Roman Gods
Mar. 17th, 2009 06:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrOne of the conventions that's always bothered me was the idea that the Greeks and the Romans had the "same gods" with "different names." The Romans certainly acted like this was the case, but they assumed such correspondences with all kinds of deities, not just Greek and Roman; they'd say the Germans "worshiped Mercury most," but that doesn't mean that Wotan (whom Tacitus was probably referring to), Mercury and Hermes were all "the same god" in any meaningful sense. (They apparently even had a name for this style of thought, "interpretatio romana.")
As far as I can tell, the relations between Roman deities and their Greek counterparts were more complex than the standard correspondences assume them to be. Some Roman gods were ancestrally related to their Greek analogue; some were borrowed directly; while others were given Greek attributes as a kind of window dressing. In no particular order:
As far as I can tell, the relations between Roman deities and their Greek counterparts were more complex than the standard correspondences assume them to be. Some Roman gods were ancestrally related to their Greek analogue; some were borrowed directly; while others were given Greek attributes as a kind of window dressing. In no particular order:
- Jupiter is a cognate of the Greek god Zeus Pater (Father Zeus), so the two are almost certainly ancestrally related.
- Apollo was just adopted directly, a Greek god that caught on among early Romans.
- Apparently the same can be said of Bacchus, which was apparently another (Greek) name for Dionysus
- Juno and Minerva were Etruscan deities (Uni and Menarva) the Romans worshiped and later considered analogous to Hera and Athena, respectively.
- Mars, apparently, was also taken from an Etruscan deity, Maris. Originally an agricultural god, he picked up the war portfolio and thus was equated with the (far less important) Greek god Ares.
- I don't think anyone knows where Neptune came from. The Etruscans worshiped a god named Nethuns, which Wikipedia says "is likely cognate with that of the Celtic god Nechtan and the Persian and Vedic gods sharing the name Apam Napat." It seems hard to believe that the Etruscans would pick up the cult from the Latins (it usually worked the other way around), let alone the Celtic rowdies of the North, but stranger things have happened I suppose.
- I'm not sure what the etymology of Vulcan is, but he was an indigenous Roman god of fire. He doesn't seem to be Etruscan, since their god was named Sethlans and I don't see the resemblance.
- I can't find the etymology of Diana either, but she was apparently an ancient Italian goddess who was regarded as "foreign" by the Romans.
- On Sunday I was sternly rebuked for referring to the Greek god of the dead as Pluto, rather than Hades, but Pluto may have been a Greek name for the god as well. (I know Wikipedia is a lousy source, but this is an LJ entry, not a Ph.D. dissertation, and it's better than nothing.) In any event, Pluto apparently was a Roman god of metals who got the underworld gig.
- Ceres at least might have an Indo-European name, so she may be an aboriginal Roman deity who was later equated with Demeter. The same can be said of Mercury, which apparently is a cognate of "merchandise." On the other hand neither is mentioned in this list of di indigetes so I may be wrong.
- The relation between Vesta and Hestia is hard to discern. Despite the apparent similarity the two names aren't cognates, and Vesta's cult is too ancient to be a likely borrowing. (Strangely, Vesta isn't on that list of indigenous deities, but that may say more about the list than the Vesta cult.)
- Proserpina is just Persephone mispronounced, the same as Hercules and Herakles.
