Transformation of the Roman Gods across the Classical Era

There are many similarities between Roman and Greek gods and deities. Romans viewed themselves as highly religious, and they believed much of their success to be because of their piety (pietas) and commitment to worship. For all Greek gods, there is a Roman counterpart, and while they have the same responsibilities and powers, there are also many differences between them.

A key difference between Greek and Roman gods is their physical appearances. Roman gods had limited emphasis on their physical characteristics in descriptions of them, if there was any physical depiction at all. Instead, their physical appearance was represented in the imaginations of the Roman public. However, the Greeks had detailed descriptions of their gods, which would emphasise both their beauty and faults. Another key transformation across Classical gods was nomenclature. The similarity of Roman gods to those of the Greeks is particularly noteworthy and is demonstrative of the respect that the Romans had for Greek culture. The Romans also had a custom, known as interpretatio Romana, which was where they would replace the names of a foreign deity (such as a Greek one) with Roman names that were somewhat comparable.

Greek gods had human traits and were assigned gender, and names were based on these and human personality traits such as Honour, Hatred and Love. However, Roman gods were named after objects, and the gendered behaviour that is shown in Roman poetry had been brought over from the Greeks, again displaying the respect that the Romans had for Greek culture. Examples of gendered behaviours of Roman gods in Roman poetry include the seduction of Vulcan by Venus in Book 8 of the Aeneid to get him to make armour for Aeneas. Greek gods predated the Romans, so when naming Roman gods, the Romans would take the name of a Greek deity and allocate it an object that fit its description. For example, the Greek god Zeus was named Jupiter by the Romans, and the Roman deity Venus was known as Aphrodite in Greek mythology. One God whose name remained the same was Apollo, or Phoebus, who was known by both names by both the Romans and Greeks and was the God of Healing and Medicine.

~Tara