The same sort of anxious awe was extended not only to functions and acts but also to certain objects that inspired a similar belief that they were in some way more than natural. This feeling was aroused, for example, by springs and woods, objects of gratitude in the torrid summer, or by stones that were often believed to be meteorites—i.e., had apparently reached the earth in an uncanny fashion. To these were added products of human action, such as burial places and boundary stones, and inexplicable things, such as Neolithic implements (probably the mysterious meteorites were often these) or bronze shields (artifacts that had strayed in from more advanced cultures).

To describe the powers in these objects and functions that inspired the horror, or sacred thrill, the Romans eventually employed the word numen, suggestive of a god’s nod, nutus; though so far there is no evidence that this usage was earlier than the 2nd century bce. The application of the word spirit to numen is anachronistic in regard to early epochs because it presupposes a society capable of greater abstraction. Nor must the term mana, used by Melanesians to describe their own concept of superhuman forces, be introduced too readily. The two societies are not necessarily analogous and, besides, the deduction from such comparisons that the Romans experienced an impersonal, pre-deistic, primordial stage of religion that neatly preceded the personal stage cannot be regarded as correct. On the contrary, from the very earliest times, the supernatural forces that they envisaged included a number of deities in analogous human forms; among them were certain “high gods.” Foremost among these was a divinity of the sky, Jupiter, akin to the sky gods of other early Indo-European-speaking peoples, the Sanskrit Dyaus and Greek Zeus. Not yet, probably, a Supreme Being, though superior in some sense to other divine powers, this god of the heavens was easily linked with the forces of function and object, with lightning and weather, or with the uncanny stone that came from on high and was called Jupiter Lapis.

Purpose of sacrifice and magic

These gods and sacred functions and objects seemed charged with power because they were mysterious and alarming. In order to secure their food supply, physical protection, and growth in numbers, the early Romans believed that such forces had to be propitiated and made allies. Sacrifice was necessary. The product sacrificed would revitalize the divinity, which was seen as a power of action and therefore likely to run down unless so revitalized. By this nourishment he or it would become able and ready to fulfill requests. And so the sacrifice was accompanied by the phrase macte esto! (“be you increased!”).

Prayer was a normal accompaniment of sacrifice, and as a conception of the divine powers gradually developed, it contained varying ingredients of flattery, cajolery, and attempted justification; but it also was compounded by magic—the attempt not to persuade nature, but to coerce it. Though the authorities (e.g., c. 451–450 bce, Law of the Twelve Tables) sought to limit its noxious aspects, magic continued to abound throughout the ancient world. Even official rites remained full of its survivals, notably the annual festival of the Lupercalia and the ritual dances of the Salii in honour of Mars. Romans in historical times regarded magic as an oriental intrusion, but Italian tribes, such as the Marsi and Paeligni, were famous for such practices. Among them curses figured prominently, and curse inscriptions from c. 500 bce onward have been found in large numbers. There were also numerous survivals of taboo, a negative branch of magic: people were admonished to have no dealings with strangers, corpses, newborn children, spots struck by lightning, etc., lest harm would befall them.

Importance of ritual

The Etruscans felt profound religious anxieties and were more devoted to ritual than any other people of the ancient Western world. Though sources are, again, late and unsatisfactory, it appears that they possessed a comprehensive collection of rules regulating these rites. Etruscan culture was heavily based on influences from Greece in its orientalizing period, conveyed mainly through Greek centres (such as Cumae) in Campania, colonized by Euboeans, who were also prominent in Syrian markets. But the religion of Etruria proclaims a very un-Greek view of the abasement and nonentity of man before the gods and their will.

To the Etruscans the whole fanatical effort of life was directed toward forcing their deities, led by Tinia or Tin (Jupiter), to yield up their secrets by divination. They saw an intimate link existing between heaven and earth, which seemed to echo one another within a unitary system, and they were more ambitious than either Greeks or Romans in their claims to foretell the future. They also formed an exceptionally complex, rich, and imaginative picture of the afterlife. The living were perpetually obsessed by their care for the dead, expressed in elaborate, magnificently equipped and decorated tombs and lavish sacrifices. For, in spite of beliefs in an underworld, or Hades, there was also a conviction that the individuality of the dead somehow continued in their mortal remains; and it was therefore imperative that they take pleasure in their graves or tombs and not return to haunt the living. From the 4th century bce onward, after the Etruscans had lost their political power to Rome, their art depicts horrors indicating an increasing fear of what death might bring.