Ceres
She is the god of food plants and motherly love. Particularly growing of cereals. Pronunciated as Keres. She was daughter of Saturn and Ops, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina from Jupiter and sister of Juno, Vesta, Pluto and Neptune.
According to the mythology, she wanted Jupiter to place Sicily in heavens, as a result there was a constellation named after the triangular shape and old name of Sicily, it was named Triangulum. Her cult was overlaid by that of Demeter, who was worshipped in Greece and Sicily. According to the tradition, her cult was introduced into Rome in 496 BC to check famine.
She had twelve minor god
Vervactor : Who turned fallow land.
Obarator: He plowed surface.
Occator : The harrower
Sarritor : He removed weeds.
Subruncinator : Who thinned out.
Messor : The harvester
Conuector : Who carted
Conditor : He stored
And
Promitor : He Distributed
And her Greek equivalent is Demeter. Ceres made up a trinity with Liber and Libera, who were two other agricultural gods.
Bellona
Bellona is said to be the one of those gods whose presence was ominous. In short she was called numinous gods of Roman. She is also supposed to accompany Romans with them in wards and battles.
Her name is derived from the Latin word for “war” or “bellum”. Earlier she was called Duellona which was more ancient word for “war”.
Since she is said to accompany Romans in war, she was said to be either sister, wife or daughter of Mars. She had a great importance politically. Whenever there was war strategy to be discussed they were done in Temple of Bellonae or Temple of Bellona. In Greek mythology she has been identified as Enyo. Bellona is also identified with Mars’s female cult partner Nerio.If we look at Greek mythology about Enyo, then we come to know that she was child of Zeus and Hera. Enyo had a child with Ares (Mars), Enyalius, who was also god of war, but a minor.
If you pay attention to her picture, you might notice she has worn an armour.
Bacchus
Romans knew him as Bacchus but he was better known as Dionysus in Greek mythology. He was god of wine, vegetation and fruitless. Majorly known as god of wine and ecstasy. His worship was introduced into Greece from Asia Minor, and he became one of the most important of the Greek gods, but his cult remained associated with that of many Asian deities.
He was son of Zeus and Semele; he was brought up by Maenads, or Bacchantes. Another myth about him is that he is son of Zeus and Persephone. Interesting fact about his birth is that when Semele was pregnant, Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, discovered the affair and befriended her, appearing as old crone. Semele not knowing that she was Hera, confided in her that the child was of Zeus. Now since Hera’s work of planting doubt in her mind was successful, Semele went to Zeus and asked him to prove himself to be her lover, which was almost like a scandal. Zeus didn’t wanted to, but did finally, but there’s a twist, mortals couldn’t see Zeus without dying, so Semele has to die. And she that with flare, eating up the lightning ignited flame.
But Zeus rescued the child, Dionysus and sewed him into his thigh. And so Dionysus was, after a few months later, called “the twice born”.
When he grew up, he rescued his mother from Hades, and then she became goddess on Mount Olympus with a new name Thyone. This was no other than Persephone. It is as well a myth like being the original mother of Bacchus or Dionysus.
Bacchus is also considered as “man-womanish”. Later in Rome there was a secret society called Bacchanalia which was only attended by women, later men were also allowed.
Aurora
Aurora was goddess if dawn. Her Greek counterpart is Eos. Hesiod said she was daughters of Titans, Hyperion and Theia. Since she was goddess of dawn it was said that she renews every morning and announce the arrival of sun, his brother, Helios who was later associated with Apollo. She also had a sister, Luna or the moon.
Aurora had four children’s, the Anemoi or the winds. These Anemoi’s were wind gods and were responsible for change in climate and seasons. They were
Boreas : North wind and commander of cold winter air.
Notus : South wind and late summer and autumn
Zephyrus : West wind and ruler of spring and early summer breezes.
And
Eurus : The east wind and very different from all the above three. He was however only mentioned later by poets in poetry and their stories.
Coming back to Aurora, she appeared in Latin poetry as lover of prince of Troy, Tithonus. The funny thing was that Tithonus was mortal and Aurora a god, so she asked Zeus for his immortality. Zeus granted her wish, but she completely failed to understand her mistake by not asking for eternal youth as well, resulting, Tithonus grew older till eternity till Aurora herself turned him into grasshopper.
