The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collectionsMetropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
History
The daily life of the Greeks and Romans as illustrated in the classical collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)
Art, Greek; Art, Roman; Greece -- Social life and customs; Rome -- Social life and customs
We have several interesting objects related to special cults. A goddess
revered by both Greeks and Romans was Tyche or Fortuna. A small bronze
statuette (Seventh Room, Case H 2) represents the Fortune of Antioch
seated on a rock, crowned with turrets, and holding in her hand a sheaf
of grain. Fortuna had many temples in Rome, where she was worshipped
under different titles. The popular belief in her power is attested by
Caesar, who tells of the confidence felt by his men in him and in his
success because they believed him to be a favorite of Fortune. A rather
rude statuette of this divinity stands on the second shelf of Case 1.
[Illustration: FIG. 11. CAMILLUS]
The worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis gradually spread from Egypt into
Asia Minor and thence into Greece and Rome. The bronze sistrum or rattle
was used in her rites, and she is often represented holding it in her
hand (Case 1, fig. 14).
An especially interesting memorial of an Eastern cult established in Rome
is the statuette of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, on her processional
car drawn by lions (Case M in the Eighth Room, fig. 12). The worship of
Cybele, a very ancient one, was introduced into Rome during the Second
Punic War at a time of great danger and anxiety. Our statuette represents
not the goddess herself but her cult statue, and probably commemorates
one of the annual festivals at which the image on its car was taken to
the river Almo to receive a ritual bath. The god-companion of Cybele,
Attis, was not worshipped at Rome before the time of Claudius, though his
cult was diffused over many parts of the East. A little terracotta from
Cyprus shows him in Phrygian dress on a horse (Case 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 12. STATUE OF CYBELE ON ITS CAR]
[Illustration: FIG. 13. SACRIFICIAL PROCESSION]
A glass relief (on the tray above the middle shelf) gives a realistic
picture of a Roman sacrifice (fig. 13); an ox is being led through the
portico of a temple by four men carrying knives and an axe. A priestess
walks before them with veiled head, holding a box containing incense,
meal, or other articles used at sacrifices.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. SISTRUM]
[Illustration]
II
THE DRAMA
CASE 1
Dramatic performances in Greece were a part of the worship of the
wine-god Dionysos, and in consequence attendance in the theatre at Athens
was a religious duty as well as a pleasure. The audience was composed
of the citizens, both men and women, and visitors from other states and
cities. In early times the playwright acted in his own play, but later
the profession of actor was distinct from that of poet. Women’s parts
were taken by men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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