50
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When and how did the Greek mythos transfer to the Romans?
Common Ancestry
Both the Ancient Greeks and Romans were descended from Proto-Indo-Europeans. While the two groups had diverged, they continued to share remnants of a common language and other ...
- 7,646
26
votes
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Where did the Roman gods live?
The Romans also thought them to live on Mount Olympos. For instance, Lucius Annaeus Seneca writes in his play Hercules Furens that, appealing to Jupiter for mercy, Amphitryon prayed:
[205] O magne ...
- 7,646
21
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What differences were there in Greek soldiers worship of Ares and Roman soldiers worship of Mars?
They couldn't be much more different, really.
Ares was part of a dichotomy of war gods, comprised of himself and Athena. While Athena represented wisdom, strategy and generalship in war, Ares ...
- 9,108
19
votes
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Were Romulus and Remus real people?
Depends on what you mean, but probably not.
Most scholars would not consider them to be real. Their tale is too far-fetched to be literally true, and in this sense they weren't real. On the other ...
- 7,646
18
votes
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Why was Europe named after Europa?
As with other Greco-Roman myths, the connection is often through children, descendants or other family members. While Europa herself does not seem to have made it to the continental mainland, her ...
- 9,364
17
votes
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Who translated the Iliad or the Odyssey to Latin first?
I have asked this question on the English Wikipedia Reference Desk a few months ago. This answer contains a copy of the answers volunteered there.
Livius Andronicus (c. 284 – c. 204 BC) was possibly ...
17
votes
Hephaestus and Medusa had a son named Cacus. How was Hephaestus shielded from being turned to stone?
I don't really consider that a particularly good source. Virgil says that Cacus was Half Human, in the Aeneid, Book VIII:
There was a cave here, receding to vast depths,
untouched by the sun’s rays, ...
- 4,409
16
votes
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What is this myth: elderly couple unwittingly feed gods, changed into tree
This is the myth of Baucis and Philemon.
Here is the Wikipedia page: Baucis and Philemon, and here is one website with the full text (I think): Tales Beyond Belief: Baucis and Philemon.
By the way, ...
- 1,674
16
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Odin's Counterpart
The key point here is Roman Syncretism. The romans believed the world was full of different gods, and they didn't presume to know about all of them, or to know everything about the ones they already ...
- 9,108
15
votes
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Was there a cult of Hercules in Germania?
He Meant Thor
The report by Tacitus was indeed a case of interpretatio graeca at work. As the Austrian historian Herwig Wolfram writes:
Thor must have been swinging his hammer as the god Donar ("...
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15
votes
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Greek/Latin mythology with two brothers who die as reward for hard labor
That story appears in one of the most beautifully written stories that can exist. In Herodotus Histories, chapter 1.
The Athenian lawgiver Solon is visiting the richest man in the world
the Lydian ...
- 3,471
12
votes
Is there a Western (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Norse) god of the cosmos?
For Egyptian, you'd have several choices. Going from the largest (at least in the Heliopolitian cosmology):
Nuun (Nun) is the cosmic ocean that our universe is a bubble in:
https://henadology....
11
votes
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Importance of Dionysos/Bacchus in Orphism
Dionysus was a mortal that was raised to divinity. While he is most well known for wine and revelry, his portfolio also grew to include:
festivals
fertility
the wilds
crops
sanity
These are ...
- 497
11
votes
Greek/Roman Mermaids
Nereus was a fish-tailed deity.
Anything needed to be said about Nereus is nicely expressed in this link, but I'll sum up some things.
That Nereus is a sea-god of some antiquity is noted by the ...
- 6,594
11
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Greek/Roman Mermaids
I believe it may be the Tritons, but there are probably other part-fish, part-humans. Plus, there was a fish-headed god in antiquity (not greco-roman).
A side note is that there were some ...
11
votes
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How did the seasons change, according to the Romans?
The Romans believed the same thing, actually.
In the Roman version, Ceres is the goddess of agriculture and mother to Proserpina, an obvious copy of the Greek Persephone. Like her Greek version, ...
- 7,646
11
votes
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Is it Lucifer or Venus?
The name of the deity represented by the planet in question, strictly speaking, is Lucifer, or Luciferus, that is, as far as Roman mythology is concerned. His Greek equivalent has a few different ...
- 9,364
11
votes
Which Greek or Roman deities have dominion over Time?
A pretty thorough list can be found here (relevant sections in the following list are mostly copied from the linked articles):
Greek:
Aion - associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the ...
- 589
11
votes
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What is the symbolism behind Psyche's tasks?
The beautiful mind (soul) only finds pleasure (happiness) in unconditional love (heart).
The heart (unconditional love) likewise only finds happiness (pleasure) in the soul (beautiful mind).
...
- 426
10
votes
Where did the Roman gods live?
There is probably something also to be said about the Lares and the Penates.
The Lares, as guardian deities (of Etruscan origin), were protecting homes, fields, cities, crossroads, etc. (One Lar ...
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10
votes
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Was Horatius Cocles a footman or mounted?
Livy, Plutarch, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Polybius seem to agree that Horatius Cocles was on foot, when he defended the bridge.
Livy
He therefore warned and commanded them to break down the ...
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10
votes
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What happened to the flamines minores?
In Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach, Michael Lipka offers the following explanation:
Under the Empire, the focal force of the traditional foci of the traditional Republican cults disappeared. One ...
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10
votes
Were Romulus and Remus real people?
To complete @Semaphore answer, historian Angelo Brelich in his 1960 article "Quirinus: una divinita romana alla luce della comparazione storica" and later in 2001, Rebecca Allen in her article '...
- 3,529
10
votes
Differences in the Greek and Roman portrayals of Cronos/Saturn
This is a more fascinating question than many might think at first glance.
Kronos is the Greek god and probably comes from Proto-Indo-European * gern- which meant germ or seed and yields the modern ...
10
votes
Is there a Western (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Norse) god of the cosmos?
Ouranos (Roman Uranus) is the Greek (night) sky god. You will find him at the beginning of Hesiod's Theogony. Wikipedia has an extensive list of sky gods, among whom you will find the Egyptian goddess ...
- 1,594
10
votes
Is there a Western (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, or Norse) god of the cosmos?
This depends entirely on your stance of if you're asking for a sky god or if you'd prefer only "outer space", so to speak. Given that these are ancient cultures / mythologies we're discussing, it ...
- 101
10
votes
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Is the Cumaean Sybil known by any other name?
There have actually been many names from almost as many sources. In the Aeneid, Virgil described the priestess as "Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus":
ni iam praemissus Achtes
Adforet, atque una ...
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10
votes
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What is the relationship between Thor and storms?
The 11th century Christian missionary Adam of Bremen wrote,
"Thor, they say, presides over the air, he governs the thunder and lightning. the winds and rains."
The Norse believed that ...
- 4,001
9
votes
When and how did the Greek mythos transfer to the Romans?
Romans had little mythology of their own before meeting with other civilizations. One of the many aspects they were lacking, cultural wise, that they borrowed from Greece (and other civilizations). ...
- 1,627
9
votes
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Is there a connection between Acca Larentia and the wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus?
According with Michael Grant & John Hazel (1):
[Acca Larentia] Wife of Faustulus, the shepherd who found the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus and brought them up. Since the babies had been ...
- 623
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