Open AccessBlod, sved og tårer - prodigier i romersk religion
Author(s) -
Susanne William Rasmussen
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
religionsvidenskabeligt tidsskrift
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1904-8181
pISSN - 0108-1993
DOI - 10.7146/rt.v0i33.2655
Subject(s) - superstition , ignorance , politics , institution , criminology , hysteria , sociology , social psychology , religious studies , philosophy , psychology , epistemology , psychoanalysis , political science , law , social science , theology
Modern research has often viewed prodigies as weird and meaningless: either as the byproduct of ignorance, fear and mass hysteria - focusing on phychological aspects, or as calculating politicians' means of manipulating superstition - focusing on the possibility of fraud in political situations. This article is an attempt at presenting prodigies and their expiation as an important institution within official Roman religion and as a stable and effective means of sustaining a religious, political and social equilibrium in accordance with pax deorum and mos maiorum.