The mythology and religion of the Romans were greatly influenced by the neighboring peoples - the Etruscans and Greeks. But at the same time, the legends and myths of ancient Rome have their own identity.
The birth of Roman mythology
It is difficult to determine the date of the emergence of the religion of ancient Rome. It is known that at the end of II - beginning of I millennium BC. e. there was a migration of Italics (the so-called peoples who inhabited the Apennine Peninsula before the formation of the Roman state on it), who for several centuries settled in Italy and then assimilated with the Romans. They had their own culture and religion.
In 753 BC, according to legend, Rome was founded. From the 8th to the 6th centuries BC e. the tsarist period lasted, when the foundations of the public-state and religious life of the empire were laid. The official pantheon of gods and the myths of ancient Rome developed around this period. Although it should be noted right away that with the conquest of new territories by the Romans, they willingly included foreign gods and heroes in their mythology and religion, so the list of deities and legends was constantly updated.
Distinctive features of the religion of ancient Rome
As in Greece, there was no strict organization of doctrine. The gods and myths of ancient Rome were partially borrowed from neighboring countries. The difference between the Roman religion and the same Greek was significant.
If for the Greeks a deity is, first of all, a personality with its own, quite human, character traits, then the Romans never represented the gods as anthropomorphic creatures. At the very beginning of the formation of their religion, they could not even name their gender. The Greeks represented their pantheon of divine powers as a large family in which scandals and disagreements constantly occur between relatives. For the Greeks, the gods are individuals endowed with supernatural powers and possessing ideal qualities. Therefore, a halo of myths was created around them.
The attitude of the Romans towards the deities was different. The world in their view was inhabited by entities hostile or favorable to the world of people. They are everywhere and constantly accompany a person. The myths of ancient Rome say that before growing up, a young man or girl was under the auspices of a large number of divine beings. It was the god of the cradle, the first steps, hope, sanity and others. As they grew older, some deities left the person, while others, on the contrary, took him under their care - these are the six gods of marriage, good luck and he alth, we alth. The dying man was accompanied on his last journey by as many higher beings as at birth: depriving of light, taking away the soul, bringing death.
Another distinguishing feature of the Roman religion is its close connection with the state. Initially, all religious rites associated with the life of the family were performed by its head - the father. Latermany family and tribal festivities have acquired state significance and turned into official events.
The position of the priests was also different. If in ancient Greece they stood out as a separate group of the population, then among the Romans they were civil servants. There were several priestly colleges: vestals, pontiffs and augurs.
Religion and ancient myths of Rome were mixed. The basis is the original Roman deities. The pantheon of gods included borrowed characters from the Greek and Etruscan religions and personified concepts that appeared much later. These include, for example, Fortuna - happiness.
Pantheon of the Roman gods
The Romans originally had a special relationship with the gods. They were not connected by family relations, like the Greek deities, they were not myths. The inhabitants of Rome for a long time refused to give their gods character traits and appearance. Some of the stories about them were eventually borrowed from the Greeks.
The ancient myths of Rome say that the list of Roman gods was very extensive. This included Chaos, Tempus, Cupid, Saturn, Uranus, Oceanus and other deities, as well as their children, the titans.
The third and fourth generations became the main ones in the pantheon and were represented by 12 gods. They are brought into line with the Olympians by the Greeks. Jupiter (Zeus) is the personification of thunder and lightning, Juno (Hera) is his wife and patroness of family and marriage, Ceres (Demeter) is the goddess of fertility. Minerva and Juno were borrowed from the Etruscan religion.
The Roman pantheon also included personalizedbeings who became gods:
Victoria - Victory;
Fatum - Fate;
Libertas - Freedom;
Psyche - Soul;
Mania – Madness;
Fortune - Luck;
Juventa - Youth.
The most important for the Romans were agricultural and tribal deities.
Influence of Greek mythology
The myths of ancient Greece and Rome are very similar, because the Romans learned a lot about the gods from their close neighbor. The process of borrowing Greek mythology begins at the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th centuries. The opinion that the 12 main deities of Olympus were taken by Rome and received new names is completely erroneous. Jupiter, Vulcan, Vesta, Mars, Saturn are primordially Roman deities, later correlated with Greek ones. The first gods borrowed from the Greeks were Apollo and Dionysus. In addition, the Romans included Hercules and Hermes in their pantheon, as well as the Greek gods and titans of the first and second generations.
The Romans had many deities, which they themselves divided into old and new. Later, they created their own pantheon of the main gods, taking as a basis a host of Greek higher powers.
Myths of ancient Rome: summary. Gods and Heroes
Since the mythological fantasy of the Romans was poor, they adopted many legends from the Greeks. But there were also primordially Roman myths, later superseded by Greek ones. These include the story of the creation of the world by the god Janus.
