I may have misspoke about the Greeks -- what I remembered was a passage from a book strictly about the Romans. It's also a sliiiightly more contractual arrangement than I remembered.
From The Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus by R.M. Ogilvie:
In so far as it was possible for human beings to do anything which would merit divine gratitude, the Romans tried to earn the benevolence of the gods. Prayers often state a claim which the suppliant had on the god's goodwill, as, for instance, Mopsus prays to Apollo (Ovid, Metamorphoses VIII, 350), 'Phoebus, if I have worshipped you and still do worship you, grant my request' or as Nisus invokes the aid of Diana in Aeneid IX, 406ff., by reminding her of the gifts which his father had laid on her altars and the additional dedications which he had himself made in her temple. The claim is usually not the moral worth of the suppliant but his devotion to the god, his pietas.
Ogilvie goes on to distguish between piety as dutiful devotion and the more modern (and not Roman at all) sense of piety as doing good things. The Roman version had nothing to do with good moral conduct, he says.
Then he discusses sacrifice as the most common way of influencing the gods. It was approached in two different ways -- the first being a request followed by a promise of a sacrifice (and he does specifically say: The sacrifice is made as a free-will offering without any attempt to blackmail the god into acceding to the prayer. There is no suggestion of a threat, 'you had better listen to me because I am giving you these presents') . But then he describes the second way.
They vowed or promised that, if a god performed a certain request, then they for their part would make an offering in return. The vow was a contractual relationship and the sacrifice ceased to be a free-will offering and became instead the fulfilment of a covenant.
He says the gods were not treated as puppets and "the predominant note is still one of humility and gratitude," but still.
In making a private vow, the Roman would write his request and the promised offering on a wax tablet which he would tie to the knee of a statue of the god concerned (Apuleius, Apology 54; Juvenal, Satires X, 55). At this stage he was said to be 'on trial for his vow' (voti reus). If the god did not answer the prayer, nothing more need be done and the whole business was forgotten; if the prayer was answered, then he paid his vow and set up a little memento of the happy outcome: he was then said to be 'condemned of his vow' (voti damnatus). Over and over again we meet inscriptions which contain simply the name of a god, the name of a person and the letters v.s.l.m. (votum solvit libes merito) -- 'so-and-so willingly paid his vow as was due to such-and-such a god.
There follows a wonderful chapter on the details of the sacrifices. |
