What the Romans did for us was to encourage Godliness on a grand scale.

You were spoilt for choice. Far from destroying the beliefs of conquered countries, they were actively encouraged — and in many cases absorbed. The Romans just couldn’t have enough Gods. In fact sometimes they appear to have invented some for special occasions.

They gave the Greek pantheon a major makeover and fancy Latin names. The major deities were built up into the Planet Suite: Mars, Venus, Jupiter, etc. A good means of identification. We’ve attempted to point out the Greek vs Roman equivalents and hopefully haven’t missed out too many.

And of course the Romans did precisely the same thing with the Gods of the Celtic pantheons and any deities they happened to encounter.

Most of the Latin words still in use today seem to have a God connected to them. Discipline = Disciplina, Fauna = Faunus, and Fortune = Fortuna. Just add an ‘a’ or an ‘us’ to the end of a Latin word and see what God you get. With the romantic Romans, the more Gods the merrier. And some of their Gods could be very merry indeed.

Rumors on the godly grapevine hint that the Romans may have been influenced in their religious shenanigans not just by the Greeks but by the historically shadowy Etruscans, who possessed a full set of deities that historians are still coming to grips with. See our dedicated Etruscan mythology section for more mysterious hints and prototype deities.

The Romans may not have exactly stolen their gods, but there was certainly a lot of cross-overs and borrowing of deities for the weekend. The resulting mix-and-match has given us a pantheon which is perhaps best described as a Holy Roman Mash-up.

---

Options

Introduction to Roman Mythology.

Use our Godbrowser™ to explore the Gods of Roman Mythology.

View the Roman pantheon. Family trees coming soon!

Consult Godchecker’s complete alphabetical list of Roman god and goddess names.

---