THE ROMAN DIVINITIES
=53. Gods Common to Greece and Italy.= Of the deities already
mentioned, the following, although they were later identified with
certain Greek gods and goddesses[62] whose characteristics and
adventures they assumed, had developed an independent worship in Italy:
Jupiter (Zeus); Juno (Hera); Minerva (Athene); Diana (Artemis); Mars
(Ares); Venus (Aphrodite); Vulcanus, or Mulciber (Hephæstus); Vesta
(Hestia); Mercurius (Hermes); Neptunus (Poseidon); Ceres (Demeter);
Liber (Bacchus); Libera (Persephone); Magna Mater, the great mother of
the gods (Rhea, Cybele); Orcus (Pluto, Hades); Tellus, the Earth (Gæa).
=54. Italian Gods.= There were also divinities always peculiar to Roman
mythology.[63] Of these the more important are:
1. _Saturn_, an ancient Italian deity (as his name indicates) of seeds
and sowing, the introducer of agriculture. Fanciful attempts were
made to identify him with the Grecian god Cronus; and it was fabled
that after his dethronement by Jupiter he fled to Italy, where he
reigned during the Golden Age. In memory of his dominion, the feast of
Saturnalia was held every year in the winter season. Then all public
business was suspended; declarations of war and criminal executions
were postponed; friends made presents to one another; and even slaves
were indulged with great liberties. A feast was given them at which
they sat at table while their masters served, to show the natural
equality of men, and that all things belonged equally to all in the
reign of Saturn. The wife of Saturn was _Ops_, goddess of sowing and
harvest (later confounded with Rhea). Another Roman deity of earth was
_Consus_, whose name means "the keeper of the stores." He is the god
of the stored-up harvest; and his altar is said to have been discovered
underground by Romulus. It was in the Circus Maximus and was uncovered
only on the days of his festivals, the harvest home of August and the
granary feast of December. The underground altar is a reminiscence
of the ancient custom of storing corn underground or at any rate of
burying the sacrifices offered to deities of the earth. The harvest
festival was celebrated with horse races, which, originating in a very
simple way with the primitive farmers, became in time the distinctive
feature of the Circus Maximus.
[Illustration: FIG. 43. BEARDED JANUS]
2. _Janus_, whose name is derived from the Latin root which means
"going" and is connected with _janua_, a passage or door, is the most
distinctive and most important of the native Italic deities. He is
not only the god of doors, or material openings, but more truly of
beginnings,--especially of good beginnings which insure good endings.
Hence undoubtedly he is represented as facing both ways; for the Romans
very properly believed that beginning and ending were of the same
piece, and that an undertaking ill begun could not achieve success.
His temple, or covered passage, in the Forum had doors facing east and
west for the beginning and ending of the day; and between stood his
two-faced statue. In every home the morning prayer was addressed to
him; in every domestic enterprise his assistance was implored. He was
the god, also, of the opening year; hence his month, January, on the
first day of which words only of good omen were uttered, and gifts were
given (_strenae_, a name still preserved in the French word for New
Year's presents, _étrennes_), and, for good luck, some stroke of work
was bestowed on every undertaking planned for the year. He was publicly
invoked not only on New Year's day, but on the first day of each
month, by priests and people alike; and in these prayers his name was
mentioned even before that of Jupiter. He is the god of civilization,
and is sometimes called Consivius, or the Sower.[64] Of course he was
invoked when wars were commenced. And during their progress the doors
of his temple stood always open. In peace they were closed; but they
were shut only once between the reign of Numa and that of Augustus.
It was natural that his worship should gradually absorb that of Sol,
the Sun, who opens the day and completes the year and blesses with his
rays the seeds that are sown; and such was the case. But Janus and his
wife Jana were not originally connected even in name with Dianus (Sol,
Apollo) and Diana (the moon).
3. _Quirinus_, a war-god, said to be no other than Romulus, the founder
of Rome, exalted after his death to a place among the immortals.
