal had to correspond to the sex of the god or goddess to whom it was offered in sacrifice. White animals were sacrificed to
However the thought that the deceased person had the ability to affect the lives of the living created people to be included in offerings and gifts as well as celebrations that were held at the tomb of the deceased. Funeral processions were a generous matter, with dancers and mimes performing throughout the funeral. A majority of burials included a gold coin in the mouth of the deceased which was the fee to Charon, the ferryman of the underworld. It was said that in order to reach the underworld they needed to cross the River styx, and Charon the ferryman was that who took the deasesed across this river to their new life in the