# Did the Romans have an equivalent to Apollo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811 "2009-12-28T17:14:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/1 "2009-12-28T17:14:05Z")
I was thinking the other day that the Romans had an equivalent to most of the gods in the Greek Pantheon: Jupiter = Zeus, Juno = Hera, Minerva = Athena, Diana= Artemis, and so on. But, I couldn’t think of an equivalent to Apollo. Did they not have one, or did they just use the same name as the Greeks? ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/2 "2009-12-28T17:18:14Z")
The Roman equivelant of Apollo is…wait for it…Apollo. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/3 "2009-12-28T18:26:42Z")
Agree with pan1. That’s what I recall from my Classical Civilizations class in college (I took all the tough courses) - that Apollo was the only god whose name did not change from Greek to Roman pantheons…TRM ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/4 "2009-12-28T18:34:17Z")
I think they liked him so much they just adopted him as is. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/5 "2009-12-28T19:12:14Z")
The Roman Space program was limited by multiple factors, notably a cosmology that identified celestial bodies with deities, a lack of sufficient mathematical and computational power - which was further limited by the “Roman Numeral” system - and insufficient research into rocket fuels. Had [Archimedes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes) been captured alive by the Romans after the siege of Syracuse - comparable to the capture of [Werner Von Braun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Von_Braun) - the subsequent development of Roman rocket technology might have been much different. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/6 "2009-12-28T19:33:40Z")
He was sometimes called [Phoebus](http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Koronis.html) by Roman sources; > [@](#): > > Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 536 & 596 ff (trans. Brookes More) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : > "Long ago the ravens were not black–their plumage then was white as any dove–white-feathered, snow-white as the geese . . . as white as swans that haunt the streams. Disgrace reversed the raven’s hue from white to black, because offense was given by his chattering tongue. O glorious Phoebus [Apollon]! … But when the Raven, bird of Phoebus, learned the Nymph had been unfaithful, mischief-bent that bird, spreading his white wings, hastened to impart the sad news to his master. After him the prattling Crow followed with flapping wings, eager to learn what caused the Raven’s haste . . . Now replied the Raven to the Crow, that talked so much, `A mischief fall upon your prating head for this detention of my flight. Your words and warnings I despise.' With which retort he winged upon his journey, swiftly thence in haste, despite the warning to inform his patron, Phoebus, how he saw the fair Coronis with a lad of Thessaly. And when Apollo, Phoebus, heard the tale the busy Raven made such haste to tell, he dropped his plectrum and his laurel wreath, and his bright countenance went white with rage. He seized his trusted arms, and having bent his certain bow, pierced with a deadly shaft that bosom which so often he had pressed against his own. Coronis moaned in pain,--and as she drew the keen shaft from the wound, her snow-white limbs were bathed in purple blood: and thus she wailed, `Ah, Phoebus! punishment is justly mine! but wherefore didst thou not await the hour of birth? for by my death an innocent is slain.’ This said, her soul expired with her life-blood, and death congealed her drooping form. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/7 "2009-12-28T19:40:28Z")
Missed the edit window; A detailed discussion of Roman views of a Greek god can be found here: > [@](#): > > Of the major list, one stands out as different: the Greek Apollo was known to the Romans as ‘Apollo’. This suggests that the early Roman/Italian pantheon lacked a divinity easily equated with Apollo so no association was made when Greek culture was adopted for Roman use. This seems more likely considering that Apollo is also the most difficult of the gods to define in simple terms. Other major gods ruled a domain: ‘War’, ‘Sea’, ‘Love’; Apollo’s function can not be summed up in a word. [http://dougsmith.ancients.info/apollo.html](http://dougsmith.ancients.info/apollo.html) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/8 "2009-12-28T20:05:35Z")
It’s worth noting that while Apollo was not _per se_ a sun god, he was often equated by the Greeks with Helios, the sun personified, and hence by the Romans with Sol, the Helios-equivalent in their pantheon. (Helios and Sol were always minor gods, without a significant cultus of their own.) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/9 "2009-12-28T20:19:55Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > (Helios and Sol were always minor gods, without a significant cultus of their own.) After Aurelian, the cult of Sol became a major one. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/10 "2009-12-28T20:40:51Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > After Aurelian, the cult of Sol became a major one. That’s because Gilligan messed up the signal that was meant to say SOS. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/11 "2009-12-28T21:19:55Z")
Who mourns for Adonais? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/12 "2009-12-29T14:45:27Z")
I sure don’t. What an annoying, prissy guy. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-romans-have-an-equivalent-to-apollo/522811/13 "2009-12-29T15:02:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I sure don’t. What an annoying, prissy guy. **Foolish mortal, you have earned this!** _points hand at Elendil’s Heir_