The Romans are often accused of stealing their gods from the Greeks. But while certain deities such as Jupiter, Juno, Mars and Venus became styled after members of the Greek pantheon, they — like all of Rome’s gods — had completely separate origins.

The Roman gods — the obscure as well as the well known —are in fact ancient Italic deities in their own right. Their original attributes and natures are uniquely their own — and reflect the archaic Roman way of interpreting the unseen world.

The Nature of Roman Religion.

The Romans did not refer to their beliefs and spiritual practices as a religion, a term that comes from the Latin “Religo” — to bind or fasten.   Evidence for archaic Roman religion is sparse and much of it comes to us in a second-hand form, recorded by authors living hundreds of years later. However, one thing we can deduce from this evidence is that the Roman’s did not regard themselves as bound to serve the gods. Rather, their relationship with the unseen was more one of quid pro quo.  

The Spirits of Place: Animism

One theory places the basis of Roman “religion” in the principle of ‘animism’ or the manifestation of divine power through nature. To the first farming communities that predated the city of Rome, every place — be it a river, stream or grove — had its patron deity. The names of many of these spirits of land and water are now lost — if they were given a name at all—for it was quite usual for the Romans not to name such deities. However, named or not — the Romans always honoured them.

The Romans believed that these nature spirits possessed a divine power called numen. From the earliest times, if someone cleared or built upon a tract of land, it was usual to appease the spirits of the place with sacrifices. This was not an act of worship or submission. Rather, it was the respectful gesture of a good neighbour. 

Ovid, in his Fasti, describes a survival of one such ritual, dedicated to the god of boundaries, Terminus, which was held every year on the morning of the 23rd February.  The local farmers would meet at the boundary point of their lands, bringing “a garland and each a cake” to offer to the deity.

The Lares  

However, even after wild countryside was cleared and domesticated, the spirits of nature remained. These spirits of place were known as the Lares — the guardian spirits of particular tracts of land.  When a house was built on a piece of land, its Lar remained, transferring its protection to the new home and its occupants. 

The Lares, however, were not restricted to the home — they could be found all over a farm or property. It was wise not to forget them. “When the master arrives at the farmstead, “advised Cato, “after paying his respects to the gods of the households (the lars), let him go over the whole farm.’ 

Likewise, as cities grew up, the Lares became the guardians of the various districts. An altar or shrine marked the boundaries of each Lar’s territory  — most commonly found at crossroads. Here, residents would leave offerings as gestures of respect or gratitude. 

The Lares protected everyone who lived on their land — be they slave or free. As time progressed, some people began to regard the Lares as the spirits of the dead ancestors, guarding their descendants. This was a belief that remained in vogue during the imperial period and gave emperors the excuse to claim some fairly exhaulted Lares. Emperor Augustus, for instance,  named his Lares as Venus and Cupid— who he also claimed were the earliest ancestors of his family, the Julians.  Ovid, however, preserved the Lares more earthly origins by claiming they were the descendants of a single nymph.

The Penates

While the Lares guarded everyone on their tract of land, the Penates were slightly more exclusive. Instead, they limited their influence to the master of a house and his family. Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that the Penates were the ancestral gods of Aeneas, brought to Italy when the Trojan hero fled there after the fall of Troy. 

However, it is more likely that the penates were simple the spirits of the home. Their name derives either from the word penus —store-room — or penitus “those that dwell within” —, making the Penates the gods of the inner reaches of the house  — or the guardians of the larder.  

Di Manes

Although not gods, per se, the cult of Di Manes or ‘good dead’remained vital from the beginnings of Rome until the end of the empire. The Romans held their dead ancestors in high esteem, believing them to be separate from the living — yet still present in the physical world. 

The Romans honoured these ancestors on their birthdays as well as at three annual festivals held specifically in their honour: the Feralia, the Parentalia and the Lemuria.  

What’s in a Name?

The ancestral dead aside, the Romans did not seem to endower their gods with human attributes, personalities or even gender — initially at least. 

Spirits of place were particularly nebulous. Cato records how it was usual to begin rites to the deities of groves by saying ‘be thou a god or a goddess,’ as there was no certain way of identifying the gender of the spirit of the place. 

This gender neutrality applied equally to those gods who were named. Pales, the shepherd god, was variably presented as male or female. Even Venus — later seen as the epitome of divine femininity — was,  regarded as sexless, as the neutral noun ending of her name indicates.

Often, names were a summation of the god’s function. Janus — the god of thresholds, beginnings and endings — derives his name from the Latin ianua or “gateway” whereas the goddess of agriculture and fertility, Ceres’ name is a corruption of Geres from gero or “to bear.”

The Roman Pantheon

Because their gods did not have human attributes, the Romans saw no need to construct a complex mythology around them. But contact with Greek culture changed this when the Romans saw advantages to affiliating their own gods with those of an already established and prestigious culture.

So, the Romans began to fit certain of their gods into the Greek mythological structure. Deities with the most applicable attributes found themselves cast in the roles of the Olympians. Jupiter, formerly the Roman god of skies and oaths became the Roman version of Zeus,  while Juno, a Roman mother goddess figure, became Hera. Mars, previously a Roman god of agriculture and war, had his agrarian role downplayed when he was cast as Ares.

Many previously minor gods also found themselves promoted as they filled in the remaining Olympian roles. Venus, formerly a minor garden deity, became the goddess of love, and Neptune, who was one of many Roman water deities, became the god of the sea.

Other key Roman gods did not fit into this Greek-style pantheon so easily — but they still retained their cult significance within Roman state religion. The goddess Vesta, guardian of the Roman state, was one example, as was the god Janus. Other ancient deities, such as Tellus, the earth goddess and Ceres the goddess of the crops, also remained. However, they became more marginal as the emphasis of Roman society shifted further away from agriculture.

Sources

Apuleius,  Apologia

Beard, Mary, North, John and Price, Simon (1998) Religions of Rome, Vol 2: A Sourcebook.

Cato, On Agriculture

Cicero, The Nature of the Gods

Dumezil, G (1996 ed) Archaic Roman Religion: Vol 1 and 2, John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London

Ovid Fasti