YOUR GUIDE TO THE GODS AND GODDESSES OF ROME
ROMAN MYTHOLOGY
Welcome to Roman Mythology, where you can learn all about the different gods and goddeses that the Romans worshiped every day.
Introduction
Ever wondered who the Roman Gods were? Their personalities, areas of expertise, or their most famous encounters with other mythical creatures? You can learn all this through Roman Mythology, a website devoted to explaining in a fun and easy-to-read way the deities that governed Ancient Rome!
Jupiter
Hi! Welcome to my page on the site! Obviously, I'm first on god on the site, because I'm the most important of all the Olympians, but not because of an epic war between us. When we defeated my Titan father Saturn in the great war, my brothers Neptune and Pluto and I drew straws to see who would rule the sky, the sea, and the underworld. I got the sky, and hence became the most important of all the gods, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto the underworld. I spend a lot of time blasting mortals who disappointed me, and I have lots of demigod children, like those really famous ones Perseus and Heracles. My wife Juno sure didn't like them. Look at this great picture of me preparing to zap an unsuspecting mortal!
Juno
Yup, that's me. Juno, wife of Jupiter, queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and peacocks. The marriage thing can make me really angry when Jupiter has demigod children, because he's my husband and I don't appreciate him having sons not by me. I once made Heracles go mad and kill his entire family. I also sent two serpents to kill him and his brother because they were Jupiter's sons but not also mine, but he just strangled them. So...no hard feelings. Right?
Neptune
I'm the god of the sea and earthquakes, hence my nickname, Earthshaker. Because of my power over sea travel, mortals pray to me and fear me wherever they go, because if I don't get them with a sea monster, giant wave, or enormous sea storm, their home gets destroyed by an earthquake. In short, you really don't want to make me angry. So what if I can't zap you out of the air with a lightening bolt, I can still punish anyone who makes me angry. You know how people used to like to get around on horses in the many years before cars? They were totally my idea, because I was the one to make horses out of sea foam, consequently making me the god of horses. The trident is my favorite tool, partly because it is commonly used to represent me and partly because of the conveniently pointy ends that are good for spearing anything from snacks to mortals. Isn't the storm I'm making in the picture so cool! #boatdestroyer
Pluto
Wait. They're about to announce the lottery numbers. Yes, I'm rich! Of course, I already own all the Earth's precious metals because they're in my domain, but it's nice to know that I won and not some puny mortal, who'd end up dying and coming to me anyway, so what's the point in getting rich if you don't have an eternal life with which to enjoy it. For me, winning the lottery breaks the monotony, because normally, all I can do for eternity is play fetch with Cerberus, so it's pretty boring. I'm just glad that, because every human will die eventually, I will have all the dead in my domain, no matter what Jupiter does to them. The only comfort in this miserable place is Proserpina, and that was at the cost of Ceres's wrath. All I did was offer her a couple of pomegranate seeds, I said to her. But no, I have to be the villain. She even accused me of luring her down here on purpose, which is a complete outrage, in my opinion. The nerve of her. At least I get to keep her for six months of the year, which, thankfully, is just as much as Ceres gets, and I have infinite riches and command of the dead. But somehow, I still feel sad. My therapist says I'm lonely, but I may have given her an early one-way ticket to the Underworld, so she won't be able to clarify why because she ended up in the Fields of Asphodel, and won't ever be able to clarify anything for the rest of time. I'm not an Olympian, I don't have a throne on Olympus, and nobody wants me around, so that may have something to do it. Oh, yeah the picture. It shows what I looked like when I knew that Proserpina had to stay here, but Ceres didn't. It was hilarious!
Mars
If you throw one of your puny spaceships at me, I will turn you into a pile of rust, like the surface of that planet you named after me. I know you 21st century space people want to send humans to Mars, but I'm not accepting any visitors unless it's to ask me what I thought of World War II. Now there was a war! People fighting for what they thought was a worthy cause, lots of destruction and just plain fighting. I loved to watch the Nazis walk onto a field and start shooting at a pile of inflatable tanks while the Allies came in from behind and annihilated them. The strategy was amazing. But my children are different, especially Romulus and Remus. They founded Rome! As a result of their heritage, I became the second most important god to them, just after Jupiter, who's always going to be the most important because of his good luck when he beat Saturn. Ancient Rome was one of my favorite places, partly because the puny mortals thanked me like they did no other god, not even Prometheus, who created them, and partly because it was so good at war. It stood for so long, I thought it would be there forever, but eheu, it wasn't. I still like that they remember that I was the one who fathered Romulus and Remus, whatever Lupa did to raise them. This is my favorite picture of myself, mostly because it shows me on a battlefield, looking at my defeated enemies with a smug expression, which I love to do.