4. _Bellona_, a war-goddess.
5. _Lucina_, the goddess who brings to light, hence the goddess of
childbirth: a title bestowed upon both Juno and Diana.
6. _Terminus_, the god of landmarks. His statue was a rude stone or
post, set in the ground to mark the boundaries of fields.
7. _Faunus_, the grandson of Saturn. He was worshiped as a god of
fields and shepherds and also of prophecy. His name in the plural,
Fauni, expressed a class of gamesome deities, like the Satyrs of the
Greeks. There was also a goddess called _Fauna_, or _Bona Dea_ (good
goddess). To Maia, wife of Vulcan, this designation, _Bona Dea_, was
sometimes applied.
8. _Sylvanus_, presiding over forest-glades and plowed fields.
9. _Pales_, the goddess presiding over cattle and pastures. _Flora_,
the goddess of flowers. _Pomona_, presiding over fruit trees.
_Vertumnus_, the husband of Pomona, was guardian of fruit trees,
gardens, and vegetables.
Pomona loves the orchard,
And Liber loves the vine,
And Pales loves the straw-built shed
Warm with the breath of kine;
And Venus loves the whisper
Of plighted youth and maid
In April's ivory moonlight,
Beneath the chestnut shade.[65]
10. _The Penates_, gods who were supposed to attend to the welfare
and prosperity of the family. Their name is derived from Penus, the
storehouse or inner chamber, which was sacred to them. Every master of
a family was the priest to the Penates of his own house.
The _Lares_, or _Lars_, were also tutelary deities, but they differed
from the Penates since they were regarded as the deified spirits of
ancestors, who watched over and protected their descendants. The
Lares were more particularly divinities presiding over the household
or family; but there were also public Lares, or guardian spirits of
the city, Lares of the precincts, Lares of the fields, Lares of the
highways, and Lares of the sea. To the Penates, to the domestic Lares
(whose images were preserved in a private shrine), and to the _Manes_
(shades that hovered over the place of burial), the family prayers of
the Romans were addressed. Other spirits, the _Lemures_ and _Larvæ_,
more nearly correspond to our ghosts.
[Illustration: FIG. 44. GENIUS LOCI]
The Romans believed that every man had his _Genius_ and every woman her
_Juno_; that is, a spirit who had given them being and was regarded
as a protector through life. On birthdays men made offerings to their
Genius, women to their Juno.
11. Other Italian deities were the gods of the rivers, such as _Father
Tiber_, and the goddesses of the springs and brooks, such as _Juturna_,
whose pool in the Forum was sacred. This nymph was also a goddess of
healing and, according to later tradition, was beloved by Jupiter.
Earlier stories, however, make her the wife of Janus and the mother of
_Fontus_, the god of flowing waters, who had an altar on the Janiculan
hill and was worshiped at an annual festival called the Fontinalia,
when the wells were wreathed with garlands. Held in especial honor were
the _Camenæ_, fountain-nymphs, goddesses of prophecy and healing (later
identified with the Muses). The leader of them was _Carmenta_, who sang
both the future and the past. With her is sometimes associated the
nymph _Egeria_, from whom the Roman king Numa is said to have received
instruction concerning the forms of worship which he introduced.
12. The Romans worshiped, also, _Sol_, the Sun; _Luna_, the Moon;
_Mater Matuta_, the Dawn; _Juventus_, Youth; _Fides_, Honesty;
_Feronia_, goddess of groves and freedmen; and a great number of
personified abstractions of conduct and experience, such as Fortune and
Health.
Many of these Latin divinities were derived from the earlier cult and
ritual of the Etruscan inhabitants of Italy.
FOOTNOTES:
[62] Names of the corresponding Greek divinities are in parentheses.
[63] For illustrative material, see Commentary.
[64] Gellius, 5, 12. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 179. Macrobius, Sat. 1, 9-15.
[65] From Macaulay's Prophecy of Capys.