Chapter 3 Roman gods Roman gods as well

Chapter 3 Roman gods

Roman gods ● as well as the Olympian gods, the Romans worshipped many other gods ● some of these gods had originally been worshipped by other communities ● the Romans often worshipped these gods in their own way ● some of the Romans’ gods were unique to the Romans

Romans and the Olympians ● Olympians were originally Greek gods but the Romans also had their own beliefs about them ● the Romans believed that Jupiter had a special interest in protecting Rome ○ there was an important temple to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on the Capitoline hill ○ the Romans prayed to Jupiter before a battle ○ celebrations for major military successes ended with a sacrifice to Jupiter on the Capitoline hill ● Venus and Mars were also particularly important to the Romans because they believed their ancestors were descended from these gods

Household gods: Vesta, Lares and Penates ● Vesta was one of the most Olympian gods for the Romans ○ she was goddess of the hearth ○ Romans made daily offerings to Vesta in their own homes ● the Lares were the spirits of a Roman family’s ancestors ○ the Lares were worshipped by Roman families at a special household shrine ● the Penates were Roman household gods who also protected the family and the wealth and prosperity of the household ● the Romans believed that the hero Aeneas had brought Vesta’s fire and his own Penates with him from Troy ○ the Vestal Virgins looked after this fire and these Penates in the Temple to Vesta

Janus ● Janus was the god of beginnings, endings, doorways and transitions; the month ‘January’ is named after him ● Janus had two faces because he looked to the future and the past at the same time ● there was a temple to Janus in the centre of Rome ○ when Rome was at war the doors to this temple stood open; they were closed when Rome was at peace ● the Romans offered prayers to Janus each morning when they walked out of the door

Personified deities ● the Romans also worshipped divine beings who personified ideas, feelings or natural features in the world around them ● they worshipped gods such as Pax (Peace), Spex (Hope), Fortuna (Chance) and Tiber, the god of the river which runs through Rome ● these deities help to show us what the Romans valued and believed to be important

Men become gods: Quirinus and Julius Caesar ● Romulus died in mysterious circumstances; after his death he was worshipped as the god Quirinus ● Julius Caesar was a powerful Roman leader in the 1 st century BC; after he was killed his supporters saw a comet in the sky ○ some Romans believed that this comet showed that Caesar was now a god

Romans and the gods from other communities ● when the Romans conquered other lands, they tried to Romanise the local people by combining the local beliefs and traditions with their own ● there is an example of this in Roman Bath: the Romans combined the local goddess Sulis with their own goddess Minerva and built a temple to Sulis Minerva there