Salvete omnes,
I just finished a chapter in R. Etienne's "Daily life in Pompeii" about the wall paintings recovered from the city, which often appear to be making fun of the gods. E.g., on the frieze in the bath-atriolium in the house of Menander, the gods are depicted as dwarfs with enormous heads making puppet-like gestures. Jupiter is portrayed with long, disheveled hairs and looks rather frightened at the prospect of being reprimanded by a jealous Juno for his promiscuous lifestyle and also of Venus who, disguised as a witch, asks Cupido to shoot his arrows at the him.
I was wondering, was it something common for the ancient Romans to mock their gods in such a way, to treat their religious life so lightly ? And if so, should we regard this as a sign of widespread scepticism and an ironical attitude about the gods, or only as an expression of the fact that they did not see a wide gap between the "immanent" and the "transcendent" world as in the Christian religion, that gods and humans were essentialy akin, apart from the fact that the gods were immortal and powerful, and humans mortal and frail ? I also wonder if the Romans knew the reverse attitude, something like religious fervour, a sort of puritan piety in their own religion (not talking about imported religions such as the Isis-cult) ?
Valete,
Atticus