Afterlife

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See also: Afterlife (Nova Roma)

Funeral rites of the religio Romana celebrate the transition from life as a birth into a new life. Roman iconography depicted this transition as a journey across the Western Seas to the Blessed Isles where an eternal spring blooms in the Garden of Venus. The dead were believed to sail across the Western Seas to the Blessed Isles where they would take up their new life as one of the divine Manes. Images of the Blessed Isles show the souls of the dead as winged Cupids, children of Venus, engaged in idyllic settings. Among the Cupids is an infant Minerva wearing Her helmet and aegis and an infant Hercules wearing His lion skin, where both of these deities played a role in mortals attaining immortality as Lares. The journey to the Blessed Isles was at times depicted with the recently deceased riding in a carriage drawn by Cupids to a port. Otherwise shown was the voyage across the Western Seas with the deceased in a boat manned by cupids and propelled along its way by the Gods of the seas.

Roman iconography depicted the journey of the dead sailing to the Blessed Isles on ships or else as Nerieds and Cupids led over the waves by friendly sea creatures. At times they are seen in chariots pulled by a team of doves, the bird of Venus, driven by Cupid, as though heading to port. At times the soul is depicted as a psyche with butterfly wings, conducted by Cupid, or else the person is seen being received by the winged figure of a Lasa, as in a wall painting at Pompeii. Other depictions are of the Blessed Isles where the Manes appear as cupids or putti engaged in viticulture and farming, and among them is an infant Minerva as the conqueress of death. At times Roman views on death and the journey to the Blessed Isles was reflected in funeral rites.

Skepticism

Roman skepticism towards immortality is often mentioned in histories of the Religio Romana, but were in fact exceptionally rare. Certain schools of philosophy taught that the material soul perished along with the body and was recycled through Nature. Thus there are found expressions of our mortality. "We are mortals, not immortals."^[1]

"When life ends, all things perish and turn to nothing." [2]

"We are and were nothing; look, reader, how swiftly we mortals pass from nothing to nothing."[3]

Philosophical indifference to death is then found with the expression, non fui, fui, non sum, non curo. Other schools of philosophy held that the souls of the dead had to face a trial as to their disposition. For his wife Cornelia, daughter of Scribonia, Propertius wrote a poem of her virtues as though she stood in judgment before censor L. Aemilius Paulus, concluding, "The case for my defense in completed. Rise up, my witnesses, who weep for me, while kindly Earth requites my life's desserts. Even Heaven has unbarred its gates to the virtuous. May I be found worthy that my bones may be carried to join my honored ancestors."[4]

This idea of a judgment of the deceased is also sometimes expressed on inscriptions. "Now if virtue is rewarded among the Manes, within the changeable shadows, then I pray that the Mother may give honor and gratitude to you." [5]

Philosophers

Roman philosophers recorded their thoughts towards death. Keep in mind though that those Roman opinions that have come down to us came from only the higher class of Roman society, though not the highest, and these do not really express popular beliefs. In fact some were specifically offered to contrast with the views of the "vulgar masses." Then, too, what has filtered down to us were ancient texts that were seen, for one reason or another, as agreeing with the views of the Christian copyists who preserved select writings over others.

References

1. ↑ {{{2}}}: XI 856 (EN DE)
2. ↑ Bucheler, Carmina Latina Epigraphica I, 1895; no. 420)
3. ↑ CLE II, 1897; no. 1495)
4. ↑ Prepertius IV 11
5. ↑ Anthologia Latina II 1147.2