Minerva
Hello puny moral. Welcome to my page. Do you feel intimidated now? Good, now you're no threat. Of course, you never were, but I like to know that I still know how to do that, after all these years of peace with no immortal war. After all, I'm the goddess of battle strategy, and you mortals aren't significant enough for battle strategy to matter in your short wars. All you ever do is start making your metal sticks make a horrible sound, without any strategy most of the time. At least I'm also the goddess of wisdom and crafts the latter of which you mortal children do rather a lot. Wisdom is quite a bit rarer among you because the generation I have to watch spends more time playing on your televisions than reading beneficial material, something I can tend to despise others for. Supreme lack of wisdom is one of the worst qualities of a human being, because when humans lack wisdom, they tend to start wars and Mars gets soooo excited. Besides, you mortals can never match the wisdom and intelligence of my mother, who was predicted that one of Jupiter's children would become more powerful than him. Of course, Jupiter didn't want this, so he swallowed Metis, so that she could give him advice from his head. But unfortunately for him, that was the only thing that went right. Later, he had a searing headache, that got so bad he asked Vulcan to break his head open with an axe, and out I popped, exactly like I look in that picture!
Mercury
Hi! Can't stay long, I have to deliver a package to Pluto from Jupiter as fast as I can. I added a couple of venomous snakes and maybe a poison dart frog, but Pluto isn't to know that. I'll just give him the package, ask him to sign, and linger in the entry hall long enough to hear the agonized screams. I can't wait to get there. This might seem a little cruel of a joke, but there are two problems with that assumption: 1. The animals won't hurt him, no matter how deadly they'll be to a mortal. 2. I'm the god of tricksters, thieves, and travel, so It's in my nature to play practical jokes on people, especially Pluto, because nobody wants him around. My first trick was probably the one where I stole all of Apollo's red cattle, making them walk backwards so that he would be confused, thinking the cattle had been walking in. I took them to the cave where my mother was asleep (she had given birth to me one day before), jumped into my crib, and made in innocent baby face. Of course, Apollo found me, and made me give the cattle back. To convince him not to blast me into a pile of godly dust, i had to make an instrument, now called the lyre, for him. He liked it so much he stopped thinking about blasting me and began imagining the amazing music he would make with his new instrument. Later, I became the god of travel, and got these amazing winged sandals and this cool caduceus to go with my outfit, exactly like the one in the picture.
Venus
You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get this dove to stay in my hand and flap his wings like that, especially since I'm the goddess of doves, beauty, along with Cupid, love, and along with Victoria, victory. No one really knows who my parents are. Some nymphs just found me on the shore, helped me, and then brought me to Olympus. And then, of course, all the gods wanted me for their wife, so Jupiter made an executive decision and made me marry Vulcan, so we don't spend much time together. The only thing I like about the arrangement is that he makes me the most amazing jewelry because he is the god of blacksmiths, so I can have the best jewelry on Olympus without trying. I really like doves, partly because they're my sacred animal, and partly because they have the most amazing white color to them, and they represent peace. I had to get the light just right to give the dove in the picture a blueish color and a shading around the edges to please Mars, who is picky about that kind of thing. I hang out with him a lot, mostly because he is way better company than my husband Vulcan.
