Roman Mythology

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Roman Mythology A Presentation by James Martin
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OVtline of Presentation

• Section A. Fundamentals
• I Introduction
• II Di Indigentes
• III The Greek Influences
• Section B. Further Detail
• IV Daily life And Religion
• V Art and Architecture
• VI Discussion of texts
• VII Conclusion
• Online Component Only

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Part I. IntrodVction

• What is Mythology?
• Roman vs. Greek? What has been lost? Why?
• Fundamental Concepts
• Native Gods vs. Adopted Gods
• What is important to the Romans?
• What is the influence on the daily life of an
  average Roman?

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What is Mythology?

• The study, analysis, and interpretation of the
  collected myths of a society and how they relate
  back to the core values of the culture.

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What are Myths?

• Tells a traditional story
• involving supernatural beings or forces
  (not always)
• embodies and provides an explanation for
  something such as
• the early history of a society
• a religious belief or ritual
• a natural phenomenon
• (a cultural\moral allegory)

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Why StVdy Myths?

• Provide a new perspective on the culture
• Highlights the values and demands of a society
• Allows us to more accurately compare and contrast
  different civilizations and their belief systems

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What are oVr SoVrces?

• Poetry and Epic Poetry
• Art Pottery\Frescos\Sculpture, etc.
• Plays
• Legal Documents
• Historical Accounts from Roman Historians
• Letters, Personal Documents

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Basic Time Table

• Four Significant Dates\Periods
• 8th Century BCE - Estruscan and Di Indigentes
• 1st Century BCE Domination of Greek thought
• 325 CE Constantine and the Council of Nicea
• 391 CE - Theodosius I declares Christianity as
  the only acceptable religion.

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Part II. di indigetes
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di indigetes

• Translates from Latin to speaker within
• Complex group of gods, goddesses, and spirits
• Opposes the di novensides the newcomer gods
• Primarily female very few male indigenous gods
• Indigenous male gods had positions of power
• Abstractions of a particular quality or natural
  form
• Georg Wissowa's terminology.

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Who did they Serve?

• Early Romans Agrarian Society
• Also Bellicose fond of fighting and war
• Gods fit the daily needs of everyday life
• Jupiter, ruler of the other deities and spirits,
  was responsible for the rain
• Early Roman cult was not so much polytheistic as
  polyspiritualistic

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What were the Roman gods like?

• little individuality
• personal histories lacked marriages and
  genealogies
• Unlike the gods of the Greeks, they were not
  considered to function in the manner of mortals.

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Who were the most important Roman gods?

• At the head of the earliest pantheon in Rome
  was
• Jupiter Chief god, god of rain, lightning and
  ruled over laws and social order
• Mars god of vegetation and war
• What does this tell us about early Roman society?

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What happened to the early roman gods?

• Many survived!
• Assimilated into developing Roman Mythos
• Adopted various personalities
• Connections made (where appropriate) to
  comparable Greek gods

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Imperial Roman Coins

• Honored the past might of Rome and her religion
• Connected the current administration with the
  past emphasized its power

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VirtVs

• helmeted
• right breast exposed
• standing left
• Victory symbol in right hand
• left hand resting on shield
• spear against left arm
• Represents
• Courage, Virtue

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HONOS

• Holding Cornacopia and olive branch
• Represents
• chivalry, honor, military justice

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PVdicitia

• Veiled
• Right hand on breast
• Scepter in left hand
• Represents
• Virtue, Chastity

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JanVs

• Double head
• Could see past and future
• Doorways and gateways
• Reversed Spear in one hand
• Thunderbolt in other
• Janitor
• Represents
• Time/Ages

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Part Iv. The Greek INflVence
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Why did it happen?

• More established and richer legacy of stories of
  the gods
• More advanced architectural treatment of temples
  and shrines
• More emphasis on the human form and anatomy on
  their sculptures

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What changed the most?

