Live with the gods. Marcus Aurelius 5.27

Like many ancients, Marcus regards our individual lives as acts of worship, unique expressions of personal religion that we must tend on our own, because nobody else can tend to them for us. In his day and age, the gods of Olympus were worshipped throughout the Roman world: Zeus was the god of all, the ruler of other gods, of men, and of all the universe (in its total and integral expression). As Zeus ruled all animal and human and divine society, so Marcus imagines the mind ruling our souls, which he conceives as little societies of emotions, impressions, and feelings that reason must put together and set apart harmoniously, in the manner of a good lord.

«Συζῆν θεοῖς». συζῇ δὲ θεοῖς ὁ συνεχῶς δεικνὺς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν ἀρεσκομένην μὲν τοῖς ἀπονεμομένοις, ποιοῦσαν δὲ ὅσα βούλεται ὁ δαίμων, ὃν ἑκάστῳ προστάτην καὶ ἡγεμόνα ὁ Ζεὺς ἔδωκεν, ἀπόσπασμα ἑαυτοῦ. οὗτος δέ ἐστιν ὁ ἑκάστου νοῦς καὶ λόγος.

Live with the gods. A man lives with the gods by showing them constantly how his soul is satisfied with whatever they give, and by carrying out the will of the guardian-spirit that Zeus provides to each of us as a personal ruler and leader. This spirit is the mind and rational faculty we possess, a little breath of inspiration that comes to each of us from the father of gods and men.