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SeanF1989
Guest
Far from being a utopia for universal goddess worship, ancient Pagan societies usually treated women no better than chattel. In Greco-Roman culture, if a woman was raped, she was expected to kill herself from bringing shame to her family. Yes, you read that right. Women were rarely given an education and seldom ventured out of their homes after they were married. Christianity was really the first great women’s liberation. Christians taught that husbands should be kind to their wives. The practice of killing a woman when her husband died, known as “widow burning” was practiced in many ancient Indo-European Pagan cultures. Christians banned this barbaric practice in countries (including Rome) where it took root. By contrast, in Pagan India, the practice continued until 1000 A.D. and beyond.
Rome, supposedly the most advanced of the ancient Pagan nations, was far from non-violent. The heathen Romans were fascinated by the gladiator games, and they were much more cruel than the Russel Crowe movie. The Pagans of “pre-xtian” Rome feasted their eyes and ears on the sights and sounds of murder. The Colosseum, which stands today as a testament to the barbarism that was Pagan Rome, was the place of the execution of not only men but thousands of women as well. According to author Peter B. Ellis, to mark the grand opening of this death factory in, a total of 9,000 animals were killed in fights with men and women. The number of men and women slaughtered that day is not known, but no doubt it was in the thousands as well. In the early days of the Pagan Roman Empire 300 prisoners had to fight to the death, and 1200 women and men were killed by wild animals in a single day at the Circus Maximus. As a special feature during this Pagan event, 20 girls were forced to have sex with wild animals. It took the death of a Christian monk to finally put an end to the gladiator games, when he was killed trying to stop such a “game”. The idea of ancients Pagans being enlightened, peace-loving and somehow more tolerant of women is ridiculous!
In many Pagan cultures, women could not inherit property, and when their husbands or male relatives died they were left destitute. This changed under Christianity, and women could finally inherit property. Women who had unwanted babies had no choice but to abandon them to starve to death and die from exposure. Christianity changed all that, stopping these practices and creating the first orphanages.
Rather than being objects for the pyre, widows were treated kinder in the Christian era, and were given alms rather than allowed to starve to death on the street or become prostitutes. Early Christian writers make clear that widows as a group held a place of considerable honor and dignity. Often they are listed along with the bishop, elders, and deacons and Tertullian calls them an “order” and says that widows were assigned a place of honor within the assembled congregation.
If women chose not to marry, they too could persue the scholarly life of the monastery. The tradition of learned monastic women continued into the medieval period. Lioba (eighth century), sister of St. Boniface, “had been trained from infancy in the rudiments of grammar and the study of the other liberal arts.” “So great was her zeal for reading that she discontinued it only for prayer or for the refreshment of her body with food or sleep: the Scriptures were never out of her hands.” “She read with attention all the books of the Old and New Testaments and learned by heart all the commandments of God. To these she added by way of completion the writings of the Church Fathers, the decrees of the Councils and the whole of ecclesiastical law. Princes and bishops, we are told, “often discussed spiritual matters and ecclesiastical discipline with her”.”(Life of St. Lioba, in The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany. Many of the first converts to Christianity were women. Early churches often met in the houses of wealthy women during the Lion Times. This is because women could see that under Christianity they would have more rights and more freedom.
Rome, supposedly the most advanced of the ancient Pagan nations, was far from non-violent. The heathen Romans were fascinated by the gladiator games, and they were much more cruel than the Russel Crowe movie. The Pagans of “pre-xtian” Rome feasted their eyes and ears on the sights and sounds of murder. The Colosseum, which stands today as a testament to the barbarism that was Pagan Rome, was the place of the execution of not only men but thousands of women as well. According to author Peter B. Ellis, to mark the grand opening of this death factory in, a total of 9,000 animals were killed in fights with men and women. The number of men and women slaughtered that day is not known, but no doubt it was in the thousands as well. In the early days of the Pagan Roman Empire 300 prisoners had to fight to the death, and 1200 women and men were killed by wild animals in a single day at the Circus Maximus. As a special feature during this Pagan event, 20 girls were forced to have sex with wild animals. It took the death of a Christian monk to finally put an end to the gladiator games, when he was killed trying to stop such a “game”. The idea of ancients Pagans being enlightened, peace-loving and somehow more tolerant of women is ridiculous!
In many Pagan cultures, women could not inherit property, and when their husbands or male relatives died they were left destitute. This changed under Christianity, and women could finally inherit property. Women who had unwanted babies had no choice but to abandon them to starve to death and die from exposure. Christianity changed all that, stopping these practices and creating the first orphanages.
Rather than being objects for the pyre, widows were treated kinder in the Christian era, and were given alms rather than allowed to starve to death on the street or become prostitutes. Early Christian writers make clear that widows as a group held a place of considerable honor and dignity. Often they are listed along with the bishop, elders, and deacons and Tertullian calls them an “order” and says that widows were assigned a place of honor within the assembled congregation.
If women chose not to marry, they too could persue the scholarly life of the monastery. The tradition of learned monastic women continued into the medieval period. Lioba (eighth century), sister of St. Boniface, “had been trained from infancy in the rudiments of grammar and the study of the other liberal arts.” “So great was her zeal for reading that she discontinued it only for prayer or for the refreshment of her body with food or sleep: the Scriptures were never out of her hands.” “She read with attention all the books of the Old and New Testaments and learned by heart all the commandments of God. To these she added by way of completion the writings of the Church Fathers, the decrees of the Councils and the whole of ecclesiastical law. Princes and bishops, we are told, “often discussed spiritual matters and ecclesiastical discipline with her”.”(Life of St. Lioba, in The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany. Many of the first converts to Christianity were women. Early churches often met in the houses of wealthy women during the Lion Times. This is because women could see that under Christianity they would have more rights and more freedom.
4) Discuss some of the tortuous practices of the Roman Empiore. 5) Discuss Rome’s (Empire) expansionist policies. 6) Need I say more?