Vulcan
Why are you here? Why not stay and listen to smug Mars, or hear about all Jupiter's children? After all, no one in their right minds would come and see me by choice, thanks to my mother Juno. When I was born, she thought, huh, he's so ugly, why not drop him off Mount Olympus. Jupiter had no objection so here I am, broken and lame, sitting in my lonely blacksmith shop, playing with fire and making swords for nobody. Juno really won best mom of the millinea award with that move, and that was only further shown when, to get back at her, I built her a throne that trapped her when she sat in it. I refused to let her out until she apologized for throwing me off a mountain, which took a surprisingly long time, I can tell you. It was probably the most fun thing I'd done in centuries, and nobody even denied that I deserved revenge. But then again, no one really objected when I left Mount Olympus and went back to my forge under the volcano, so I guess I fit in better there. I only have to go to Olympus for important meetings, so I spend most of my time inventing and building things, like the sword in the picture.
Apollo
Hello. That sounded good, right? And it goes with the picture? The sun's shining on my amazing face just the right way? Dang it, the sun's in the wrong place. I knew I should've parked the chariot more to the right so that my face is in just the right amount of light. Anyway, welcome to Apollo's, where you can listen to top-notch music, get your future told, and visit a mild cold on someone of your choice for a very low price (recently lowered from 10Â aurei)! I love running this place because it allows me to show off all of my special abilities at the same time and only charge 5 aurei to my costumers. But anyway, my only costumer used to be Juno giving Vulcan a cold, but I banned her from the establishment because I got too many complaints from Vulcan about ruining some sword or other with a sneeze. I love to ride across the sky every day in my chariot, which is why you mortals have heat and light. Sol the Titan used to have the job, but I sort of took it over from him and became god of yet another thing. I tend to spend my time distributing plagues among mortals who disregard sanitariness to teach them a lesson about how to live a good life. There was that one time I killed a third of the population ofÂ
Europe, but I prefer not to talk about that, especially since it wasn't my idea. But don't pay attention to anything I said, just look at the picture and admire my absolute amazingness.
Diana
Hello! I see you've already met my deer friends, who like to go on ahead to check if anyone's on our way. We were just on the trail of a particularly fine stag, who we hope to catch by next sunrise. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I'm goddess of the hunt, so it shouldn't be surprising that I'm hunting dear. I may as well tell you a story until it's night and we walk our separate paths. So, once upon a time, there were two giants that no mortal or god could kill. They both wanted to chase me because they wanted me for some reason or other, so I turned myself into a dear. All over the island they chased me, until they finally had me cornered. They both threw their spears, I dodged, and they killed each other, forcing giants to kill giants. Anyway, I think the sun's finally set so I will be on my way now in my moon chariot. I should have told you earlier, I'm goddess of the moon too, so I like to hunt at night. In the picture, I'm just about to take the shot that killed our last troublesome boar.
Bacchus
Hold on. I'll be right baaaaaack. Okay, better now. Bacchus, god of wine, parties, madness, events, and the only mortal ever to become an Olympian, at your service. No wait, I think it's supposed to be you're at my service? Ugh, I can't even tell anymore, but I may just need to inflict madness on someone to get it out of my system. Want to know how I became an Olympian? I spent my whole mortal life making wine. That's it. People laughed at me, like you probably just did, they told me to get a life other than making a liquid for my entire existence. Well, it turned out that Jupiter liked what I was doing, so he made me a god. The only problem with this arrangement was that Vesta had a throne on Olympus, and we could only have twelve. Peaceable as always, Vesta stepped down from her throne to prevent war between the gods. There was this one other time when i was attacked by a band of pirates when I wasn't paying attention. Of course, i didn't play hostage to them, I simply turned the ones who insisted on having me still be their hostage into insane dolphins, and they never bothered me again. In times when I can actually reach my hands, I like to fight with a staff with a pinecone at the end, as is in my picture.
Ceres
Hello. I suppose you don't really want to see me, do you. Just go and watch one of the other showoff gods while I tend my field. Oh, no, don't mind me. They're much more important and memorable than me. In fact, the only reason I'm even mentioned in mythology is because the Romans need a goddess of harvest and fertility, so they made me take it. I don't have any stories about me, just a passing mention of the fact that my wishing for Proserpina causes the changes in the fertility of crops in the mortal world. No one ever thought, you know what? Let's make a myth about Ceres to make her happy. But no, it seems that the only reason Romans thought about me was the necessity of the well-being of their crops, which I have power over. I just wish I could do things other than spend time outside watching the crops and playing with birds, like the one in the picture.
