Ancient Roman Quote by Charles Godfrey Leland
““The name Romagna is applied to their district because it once formed part of the Papal or Roman dominion, and it is not to be confounded with La Romagna proper. Roughly speaking, the region to which I refer may be described as lying between Forli and Ravenna. Among these people, stregeria, or witchcraft--or, as I have heard it called, "la vecchia religione" (or "the old religion")--exists to a degree which would even astonish many Italians. This stregeria, or old religion, is something more than a sorcery, and something less than a faith. It consists in remains of a mythology of spirits, the principal of whom preserve the names and attributes of the old Etruscan gods, such as Tinia, or Jupiter, Faflon, or Bacchus, and Teramo (in Etruscan Turms), or Mercury. With these there still exist, in a few memories, the most ancient Roman rural deities, such as Silvanus, Palus, Pan, and the Fauns. To all of these invocations or prayers in rude metrical form are still addressed, or are at least preserved, and there are many stories current regarding””
About This Quote
Source Book: Etruscan and Roman Folk Lore, 1885
A regional folk tradition blends ancient myth, lingering deities, and a lingering "old religion" that mixes sorcery and belief.
In simple terms: Old local beliefs mix myth and magic, preserving ancient gods.
Key Takeaway
Recognize and respect lingering cultural myths.
Themes
mythology
folk tradition
syncretism
regional identity
Mood
reflective
curious
Type
historical
cultural
When to use this quote
- tourism
- heritage preservation
- academic research
- community storytelling
Key Concepts
cultural anthropology
religious studies
Questions to Reflect On
- What role do such traditions play today?
- How can they be preserved responsibly?
A Different Perspective
These beliefs may be romanticized or misinterpreted by outsiders.
![“Burridge goes on to say, “[T]rying to decode the Gospels through the genre of modern biography, when the author encoded his message in the genre of ancient [biography], will lead to another nonsense—blaming the text for not containing modern predilections which it was never meant to contain.”286…” quote by Trent Horn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f71/trent-horn-66792_last-supper_burridge-goes-on-to-say-t-rying-to-decod_76757.jpg)
