10. ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

Back to Syllabus.

Roman religion

  • deities start as natural forces
    • not individual personalities like Greek deities
    • no stories about men and gods
    • no statues, temples until c. 300 B.C.
  • names or attributes acquired from Greeks
    • Jupiter--Latin translation of Zeus pater
    • Venus--originally a garden goddess, transformed by analogy with Aphrodite
    • Mars--god of War; more important than Ares
    • Vesta--goddess of the Hearth; more important than Greek Hestia
    • Minerva--much less important than Greek Athena
  • exotic foreign religions--mystery religions
    • Cybele--mother goddess; consort Atthis
      • cf. Aphrodite and Adonis, Near Eastern parallels
    • Mithras--Orphic type cult
    • reason: Roman empire incorporates much foreign territory; leaves subjects to their own ways

Roman historical legend

  • Vergil's Aeneid
    • epic poem by Vergil (70-19 B.C.), written under patronage of emperor Augustus
    • deliberate imitation of Homer
      • Books 1-6 an odyssey, 7-12 an iliad
    • story: Aeneas, son of Anchises and Venus, flees Troy after its fall
      • sails to Italy by way of Africa, interlude with Queen Dido
      • in Italy, conquers king Latinus of Latium, founds homeland there
      • interlude in Underworld, like Odysseus; guided by sibyl of Cumae (prophetic woman)
    • differences from Greek epic
      • written poetry; formal, organized, polished
      • self-conscious in use of Homer as model
      • emphasis on future history of Rome ("foreseen" in Underworld by ghost of Aeneas' father)
  • Legend of Romulus and Remus
    • folktale motifs abound
      • twin sons exposed at birth--in boat on Tiber River
      • suckled by she-wolf, raised by shepherds
      • found new city, fight over whose name to give it
        • 6 birds appear to Remus (first)
        • 12 birds (more) appear to Romulus next
      • Remus killed in ensuing quarrel; city named Rome


 Last update: 8/25/07

Back to top of Syllabus. Back to top of Page.