(From Treatise On The Gods by H.L. Mencken)
". . . The Romans were not shocked to encounter gods who were thus more than half men, for they had plenty of their own, as well as hundreds of other kinds. At Rome, the cross-roads of the world, all the gods of East and West were mingled. There were so many of them that no one believed in them any more, not even the priests. Some had come from Greece or Asia; others were no more than men raised to divinity by a decree of the Senate. When an emperor died, his body was burned on a great pyre, and an eagle was released, to carry his soul to the sky; thereafter he was a god. Some of the later emperors were deified while they still lived, like Alexander of Macedon, the pharaohs of Egypt, and the mikados of Japan. The truth is that any respectable Roman, by the simple act of dying, might become a god; all that he needed was children to worship his manes. Thus the Roman pantheon swarmed like the German Valhalla, and was rocked by the same tumults and scandals. In it were traces of every variety of religion ever practiced by man, from the bald animism of savages to the most highly sophisticated of the cults of Asia Minor. The primitive Earth Mother, or Terra Mater, under the name of Ceres (= the Greek Demeter), and the sun-god and rain-god, joined in Jupiter, survived side by side with local vine-gods who had been emperors only a few years before, and roaring drunk in the streets of Rome. . ."
Paleolithic Goddess Figurine
(by OHO, Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak and recording Technicians extraordinaire Bill Pratt and David Reeve)
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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
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