Roman Deities

The ancient Romans were highly ecumenical, eagerly assimilating deities and mythology from surrounding Indo-European cultures into their own pantheon and mythology. Listed below are important Roman deity names gathered from Latin, Italian, and Greek sources.

Below is the English spelling of the Interpretazione roma. These are what is called Dodecatheon Olympionicae Deorum Graecorum (twelve Greek Olympian deieties) who were absorbed and adopted into the religious mileu of the Roman pantheon.

This list of Roman and Italian deities includes old Roman Goddesses/Gods as well as the Roman and Italian deities.

The Roman and Italian deities--the Dii Consentes below are the Roman equivalent of the Greek Olympian deities. The Romans frequently venerated the deities belonging to other groups of people around them. (See Bellona)

• Apollo (Phoebus): God of Music, Archery, and the Sun
• Bacchus: , God of Wine, Revelry, Intoxication, Fertility, Festivity, Ecstasy, Madness, Resurrection, and also Patron God of the Art of Theater
• Bellona: An ancient Roman Goddess of War, she seems to have been a Sabine Goddess adopted into the Roman pantheon.
• Ceres: Goddess of Wheat and Grains
• Cupid: God of Erotic Love and Romantic Affection
• Diana: Goddess of the Moon, Hunt, and Wildlife
• Dis: God of Death, sometimes associated with Pluto
• Fauna: Goddess over Animals
• Flora: Goddess associated with Flowery Vegetation in the Spring
• Hercules: God of Strength and a "Divine Hero"
• Iove (Jove, Iuppiter, Ippitar, Jupitar/Father Jove): King of the Gods, Ruler of all the Sky, Bringer of Rain
• Iuno (Juno) Queen of the Gods, Goddess of Marriage, Matron Goddess over Women. It was said each woman had her own Juno--just as each man had his own Genius--protecting him.
• Mars (Martius, Marspitar): God of War and Guardian of Agriculture [Son of Juno and Jove, Mars represented military power as a way to protect and bring abundance to the Roman people. Under the name Marspitar he was viewed as a "Father" (pater) of the Roman people.]
• Mercury: Swift Footed Messnger of the Gods, God of Commerce, Hucksters, Traders, and lying
• Minerva: Roman Goddess of War, Wisdom, Medicine, Arts, and Handicrafts--adopted from the Etruscans in Italy, Minerva became sort of a multi-tasking Goddess. She was associated with the Greek Athena of Athens at some point.
• Neptune: God of the Ocean, Seas, and Waters
• Pluto: God of the Dead, Ruler of the Afterlife aka the Elysium Fields
• Proserpina: Wife of Pluto, Queen of the Dead, Daughter of Ceres
• Venus: Goddess of Beauty, Love, Sex, Passion, Fertility, Prosperity--her son Aeneas was said to have founded the city of Rome.
• Vesta: Goddess of the Sacred Hearth
• Vulcan: God of Fire and the Forge

The Romans borrowed quite a lot of cultural and religious ideas from the Greeks. There is no single defining canonical list from the Greeks of the twelve original Olympian Gods. Likewise, thirteen or fourteen Greek Goddesses and Gods had Roman counterparts.

The term interpretatio romana derives from Tacitus' Germania, ch. 43, and literally means "according to the Roman interpretation."

The practice of interpretatio romana is especially well known through Caesar's De Bello Gallica, where he describes the Gods of the Gauls in terms of their similarity to the Roman pantheon. Caesar wrote about the Celtic Gauls:

"Among the gods, they most worship Mercury. There are numerous images of him; they declare him the inventor of all arts, the guide for every road and journey, and they deem him to have the greatest influence for all money-making and traffic. After him they set Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. Of all these deities they have almost the same idea as all other nations: Apollo drives away diseases, Minerva supplies the first principles of arts and crafts, Jupiter holds the empire of heaven, Mars controls wars. ...The Gauls affirm that they are all descended form a common father, Dis, and say that this is the tradition of the Druids"
(Caesar 6.17-18) Quoted from Jones's Celtic Encyclopedia copyright 2004.

Sources:
Wikipedia: Twelve Olumpians
www.maryjones.us.jce/interpretatio.html

August 15, 2023

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