I think an oft forgotten backdrop to many ancient sources and one of the main concepts it is vital to appreciate if you are to understand the mindset of historical figures, is the life expectancy of those in the ancient world... I would love to hear people's expertise on the matter and anyone's ideas on how these shocking stats would have contributed to the ancient mindset.
I'm no expert, but I always find it interesting to attempt to place oneself in the mindset of the ancient, using parallels with modern life. The psychology of the ancient, and the sociology and culture of the masses must have been under heavy influence of frequent death and unknown danger (ie, "mysterious" diseases), which were always lurking about. One's own mortality must have been more frequently on the mind, forcing one to put regular faith in the gods, and make routine ritualistic offerings to forestall the constant reminder of the inevitable. And the apparently random causes of death and survival via disease probably led to much rationalizing of the favor or disfavor of the gods to explain the fortune or misfortune of individuals. Even a daily meal of meat would more likely involve one in the intimate death of the animal, where the best way to keep the meat fresh before consumption was to keep it alive. War was another facet of life, although only touching a minor portion of the population, where one came
face to
face with their enemy, and saw grizzly death and agony first hand... It is only when mentally strolling down this path of what must have been the general life of the ancient, that it becomes less shocking to understand some disturbing (in a modern sense) social and cultural aspects of ancient life, such as the gladiatorial combats in front of thrill seeking crowds...
Whereas today, at least in modern societies, much of death is sanitized out of long stretches of our lives. Modern science and medicine has done much to reduce the mortality rate, and push death at arms length, leaving the individual to put more faith in science than in God. The consumption of meat is even sanitized, thanks to refrigeration. The graphic slaughter of farm
animals is far removed from our sight and minds when in the meat department, picking among the neatly wrapped beef and
chicken. War is also sanitized, what with missiles that can travel thousands of miles, removing the combatants from the personal horror and devastation that war brings. Even our modern day version of gladiatorial
combat (
aka NASCAR) is sanitized, a sport where there is a small, but
still very real chance of the participant dying in front of a crowd seeking excitement...
The ability to draw the parallels between modern and ancient life seem to show that the
psyche of the human mind apparently hasn't changed much, but obviously modern life, science, industry, and communication have changed how the
psyche manifests itself, in addition to changing some portions of the
psyche to be more or less prominent...