Part 7: The Roman Republic
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The Day of Blood (March 24)... began when the High Priest drew blood from his arms and offered it as a sacrifice... nor was he alone. Stirred by the wild music... the inferior clergy (and some of the spectators) whirled about in the dance until... rapt in a frenzy of excitement and insensible to pain... they gashed their bodies with potshards or knives... and spattered the altar and sacred fire with their blood (Frazer 349).

At this time, the newly initiated priests demonstrated their devotion in a somewhat irrevocable fashion - they castrated themselves. (Undoubtedly, some of the spectators regretted the rash application of sharp objects the following day) Cybele was not the only Goddess attended by eunuch priests; Artemis of Ephesus and the Great Syrian Astarte of Hierapolis... required to receive from their male ministers, who personified the divine lovers, the means of discharging their beneficent function; they had themselves to be impregnated by the life giving energy before they could transmit it to the world. The unsexed priests of (Astarte) resembled those of Cybele so closely that some people took them to be the same (349). The blood was an offering to the fertility Goddess to ensure a bountiful harvest and to encourage the God to be reborn. On the twenty-fifth of March, after the day of mourning, the great feast of Hilaria was held, commemorating the triumph of day over night after the spring equinox. Roman citizens were required to laugh at least seven times that day, to banish the evil of a sorrowful heart. Once the holiday was over, the sacred objects were cleansed in a Ceremony of Washing. Presumably, they needed it. It is interesting that this, of all of the Mystery Religions, was recognized and instituted by the State. The Bacchic frenzy of 186b.c.e. must have been energetic indeed, if Rome, which encouraged the Religion of Cybele, banned that of Bacchus as being indecently boisterous.

The Goddesses and Gods worshipped and the rites practiced by the Romans reflect their agricultural, rustic origins. The native Roman demonstrated little imagination and boasted neither the great philosophers of Greece, nor the great poets of the Celts. The rapid growth of the Republic and the influx of peoples from every part of the world proceeded at a pace faster than the ability of Rome or Romans to adapt to the changes or assimilate the new philosophies and values. Much like the Chinese, the Romans preferred to rely on precedents set in the past, rather than change a ritual, even though it had become meaningless. Nevertheless, Rome's tolerance of the new religions, even though it was perhaps the result of a failure to see any other course, must have inevitably broadened the horizons of the Roman people.

The State Religion was equated with security, yet the largely impersonal nature of the State God/esses alienated the individual. The Mystery Religions, which recognized the individual worth of each person, therefore filled a crucial need. Individual worshippers could feel noble, even if their stations in Roman society indicated that they were of no account. The interactions of these different beliefs moved in the lives of these fascinating people, defining them and serving as the binding which held the Roman Republic and her people together.

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