Marius the Epicurean · Chapter
The Religion of Numa explained
This chapter introduces the young Marius, a boy living in an old country-house, who embodies the lingering 'religion of Numa'—the older, purer forms of paganism that survived in rural life.
What happens
This chapter introduces the young Marius, a boy living in an old country-house, who embodies the lingering 'religion of Numa'—the older, purer forms of paganism that survived in rural life. It describes the private Ambarvalia, a family purification ritual, and Marius's devout, reflective participation. His religious sensibility is marked by a blend of fear, gratitude, and a deep sense of sacredness in daily life, though he feels pity for the sacrificial victims. The chapter explores the contrast between the outward forms of religion and Marius's inner speculative thoughts.
Themes in this chapter
The Transition from Paganism to Christianity
The chapter depicts the lingering 'religion of Numa' as a survival of older paganism, set against the eventual triumph of Christianity.
Family, Domestic Affection, and Chastity
Marius's religious observances are deeply tied to family, home, and the veneration of ancestors, emphasizing domestic piety and continuity.
Death, Mortality, and the Hope of Afterlife
The chapter includes the service to the dead in the family chapel, with offerings to ancestral spirits, reflecting beliefs about the afterlife.
Characters to notice
- Marius
The young protagonist, head of his household, who leads the Ambarvalia rites with devout seriousness and a reflective, speculative mind.
- Antoninus Pius
Mentioned as the dying emperor who ordered his golden image of Fortune to be carried to his successor, setting the historical context.
Key passages
“As, in the triumph of Christianity, the old religion lingered latest in the country, and died out at last as but paganism—the religion of the villagers, before the advance of the Christian Church; so, in an earlier century, it was in places remote from town-life that the older and purer forms of paganism itself had survived the longest.”
Just as Christianity eventually replaced paganism, which survived longest in rural areas, so in earlier times the purest forms of paganism persisted in remote places away from cities.
Sets the historical context for the survival of archaic religious practices.
“A religion of usages and sentiment rather than of facts and belief, and attached to very definite things and places—the oak of immemorial age, the rock on the heath fashioned by weather as if by some dim human art, the shadowy grove of ilex, passing into which one exclaimed involuntarily, in consecrated phrase, Deity is in this Place! Numen Inest!”
This religion was based on customs and feelings, not doctrines, and was tied to specific natural features like ancient oaks or weathered rocks, where people felt a divine presence.
Describes the nature of the 'religion of Numa' as immanent and place-based.
“He brought to that system of symbolic usages, and they in turn developed in him further, a great seriousness—an impressibility to the sacredness of time, of life and its events, and the circumstances of family fellowship; of such gifts to men as fire, water, the earth, from labour on which they live, really understood by him as gifts—a sense of religious responsibility in the reception of them.”
Marius approached these rituals with deep seriousness, and they heightened his awareness of the sacredness of time, life, family, and natural elements like fire and water, which he saw as divine gifts requiring gratitude.
Illustrates Marius's personal religious sensibility and its development.
“The old sculptors of the great procession on the frieze of the Parthenon at Athens, have delineated the placid heads of the victims led in it to sacrifice, with a perfect feeling for animals in forcible contrast with any indifference as to their sufferings. It was this contrast that distracted Marius now in the blessing of his fields, and qualified his devout absorption upon the scrupulous fulfilment of all the details of the ceremonial, as the procession approached the altars.”
The ancient Parthenon frieze shows calm sacrificial animals, highlighting a sensitivity to their plight that contrasts with indifference. This contrast troubled Marius during the Ambarvalia, distracting him from the ritual.
Reveals Marius's empathy for the sacrificial victims and his inner conflict.
