We name the solar system’s major planets after Roman gods, Mars, Jupiter, etc, but what did the Romans call the planets? Did they call them the same? If so, did they actually believe that the planet Mars actually IS the god Mars, or did they just name them after the gods?
I think this site will answer your question…
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=372
The site didn’t work for me.
It worked for me.
That answers half my question. But did they actually think that the planet Venus is the goddess Venus? Anyone know?
Yes, they did. At least this is my understanding.
Mercury, the planet, moves relatively quickly around the sky. For this reason, they decided that point of light must be the messenger god. I mean, look at him, rushing about back and forth up there between the other gods, it’s obvious he’s got wings on his sandals.
Remember, people were incredibly ignorant back then compared to us. Today we know the difference between stars (balls of ‘burning’ hydrogen) planets (balls of rock or non-burning gasses) and gods (Bullshit). They didn’t.
Guessing here, but I reckon they didn’t actually think the planets were the gods themselves. The Gods lived up on Mount Olympus (some of the time) and they sure as shit knew where that was.
I think the planets were just called after them, because of the Brighness, Redness et cetera…
Sorry, just to elaborate, I’m talking about the Greeks here, but the Romans just borrowed and translated all these names from the Greeks so essentially it’s the same thing…
From what I read they believed it was the planet ruled by the god. Look at the ocean they called it an ocean but it was ruled by Poseidon/Neptune.
Also think about all the statues and pictures of the gods, they pictured them in human form for these purposes. Unless you think Venus de milo has no arms because someone was trying to make her more round like a planet.
In mythology the gods could take on different forms or bestow different forms. Zeus did both those things often. So, I think the people back then could have thought that the gods were also the planet at times but I believe that human form was their assumed primary form.