When did Greek and Roman religion end?

The majority of modern historians agree that the religion practiced by the ancient Greeks had been extinguished by the 9th century CE at the latest and that there is little to no evidence that it survived (in public form at least) past the Middle Ages.

What happened to the Greek religion?

The short answer is the classical Greek religion we recognize as Greek mythology came to an end in the 9th century in the Mani Peninsula area of Greece when the last pagans were converted.

How did Roman mythology end?

The simple answer is that the ancient Greeks and Romans didn’t stop believing in and worshiping their gods. They simply died out along with the Greek and Roman civilizations that they lived in.

Why did the Romans ban some religions?

Roman leaders banned some religions because a ruler of Rome considered a religion a political problem. They also feared that any religion would rebel against the empire. Since Jews believed their God was the only god, some Romans thought the Jews insulted Rome’s gods by not praying to them.

What happened to the pagan religions of ancient Greece and Rome?

The pagan religions of ancient Greece and Rome were overwhelmed by Christianity and, unlike other widespread religious systems, simply disappeared. The evidence for them exists in mythological texts, archaeological finds and the continued resonance of the names of their gods. Greeks and Romans were polytheistic — they worshiped many gods.

How did Christianity eventually replace other religions in Europe?

Christianity eventually supplanted the religions of the Greeks and the Romans, whose aristocracy was apparently more devoted to the officially favored faiths than the masses. Rome borrowed Greek deities (Zeus = Jupiter, Aphrodite = Venus, etc.) and installed problematic worship of flawed emperors, as Greeks had done with Alexander the Great.

Did the ancient Romans steal the Greek gods and goddesses?

The ancient Romans did not “take” or “steal” or “copy” the Greek deities; they syncretized their own deities with the Greek ones and, in some cases, adopted Greek deities into their own pantheon. This was not plagiarism in any sense, but rather simply the way religion in the ancient world worked.

How common was religious syncretism in ancient Greece and Rome?

The world in which the ancient Greeks and Romans lived was one in which religious syncretism was common and seen as perfectly natural.