Introduction II
1.
Basic Characteristics of Greek and Roman
Deititis
2.
Nature of Roman Myths
3.
2. the Cultural Context – the GraecoRoman World
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF GRECO-ROMAN
DEITIES
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Divinities are anthropomorphic – Resemble humans in
appearance and behavior
Graceo-Roman Religion is polytheistic – There are
multiple deities (in contrast: Judaeo-Christian religion
has one god = monotheistic)
Greek and Roman Deities are immortal but not eternal –
Greek gods have a theogonis or birth, but they do not
die.
Gods are part of nature and created by nature –in
contrast - the Judaeo-Christian god stands outside of
nature and creates the world
Graeco-Roman Deities continued
Greek and Roman gods are not omnipotent – they are
not all powerful and they are not omniscient –they do not
know all.
 Not Universal – Deities have specific functions and often
the particular functions/responsibilities of the same
deities vary from place to place
 For Example: Jupiter/Zeus is responsible for sky and
weather
 Venus/Aphrodite – responsible for physical love and
desire,
 Deities are concerned with cult offerings and not so
much with conduct of humans – the ritual (honouring the
deity) is central, not a personal relationship
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Basic Characteristics of Greek Myths
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Highly literary – while they have a long oral
history – they all came down to us in their final
written versions
 Highly Fluid – we have multiple versions of the
same myth (i.e. Athena’s status as the patron
deity of Athens)
 Anthropocentric – Humanity is at the centre of
all myth while gods are peripheral forces
 Socially and Culturally Embedded – Greek myth
is a reflection of Greek society and culture, i.e.
family hierarchy – Zeus/Jupiter = father of the
gods, the others have to consult him
Basic Characteristics of Roman
Myths
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Most are legends concerned with Rome’s
foundation and early history
Very closely associated with politics
Many associated with particular prominent
Roman families (i.e. Julian line connected to
Iulus (son of Aeneas who was the son of Venus
(Aphrodite)
Many are aetiological
Many serve as examples for Roman ideals and
virtues
The Nature of Roman Myth
Many Greek myths made their way to Italy and were
reworked for Roman contexts
 Distinctively Roman myths and elements were
interpolated with Greek myths: example the story of
Aeneas and Latinus – events after landing in Italy
 Roman myths are much more closely and obviously tied
into Roman political life than Greek myths were in Greek
politics
 For example: Ovid (27 BCE – 14 CE) Metamorphoses;
 Virgil, (70 BCE – 19 BCE), The Aeneid)
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The Cultural Context: Rome and Italy
Before the Romans (the Archaeological
evidence)
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Early Italy was home to many different
cultures speaking many different languages
Site of Rome shows evidence of habitation
since ca. 1600 BCE (Pastoral Economy; Buried
their dead)
Between 1000 and 900 BCE Immigrants from
the south of Rome inhabited the Palatine Hill
(Latin speakers, cremated their dead, practiced
agriculture)
Cultural Geography of Early Italy
http://www.arcaini.com/ITALY/ItalyHistory/AncientLanguagesLatest2.jpg
Greek Influences
(and the Etruscans)
Greeks had settled Sicily and Southern Italy
(Magna Graecia) since ca. 780 BCE)
 Greeks influenced Etruscans and Greek colonies
through trade, diplomacy, and warfare (i.e. art
and architecture; hoplite warfare;
anthropomorphized gods; writing; myth and
literature)
 Much Greek influence came to Rome through
the Etruscans , some directly from Greek
colonies
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Early Italian Gods
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The earliest Roman gods were Indo-European gods
Earliest Roman religion heavily influenced by the
Etruscans
Original Roman gods were not anthropomorphized and
there were no myths about them
Roman gods became associated with Greek gods
through Etruscan influence
Myths and anthropomorphic images were applied to
Roman gods only gradually (many gods with no Greek
counterparts never acquired a mythology)
i.e. Janus (god shown with two faces
the god Janus
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Italian Deity: looking forward
and back at the same time
(one face bearded, the other
clean shaven)
Month of Ianuarius (January)
Also god of entrances and
exits, connected with water
(bridges, crossings)
Temple of Janus in Roman
Forum – doors closed in times
of peace
A few legends exist (when
Sabines had captured the
Capital, they were prevented
from entering the Forum by
Janus who had water gushed
out.
Mars (Mavor)
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Italian Deity – more important than the Greek god Ares.
Originally agricultural deity in Italy
Associated with spring (time of growth) – hence use of
his name for March (beginning of Roman year before
Iulian calendar)
Myths exists about him
As Romans became wore involved in warfare, Mars
became a god of war – more important aspect than his
agricultural aspect – sacrifices before and after battle,
and spoils of war were dedicated to Mars
Temple of Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) in Rome
Campus Martius – open field outside gates – military
practice area
Jupiter
Italian sky-god, form of a name that identifies
him as an Indo-European sky god (like Zeus and
other sky gods)
 509 BCE temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximums
built on Capitoline Hill in Rome received temple
and statue like a Greek city god.
