Roman Gods

 

 

Aequitas: The god of fair dealing.

Africus: The personification of the Southwestern wind.

Aquilo: The personification of the North Wind.

Auster: The personification of the South wind that brought fog and rain or sultry heat.

Bacchus: The Roman god of wine and intoxication. His festival was celebrated on March 16 and 17.

Chnubis: A syncretic god with Greek and Egyptian associations, portrayed as a snake with a lion's head.

Clitunno: A river deity.

Coelus: ("Sky") The god of the heavens. His wife is Terra.

Conditor: The god of harvesting the crops.

Consentes Dii: The twelve major gods of the Roman pantheon, identified by the Romans with the Greek Olympians. There are six male and six female deities. They are Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Vulcan, Vesta, Mercury, and Ceres.

Consus: The god who presides over the storing of grain. His festival was the Consualia, on August 21 and December 15.

Convector: The god of bringing in the crops.

Corus: The god of the North and Northwest winds.

Cupid: The god of love and son of Venus. He is a small, winged boy, blindfolded, carrying bow and arrows.

Dei Lucrii: The gods of profit. In time Mercury superceded them.

Dis Pater: The ruler of the underworld and fortune.

Dius Fidus: The god of oaths.

Domiducus: The god who guides a bride to her new home.

Domitius: The god who kept a woman in the house of her husband.

Endovelicus: A native god of the pre-Roman communities (Iron Age) in Lusitania (southwest of Iberia) later adopted by the Romans themselves. He was concerned with the good health and welfare of the people.

Evander: A minor deity who was believed to have introduced the Greek pantheon, laws, the alphabet, and other arts and skills in Rome.

Eventus Bonus: ("good ending") is the god of success in business, but also ensured a good harvest.

Fabulinus: A minor god of infants. He taught children to utter their first word. He received an offering when the child spoke its first words. (From fabulari, to speak.)

Facunditas: The personification of fertility.

Faunus: The god of wild nature and fertility, also regarded as the giver of oracles. He was later identified with the Greek Pan and also assumed some of Pan's characteristics such as the horns and hooves. As the protector of cattle he is also referred to as Lupercus ("he who wards off the wolf").

Favonius: ("Favorable") The god of the gentle western wind, the herald of spring.

Fontus: The god of wells and springs, son of Janus and Juturna. The festival of Fontus took place on October 13. He is also called Fons.

Fraus: The personification of treachery.

Honos: The god of morality and military honor. He is depicted as a young warrior bearing a lance and a cornucopia.

Imporcitor: The god of the third ploughing.

Indigites Dii: The group of original, native Roman gods, in contrast to the Novensiles Dii, gods imported from elsewhere. The Indigites Dii were only invoked in special situations. They are the protectors of homes, stables, barns, fields, meadows, etc.

Inferi Dii: The gods of the underworld.

Inuus: The gods of herds.

Janus: The god of gates and doors (ianua), beginnings and endings, and hence represented with a double-faced head, each looking in opposite directions. He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life. He also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.

Jupiter: The supreme god of the Roman pantheon, called dies pater, "shining father". He is a god of light and sky, and protector of the state and its laws. He is a son of Saturn and brother of Neptune and Juno (who is also his wife). The Romans worshipped him especially as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (all good, all-powerful). This name refers not only to his rulership over the universe, but also to his function as the god of the state who distributes laws, controls the realm and makes his will known through oracles. His English name is Jove.

Lactans: The god of agriculture of whom it was said that he made the crops "yield milk" (thrive).

Liber: The old Italian god of fertility and growth in nature. In later times Liber ("the free one") was equated with Dionysus and became thus a god of viniculture. His feminine counterpart is Libera. Their festival, the Liberia, was observed on March 17.

Liber Pater: The god of fertility, both human and agricultural.

Liberalitas: The god of generosity.

Lucifer: ("Light-bearer") is the personification of the planet Venus as the morning star, and son of Aurora. He is the father of Ceyx.

Lupercus: The god of agriculture and shepherds, also an epithet of Faunus. The Luperci sacrificed two goats and a dog on the festival of the Lupercalia, celebrated on February 15.


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