The hymn 10.85 of the Rigveda includes the Vivaha-sukta (above). Its recitation continues to be a part of Hindu wedding rituals.

Historical Vedic Religion

Historical Vedic Religion The historical Vedic religion (also known as, Brahminism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism) refers to the religious ideas and practices among most Indo-Aryan-speaking peoples of ancient India after about 1500 BCE. These ideas and practices are found in the Vedic texts, and they were one of the major influences that shaped contemporary...

Cave Of The Hermit Graffiti Paleolithic

Paleolithic Religion

Paleolithic Religion Paleolithic religion is a set of spiritual beliefs thought to have appeared during the Paleolithic time period. Paleoanthropologists Andre Leroi-Gourhan and Annette Michelson believe religious behaviour emerged by the Upper Paleolithic, before 30,000 years ago at the latest, but behavioral patterns such as burial rites that one might characterize as religious — or as ancestral...

Ancient Hittite relief carving from Yazılıkaya, a sanctuary at Hattusa, depicting twelve gods of the underworld,[55][failed verification] whom the Hittites identified as the Mesopotamian Anunnaki.

Mesopotamian Mythology

Mesopotamian Mythology Mesopotamian mythology refers to the myths, religious texts, and other literature that comes from the region of ancient Mesopotamia in modern-day West Asia. In particular the societies of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, all of which existed shortly after 3000 BCE and were mostly gone by 400 CE. These works...

Mountain of Gods, Nemrut- turkey

Historical Religions

Historical Religions Historical religions of the ancient world shared many of the same patterns with each other even though the cultures may never have had any contact with each other. Such as Prehistoric religion, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion, Brahmanism, Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, Inca mythology, ancient Greece and Rome, and their Hellenistic descendants. Religious history begins...

Fire dogs, ating to the 11th to 9th centuries BCE, found in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, kept at the Swiss National Museum

Prehistoric Religion

Prehistoric Religion Prehistoric religion is the religious beliefs and practices of prehistoric peoples. The term may cover Paleolithic religion, Mesolithic religion, Neolithic religion, and Bronze Age religions. See also: Religions, History of Religion, and What is The Origin of Religion? Paleolithic Main article: Paleolithic religion Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods, may be one of...

Trundholm sun chariot pictured, Nordic Bronze Age, c. 1600 BC

Proto-Indo-European Mythology

Proto-Indo-European Mythology Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested, since Proto-Indo-European-speakers lived In pre-literate societies, they have been reconstructed by scholars of comparative mythology from inherited similarities among Indo-European languages, which...

Rome Pantheon Italy Architecture Monument

Pantheon

Pantheon A pantheon (literally “(a temple) of all gods”, “of or common to all gods”) is the particular set of all gods of any polytheistic religion, mythology, or tradition. Significance A pantheon of gods is a common element of polytheistic societies, although not all polytheists have such a pantheon, and not...

Aegeus at right consults the Pythia or oracle of Delphi. Vase 440–430 BC. He was told "Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief", which at first he did not understand.

Ancient Greek Religion

Ancient Greek Religion Ancient Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or “cults” in the plural, though most...

Scenes from Greek mythology depicted in ancient art. Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: the birth of Aphrodite, a revel with Dionysus and Silenus, Adonis playing the kithara for Aphrodite, Heracles slaying the Lernaean Hydra, the Colchian dragon regurgitating Jason in the presence of Athena, Hermes with his mother Maia, the Trojan Horse, and Odysseus's ship sailing past the island of the sirens

Greek Mythology

Greek Mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the...

Ragnarök (motif from the Heysham hogback) (by W. G. Collingwood, 1908)

Ragnarök

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of events, including a great battle, foretold to lead to the death of a number of great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters and the submersion of the world in water. After these events, the world...

Capitoline Triad

Roman Mythology

Roman Mythology Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome’s legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. “Roman mythology” may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the subject matter as represented in the literature and art of other cultures in...

Neptune velificans on a 3rd-century mosaic

Classical Mythology

Classical Mythology Classical mythology, Classical Greco-Roman mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, or Greco-Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of...

Shamash depicted on bronze coin struck in Hatra (c. 117-138 AD)

Ancient Semitic Religion

Ancient Semitic Religion Ancient Semitic religion encompasses the polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples from the ancient Near East and Northeast Africa. Since the term Semitic itself represents a rough category when referring to cultures, as opposed to languages, the definitive bounds of the term “ancient Semitic religion” are only approximate. Semitic...

The ruins of the excavated city of Ras Shamra, or Ugarit

Ancient Canaanite Religion

Ancient Canaanite Religion Canaanite religion refers to the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries of the Common Era. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and in some cases monolatristic. Canaanite religion describes the belief systems and ritual practices of the people living in...

Brahmanism

Brahmanism

Brahmanism Brahmanism is an ideology and a way of life, originating from the history of the Vedas, often called a philosophy, practised on the basis of specific inferred beliefs. The fundamental and principle belief of Brahmanism defines Brahman and its attributeless element that was first captured by the Rishis who compiled the Vedas. “That...

Hermeticism

Hermeticism

Hermeticism Hermeticism, also called Hermetism, is a religious, philosophical, and esoteric tradition based primarily upon writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice-greatest Hermes”). These writings have greatly influenced the Western esoteric tradition and were considered to be of great importance during both the Renaissance and the Reformation. The tradition traces its origin to a prisca theologia, a doctrine that affirms the...

Ancient Sumerian cylinder seal impression showing the god Dumuzid being tortured in the underworld by galla demons

Ancient Mesopotamian Underworld

Ancient Mesopotamian Underworld The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many names in both languages, was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where inhabitants were believed to continue “a shadowy version of life on earth”. The...

Incised sarcophagus slab with the Adoration of the Magi from the Catacombs of Rome, 3rd century. Plaster cast with added colour.

Afterlife In Ancient Religions

Afterlife In Ancient Religions This article covers Afterlife in Ancient Religions. The concept of resurrection is found in the writings of some ancient non-Abrahamic religions in the Middle East. A few extant Egyptian and Canaanite writings allude to dying and rising gods such as Osiris and Baal. Sir James Frazer...

deathland

Death In Norse Paganism

Death In Norse Paganism Death in Norse paganism was associated with varying customs and beliefs. Not only could a Viking funeral be performed a number of ways, the idea of the soul was associated with various notions, as well as of where the dead went in their afterlife, such as Valhalla, Fólkvangr, Hel, and Helgafjell. The soul The...

Egyptian Mummy

Ancient Egyptian Afterlife Beliefs

Ancient Egyptian Afterlife Beliefs Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs were centered around a variety of complex rituals, that were influenced by many aspects of Egyptian culture. Religion was a major contributor, since it was an important social practice that bound all Egyptians together. For instance, many of the Egyptian gods played...