Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics: December (2005)
Abstract
A version of this paper is due to appear as a chapter in the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Roman Religion (edited by Jörg Rüpke). The paper gives an overview of the religious dimensions to Roman epic and historiography, and argues for taking seriously the literary questions of representation, genre, and convention which are often elided by historians who wish to disinter hard evidence for ‘real’ religious attitudes and practice from these texts.
It is now impossible for us to know how—or even whether—the Romans represented divine action and religious practice in narrative or song before they began their project of adapting Greek literary forms into a national literature of their own in the second half of the third century BC. More and more contemporary scholars wish to believe the once discredited Roman traditions about ballads of the men of old supposedly sung in the pre-literary period. If such songs were sung (and that remains a big ‘if’), it is imaginable that they portrayed the help of the gods and the pious rituals of the Roman people and its generals. Again, if the Romans told stories about their past on occasions such as festivals, funerals, triumphs and anniversaries of temples or victories, then it is likewise imaginable that these stories included human ritual or divine manifestations. None of this can now be securely known.
Denis Feeney
Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics: December (2005)
Abstract
A version of this paper is due to appear as a chapter in the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Roman Religion (edited by Jörg Rüpke). The paper gives an overview of the religious dimensions to Roman epic and historiography, and argues for taking seriously the literary questions of representation, genre, and convention which are often elided by historians who wish to disinter hard evidence for ‘real’ religious attitudes and practice from these texts.
It is now impossible for us to know how—or even whether—the Romans represented divine action and religious practice in narrative or song before they began their project of adapting Greek literary forms into a national literature of their own in the second half of the third century BC. More and more contemporary scholars wish to believe the once discredited Roman traditions about ballads of the men of old supposedly sung in the pre-literary period. If such songs were sung (and that remains a big ‘if’), it is imaginable that they portrayed the help of the gods and the pious rituals of the Roman people and its generals. Again, if the Romans told stories about their past on occasions such as festivals, funerals, triumphs and anniversaries of temples or victories, then it is likewise imaginable that these stories included human ritual or divine manifestations. None of this can now be securely known.
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