 Temple was shared with Juno, chief Italian
goddess, and Minerva, Italian fertility and war
goddess = the Captioline triad
 Jupiter had many names and responsibilities,
often associated with particular cults in
particular Italian regions
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Rome and the Etruscans
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Etruscans conquered parts of Latium (including Rome
itself) Campania in the 7th and 6th centuries (several
Roman kings were Etruscans, including the last one King
Tarquinius Superbus)
Many Roman religious traditions derive from Etruscan
origins (pontifices, augury, haruspicia, tripartite temples
– Juno, Jupiter, Minerva; Cult of Aeneas)
Greek genealogists/mythographers routinely located
foreign peoples within the context of Greek myth
Romans routinely connected their traditions and mythic
past to Greek mythic traditions
By 200 BCE this fusion was more or less complete
Etruscan Mirror Depicting Hercules
and Athena
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/herc_mirror.jpg
Greek and Roman Myths
Greek and Roman traditions not separate
 Cultural contacts through Greek Colonists,
explorers, merchants – who brought Greek
stories to Italy, where over time they
received Italian components and became
part of the Italian tradition.
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The Travels of the Greek hero
Herakles The first 6 of his 12 labours situated on
Peloponnese in Greece
 1. The Nemean lion; 2. The Lernean Hydra
(water snake; 3. The Ceryneian Hind; 4. The
Erymanthian Boar; 5. The Auegean Stables; 6.
Stymphalian Birds
 The next 6 labours outside the Peloponnese:
7.The Cretan Bull; 8. The Mares of Diomedes in
Thrace; 9. The Girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons; 10. The cattle of Geryon (in Italy
where he killed Cacus; 11. The Apples of
Hesperides; 12 . Cerberus (underwold)
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Herakles (Hercules) travels
Roman Conquests and Greek
cultural influences
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Roman expansion in Italy ca. 350 BCE – 272 BCE brought more
direct contact with Greek city states in Italy and Sicily
Roman expansion beyond Italy from 263 BCE – subsequent
conquest of the Greek east (Sack of Corinth 140 BCE) brought
Romans again into direct contact
Wave of Hellenization of Roman culture via: large number of Greek
slaves poured into Rome, Romans sacked Greek works of art and
brought it to Rome; Greek literary forms became the vogue in
Rome; educated Roman were expected to be bilingual and well
versed in Greek literature, philosophy and art
Roman tendency to incorporate conquered subjects into social,
political, and cultural fabric of Roman life.
Adopted and adopted whatever they liked and found useful and
beneficial
Greek Myths in Rome
Ovid, (Publius Ovidius Naso) b. 43 BCE
 the Metamorphoses: a poem telling the
story of gods and humans down to his
own days. Greek myths with a very Roman
spin
 Ovid’s sources for the early books: Hesiod,
c. 700 BCE The Theogony: story of gods
(and man) down to present generation of
Olympian gods
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Hesiod’s Version
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“First came the Chasm, and then broad-breasted
Earth, secure seat for ever of all the immortals who
occupy the peak of snowy Olympus; the misty Tartara in
a remote recess of the broad-pathed earth, and Eros,
the most handsome among the immortal gods, dissolver
of flesh who overcomes the reason and purpose in the
breasts of all gods and all men. Out of the Chasm came
Erebos and dark Night, and from Night in turn came
Bright Air and Day, whom he bore in shared intimacy
with Erebos. Earth bore first of all one equal to herself,
starry Heaven, so that he should cover her all about, to
be a secure seat for ever for the blessed gods, and she
bore ….
Ovid’s version of the Cosmogony
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(1,1-20) I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms.
You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other
things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of
words, from the world's first origins to my own time.
Before there was earth or sea or the sky that covers
everything, Nature appeared the same throughout the
whole world: what we call chaos: a raw confused mass,
nothing but inert matter, badly combined discordant atoms
of things, confused in the one place. There was no Titan yet,
shining his light on the world, or waxing Phoebe renewing her white
horns, or the earth hovering in surrounding air balanced by her own
weight, or watery Amphitrite stretching out her arms along the vast
shores of the world. Though there was land and sea and air, it was
unstable land, unswimmable water, air needing light. Nothing
retained its shape, one thing obstructed another, because in the one
body, cold fought with heat, moist with dry, soft with hard, and
weight with weightless things.
Ovid continued
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1. 21-31,
This conflict was ended by a god and a greater
order of nature, since he split off the earth from the
sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the
transparent heavens from the dense air. When he had
disentangled the elements, and freed them from the
obscure mass, he fixed them in separate spaces in
harmonious peace. The weightless fire, that forms the
heavens, darted upwards to make its home in the
furthest heights. Next came air in lightness and place.
Earth, heavier than either of these, drew down the
largest elements, and was compressed by its own
weight. The surrounding water took up the last space
and enclosed the solid world.
The story of Herakles killing the bandit
Caucus serves as an aetiological myths
explaining the origins of the cult of
Hercules in Italy and its adoption by
Romulus
 Livy, ab urbe condita 1.7
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Roman Versions of Greek Gods
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Zeus
Hera
Demeter
Poseidon
Hades
Aphrodite
Ares
Hephaestus
Hermes
Dionysus
Apollo
Athena
Hestia
Herakles
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Jupiter
Juno
Ceres
Neptune
Pluto
Venus
Mars
Vulcan
Mercury
Bacchus
Apollo
Minerva
Vesta
Hercules
Periodization of Roman History
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Traditional Foundation Date = 753 BCE
753 BCE – 510 BCE – The Regal Period
509 BCE – 49 BCE – The Republic
49 BCE – 27 BCE – The Revolutionary Period
27 BCE – 193 CE – The Principate
193 CE – 284 CE – The Soldier Emperors
284 CE – 476 CE – The Dominate
476 CE – Fall of Rome in the West
Note: Roman myth and religion was profoundly affected
by Roman history and the cultural geography of Italy
Founding of Rome at the Tiber
Iron Age “Hut Urns”
http://www.vroma.org/images/jwalker_images/jw-13.jpg
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