Ladies you know!
Apollo
Apollo was the chief god of Romans. He was most important and diverse god. He was recognized as god of light, sun, truth, prophecy, archery, medicine and healing, music, poetry arts and much more, isn’t this more for one god to handle? Anyway, he handled them all. This Apollo has always been symbolized as a clean shaven man, only he was clean shaven in all of Roman gods.
Apollo was son of Zeus and Leto. You know Zeus but there is little interesting fact about Leto. When she was pregnant, jealous Hera, older sister and wife of Zeus, banned her from giving birth on land. Then she, Leto found a piece of land, Delos, which wasn’t attached to ocean floor, so it wasn’t consider land, finally she found one and gave birth to Apollo and Artemis.
Apollo was an oracular god, someone from you get advices about your future, same stuff. Medicine and healing were associated with either him or through his son, but he was called the in-charge. He was seen as the one who could bring ill-health, sickness, plague etc. He was leader of Muses, people who were interested in poetries and songs. He was god of sun and so his sister Artemis was goddess of moon.
His love life was poor. The fleeing Daphne became a laurel tree; the unfaithful Coronis was shot by Artemis, and Cassandra, who rejected him, was doomed to utter true prophecies no one would believe.
He communicated the will of his father Zeus, made humans aware of their guilt and purified them of it, presided over religious and civil law. He was also identified with Helios, the sun god.
Apollo’s son was Asclepius. He was related to healing and medicine as well. Surprisingly his daughter’s names are what we use today as well. Hygieia (health), Iaso(Medicine), Aceso(Healing), Aglaea(Healthy glow) and Panacea(universal remedy). Even the rod of Asclepius remains a symbol of medicine today, the snake entwined staff.
Roman mythology is very interesting, the fact that it was later adopted by Greek mythology and then because of this Greek mythology, roman mythology gained its importance and fame. Much of the Greek mythology was borrowed from Romans. And the rise of Roman Gods should be given to the awesome Greek history. The basic of Roman mythology is based upon twin brothers Romulus and Remus. They were sons of Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars.
Vestal Virgin means virgin holy priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of hearth. And it’s hard to believe that Rhea Silvia is said to be raped by Mars, then she conceived Romulus and Remus.
But before getting to know about roman gods, let’s get to know a little of Rome itself.
Rome was formed literally by decision of birds. One day when they wanted to decide who would rule Rome in future, they both stood on hill, Romulus on one and Remus on another, since birds stared circling at Romulus head, he was declared king, and both named the city, Rome.
Romulus didn’t stop only at naming the city, but made Legions and Senate. Not only that, he even abducted women from neighboring city of Sabine tribes. This led to mixing up of Sabine and Romans into one people.
Romulus further expanded the Roman Empire and was one of the greatest conquerors. After his death he was given a god status and named as Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people. This again brings us to Roman gods.
Let’s meet some of them….
Apollo: God of sunlight, music, poetry, prophecy
Aurora: Goddess of dawn
Bacchus: God of Wine
Bellona: Goddess of war
Ceres: Goddess of agriculture
Cupid: God of love
Diana: Goddess of fertility
Dis or Orcus: God of underworld
Faunus: God of pasture, forest and herds
Flora: Goddess of flower
Janus: God of gates
Juno: Goddess of marriage and women
Jupiter: Supreme god, god of sky and weather
Libitina: Goddess of funeral
Maia: Goddess of growth and spring
Mars: God of war
Mercury: Messenger god and god of commerce
Minerva: Goddess of wisdom, arts and trades
Mithra: God of light
Neptune: God of sea
Ops: Goddess of abundance
Pales: Goddess of flock and shepherds
Pomona: Goddess of fruit trees and fruit
Proserpine: Goddess of underworld
Saturn: God of seed time and harvest
Venus: Goddess of beauty and love
Vertumnus: God of season
Vesta: Goddess of hearth
Vulcan: God of fire
we will meet each of them personally very soon :)
