Sid Meier's Civilization V

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Greco-Roman Denominations (Historical Religions)
14 Comments
Tomatekh  [author] 20 Nov, 2019 @ 9:35am 
@RaiRusRen (1/4)
I appreciate the feedback, but I wrote my Master's thesis on the subject, so to call it garbage is a little insulting. Understanding the fact that it would be impossible to fully delineate any religiosity in the scope of a game mod I attempted to provide an example religion for the major categories of Greco-Roman religiosity. Primarily, you can divide the subject into traditional, mystery, and philosophical lines. These can be further sub-divided, e.g. from popular and folk religion to organized state expressions, etc. For the sake of game civ selection, I also did a rudimentary divide on ethnic lines between Greek and Roman. Yes, there are examples that fall outside these categories, but attempting to list them all or even getting overly specific is a fool’s errand and unnecessary for the scope of the game.
Tomatekh  [author] 20 Nov, 2019 @ 9:31am 
@RaiRusRen (2/4)
To that end, Dodekatheism is included as a generalized name for traditional Greek religion, with Numenism for the traditional Roman (which is also meant to represent Etruscan influence). Mysteries provides a catch-all for Greek Mystery cults. Mithraism is included as a Roman example. I’ll note that, per my original categorization guidelines, I did feel including it alongside “Mysteries” was a bit of unnecessary overlap. However, Mithraism is sort of a favorite pet subject of Roman historians and being one of the most notable later examples of the subject, it was capable of supporting itself. Imperial Cult represents the largest and most notable example of various Greco-Roman state religious expression. Neoplatonism is sort of the premier expression of philosophical mysticism as organized religion while also serving to highlight the prevailing Orientalism of the later period.
Tomatekh  [author] 20 Nov, 2019 @ 9:31am 
@RaiRusRen (3/4)
Finally, I included notable examples from the indirect Greco-Roman sphere. Minoan religion as major precursor and influence (along with Indo-European) on later religion, and Thracian religion which had significant impact on conceptions of the soul and immortality. While I do admit having to use specific names and categories can cause the end result to seem glib, I feel I included a much better overview in the various civilopedia entries, which I also wrote myself, touching on trends like PIE motifs, syncretism with local and oriental religions, inter-religion divisions, and reasoning behind the name choices.
Tomatekh  [author] 20 Nov, 2019 @ 9:31am 
@RaiRusRen (4/4)
As I said, this is a subject I’ve studied rather extensively (much more so than the other religions in the mod), so I would be happy to discuss it further with you and hear why you view it as “historically, religiously and mythologically inaccurate garbage”. I’d also love to hear suggestions for how to improve it that would work in terms of both the scope of Civ V & VI.
ElderDays 11 Jun, 2017 @ 5:18pm 
Is there a way to deactivate the vanilla religions so only those from the mod are in game?
The Kid From Brooklyn 10 Apr, 2015 @ 1:58pm 
Let me just try downloading it again.
The Kid From Brooklyn 10 Apr, 2015 @ 1:56pm 
ah. i have both of them and i didnt work. i aslo know how to download mods on civ five
Tomatekh  [author] 10 Apr, 2015 @ 1:52pm 
I'm not sure what you mean; the mod works for BNW and GK (together or seperate, as long as you are using at least one of the expansions it works).
The Kid From Brooklyn 10 Apr, 2015 @ 10:07am 
i meant a one for BNW and GAK. I got the complete edition so.
The Kid From Brooklyn 10 Apr, 2015 @ 8:05am 
Can you make a mod where you merge all the religions in one big complete mod?
iamblichos 4 Sep, 2014 @ 11:33am 
I agree with your reasoning.as Neoplatonism, being perhaps the content of Pharonic Egyptian philosophy, is a part of the Greco-Roman world in which it stands more as a legacy of Egypt. Same with Hermeticism (which would be another good addition).
Tomatekh  [author] 4 Sep, 2014 @ 7:29am 
I agree. Neoplatonism is interesting because in many ways it represented the culmination of religious thought of the period, drawing from traditional religion, mystery cults, the philosophical schools, and orientalism (esepcially Babylon and Egypt). Even more so if you consider the Neoplatonism of Iamblichus as the "religious" height of the school, since Iamblichus was Syrian.

But I think it's a good fit for the Greco-Roman pack, not only for its Platonic foundations, but because the theurgy of Iamblichus formed the backbone of Emperor Julian's paganism revival.
iamblichos 4 Sep, 2014 @ 7:08am 
It's sort of ironic, but you could make Neoplatonism an Egyptian denomination, since the fountainhead Pythagoras was accorded an Egyptian initiate, and the system has obvious connections to the Saite period (26th dynasty) in terms of conceptual content.