He was an ancient Latin deity, the gatekeeper of Heaven,the personification of the sun and the beginning. He was considered the god of gates and doors and was depicted as two-faced, since it was believed that one face of Janus turned to the future, and the other to the past.
Another ancient Roman myth tells about the origin of people from oak. Like the Greeks, the Romans revered the forest and trees, and created groves dedicated to the gods in which religious ceremonies were held. Sacred trees were the fig tree (according to legend, under it the she-wolf fed Romulus and Remus) and the oak of the Capitol, to which Romulus brought the first spoils of war.
The ancient myths of Rome were also devoted to animals and birds: the eagle, the woodpecker and the wolf. The latter was especially revered and the ritual of lupercalia was dedicated to him at the festival of fertility and purification. The Romans attributed mystical powers to wolves and believed that a person could turn into this animal.
With the development of the Roman state, new gods and new legends about them appear in religion, taken from the Greeks, which the Romans processed for themselves. The ancient myths of Rome supplanted the earlier primitive stories about the creation of the world and people. The idea was formed that the gods destined the state to rule over the whole world. This led to the emergence of the cult of Rome itself. Therefore, the mythology of this ancient country is divided into three groups: myths about the gods and their deeds, legends about heroes, and legends about the emergence and development of Rome.
The myth of the founding of the city of Rome
This is one of the most famous legends in the world. Like the great Hercules, the myth of the founding brothers of Rome is known in many countries. He talks about how illegally seized powerAmulius was worried that in the future the son of Numitor would decide to challenge the rights to the throne, and killed his nephew on a hunt. The daughter of Numitor, Rhea, he ordered the priests to declare the chosen one of Vesta, since the vestals had to remain unmarried. So he wanted to protect himself from the descendants of Numitor, who could join him in the struggle for the throne.
But the gods have prepared a different fate for Rhea. She became the wife of the god Mars. A year later, she gave birth to twin boys. And although the unfortunate woman claimed that their father was a deity, they treated her like a Vestal Virgin who had violated the prohibitions. Numitor's daughter was immured in a dungeon, and Amulius ordered the children to be thrown into the Tiber River.
The servants took pity on the kids and put them in a trough, which they let float on the river. The water that stood high in it sank and the trough landed on the shore under the fig tree. The cries of the children were heard by a she-wolf who lived nearby with her brood and began to feed the babies. The shepherd Faustul once saw this sight and took the children to his home.
When they grew up, the foster parents told the brothers about their origins. Romulus and Remus went to Numitor, who immediately recognized them. Having gathered a small detachment with his help, the brothers killed Amulius and declared their grandfather king. As a reward, they asked for land along the banks of the Tiber, where they found their salvation. There it was decided to lay the capital of the future kingdom. During a dispute over whose name she would bear, Remus was killed by Romulus.
Heroes of Roman myths
Most legends, except for those borrowed from the Greeks, tell of characters whoperformed feats or sacrificed themselves in the name of the prosperity of Rome. These are Romulus and Remus, the Horace brothers, Lucius Junius, Mucius Scaevola and many others. The Roman religion was subordinated to the state and civic duty. Many myths were epic and glorified heroes-emperors.
Aeneas
Aeneas - the founder of the Roman state. The son of the goddess Aphrodite, friend of Hector, hero of the Trojan War - the young prince fled with his little son and father after the fall of Troy and ended up in an unknown country where the Latins lived. He married Lavinia, the daughter of the local king Latinus, and together with him began to rule the Italian lands. The descendants of Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, became the founders of Rome.
Myths of ancient Rome for children - the best books for little readers
Despite the abundance of books, it is difficult to find decent literature on the study of the myths of ancient peoples. Standing apart here is a work that was created exactly 100 years ago and is still a standard. N. A. Kun "Myths of Ancient Rome and Greece" - this book is known to a huge number of readers. It was written in 1914 specifically for schoolchildren and all connoisseurs of the mythology of ancient peoples. The collection of myths is written in a very simple and at the same time lively language, and is perfect for a children's audience.
A. A. Neihardt compiled an interesting collection of "Legends and Tales of Ancient Rome", which gives concise information on the Roman gods and heroes.
Conclusion
Because the Romans borrowedGreek gods and myths, these legends have survived to this day. Creating works of art on their basis, ancient Roman authors preserved for posterity all the beauty and epicness of Greek and Roman mythology. Virgil created the epic "Aeneid", Ovid wrote "Metamorphoses" and "Fast". Thanks to their work, modern man now has the opportunity to learn about the religious ideas and gods of the two great ancient states - Greece and Rome.
