Asia Minor (4)

Considered a great wonder, I occasionally visited the Temple of
the "Artemis Ephesus" whose statue featured a many-breasted
goddess. As I had earlier figured, she represented a fertility
goddess derived from Asian sources. What was interesting is
that Ephesus' Artemis represented a synchronistic effort to blend
the Greek Artemis of the Hunt, the Lady of the Moon, with an
Earth Mother of the East.

Such an effort reminded me of Serapis, where the Egyptian
god Osiris was blended with Apis--a bull deity--that slipped into
a Greek religious cult.

Pondering over my now bulging collection of notes about these
various religious cults that I have thus far encountered, studying
them from an investigative perspective, I still remain puzzled.
My family, most of my friends and acquaintances, have rarely
been caught-up in these religious expressions that are rampant
all over the Empire. It's not that I don't believe in an overall Deity,
the Creator of the World, it's just that I don't see the necessity
dressing the Deity in all these various ways in all these various
cults!

"Faith" calls, however it will. As to whether the Creator of the
World really stands behind all these various faith systems, I
cannot say. I am just as inclined to wonder whether all these
diverse expressions, rather, reflect our own human capacities
and development. It's easy to observe that we humans live
in different conditions, one from another, and our intelligence
and talents vary one from another. Maybe all these different
religious expressions represent all these tiered levels of who
we are, what we can feel and think at a given position on the
human pyramid.

The poor, not only physically but spiritually, have their needs.
Beyond poor, there's other kinds of needs--mainly, as I see it,
to have some trust in the world, in a Creator that provides us
with some sense of meaning in this life. As for myself, I put a
lot of credence in Fate and Providence. Nonetheless, somehow
I have come to understand the necessity to respect another's
religious or spiritual expression. Perhaps this pastime of mine,
which is slowly turning into a "study" is a sign of this respect?

But now I must turn all this aside for awhile. My replacement
has arrived, and I am entering the last few months of my
assignment in Asia Minor. The years pass-by quickly! And
newly arrived, I have received my new assignment to be the
Speculatore senior officer for the Judaea Province.

My Praetorian friends at the palace really got a good laugh
over this new assignment of mine. After plush assignments
in Capri, Egypt, and Asia Minor, I was heading for what was
deemed a nasty and difficult place. One guardsman who had
spent some time in Judaea said that it was a "Land of Ghosts."
Pressing him about what he meant, he just left me confused.
He said I would come to understand once I get there.