• The gods were personified and organized into a
  geneology
• Temples and shrines, like the pantheon were now
  more architecturally complex
• The power of religion shifted away from the
  individual family and into the priest (flamen)

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Part IV. Daily Life and Religion
Primary Concerns Pontifex Maximus Pax
Deorum Daily Examples The Cults The Business
World Vestal Virgins The Lararium at home
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Pontifex MaxiMVs

• The high priest of the Ancient Roman College of
  Pontiffs (bridgebuilders).
• The pontifex maximus, the Vestal Virgins, the Rex
  Sacrorum, and the flamines.
• Augustus and later emperors became the religious
  leaders

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Pax Deorvm
The Temple of Hercules Victor, in the Forum
Boarium.
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The Cvlts

• Mystery cults offered their adherents a very
  specific vision of the nature of the world
• organization of cults was highly specific.
• The Cult of the Emperor
• The Cult of Isis
• The Cult of Christianity

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Divine Bvsiness

• immediately interrupted or postponed
• priest or a magistrate that he had seen a flash
  of lighting or some other form of divine
  disapproval

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Sacerdos VEstalis

• virgin holy female priests of Vesta, the goddess
  of the hearth.
• The objects of the Virgins were essentially the
  hearth fire and pure water drawn into a clay
  vase.
• Chosen between 6 and 10 years of age.

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The Lararivm

• sacred place of the home where offerings and
  prayers are made to the Gods.
• A private station to pray to the Lar
• Lar is Roman household deity who protected the
  land that the family lived upon

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The Lararivm
"Salve lar familiaris (adoratio). Salvete Di
Penates (adoratio). Salve Gen Patris Familias.
Salve Vesta Mater. It is so!
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Part V. Art, ArchitectVre and Religion
Online Component Check the Wiki page for some
examples of religion in art and architecture
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Part VI. DiscVssion
Livy The Rape of Lucretia
Sextus Tarquinius returned to the house of
Conlatinus, with one of his companions. He was
well received and given the hospitality of the
house, and maddened with love, he waited until he
was sure everyone else was asleep. "When I have
killed you, I will put next to you the body of a
nude servant, and everyone will say that you were
killed during a dishonorable act of adultery.
"how can anothing go well for a woman who has
lost her honor? There are the marks of another
man in your bed, Conlatinus. My body is greatly
soiled, though my heart is still pure, as my
death will prove. "By this blood, which was so
pure before the crime of the prince, I swear
before you, O gods, to chase the King Lucius
Tarquinius Superbus, with his criminal wife and
all their offspring, by fire, iron, and all the
methods I have at my disposal, and never to
tolerate Kings in Rome evermore, whether of that
family of any other."
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Part VI. DiscVssion
Livy The Rape of Lucretia, Page Two
"how can anything go well for a woman who has
lost her honor? There are the marks of another
man in your bed, Conlatinus. My body is greatly
soiled, though my heart is still pure, as my
death will prove. "By this blood, which was so
pure before the crime of the prince, I swear
before you, O gods, to chase the King Lucius
Tarquinius Superbus, with his criminal wife and
all their offspring, by fire, iron, and all the
methods I have at my disposal, and never to
tolerate Kings in Rome evermore, whether of that
family of any other."
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Part VI. DiscVssion
Ovid The Creation Myth
There was opposition in all things hot
conflicted with cold, wet with dry, heavy with
light, and hard with soft. The earth he
organized into five zones, the same number that
exist in heaven, which is divided into two
regions on the right, two on the left, and one in
the center. On earth the middle zone is too hot
for habitation and the two outer zones are too
cold, but between these extremes the god created
two temperate zones where heat and cold are
balanced.
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Part VI. DiscVssion
Ovid The Creation Myth
Jove was about to strike the earth with a barrage
of thunderbolts when he realized that the
conflagration caused by such an attack might
threaten heaven itself, so he resolved to destroy
the earth's inhabitants by water instead of by
fiery lightning. To this end he fettered the
North Wind, then charged the South Wind to bring
forth endless rains. Jove's brother Neptune, god
of the seas, caused the tides and the waves to
rise upon the land and the rivers to overflow
their banks. Creation comes about through the
resolution of opposing forces.
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Part VII. ConclVsion
Native Gods vs. Adopted Gods What is important
to the Romans? What is the influence on the
daily life of an average Roman?