Download The Roman Gods

The Roman Gods
Greece - Rome
 Roman gods
 No distinct “personalities”
 Easy to “adopt” Greek pantheon &
“convert” names/entities
Roman “gods”
 Numina
 “Powers” or “Wills”
 Will-power?
 No stories told about Numina
 Honored for “simple acts of
everyday life”
 Similar to Demeter & Dionysus
Numina
 Lares (Lar)
 Spirit of an ancestor
 Penate(s)
 Gods of the hearth
 Guardians of the storehouse
Numina
 “family” gods (not
universal/public)
 Never worshipped in temples
 Only in the home
 Offering @ each meal shared
Numina
 Terminus
 Guardian of Boundaries
 Significant in an empire that
stretches across a continent!
Saturn
 Originally one of the Numina
 Protector of the Sowers and the
Seed
 Ops (wife)
 Harvest Helper
Saturn
 Later…
 Roman “Cronus”
 Ops “became” Rhea
 Saturnalia
 Winter festival
 No war, equality, giving of gifts
Janus
 ALSO originally one of the Numina
 “the god of good beginnings” that are
“sure to result in good endings”
 Chief temple – Rome (ran E – W)
 “Two faced” god (young – old)
 Doors of the temple “closed only
when Rome was at peace”
 3 times in 700 years (!!)