Some Ancient Greek/ Roman myhology questions

[Don_Draper]

Everyone knows that the Romans adopted the pantheon of Hellenistic gods as their own, and renamed them: Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Hermes, (etc.) became Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Mercury, (etc.) respectively. All except Apollo, who was referred to as Apollo by the Romans as well as the Greeks. Why did they make such an exception for Apollo? In fact, why did the Romans feel the need to change the names of the greek gods at all?

Why did the Romans adopt all these new gods in the first place? Didn’t they have a religion of their own? What was that earlier religion like, and were any old customs retained when they adopted a new pantheon of dieties (the way that “Saturnalia” was adopted by the Christian faith as “the twelve days of Christmas.”)?

Lastly, what did the ancient greeks feel about their religion being “romanized” ? Was there any resistence to a conquering nation taking over their religion? Did the ancient greeks continue referring to their gods by their original names, or did they begin using the roman names as well?

[bordelond]

@Art Vandelay

Everyone knows that the Romans adopted the pantheon of Hellenistic gods as their own, and renamed them: Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Hermes, (etc.) became Jupiter, Juno, Venus, Mercury, (etc.) respectively. All except Apollo, who was referred to as Apollo by the Romans as well as the Greeks. Why did they make such an exception for Apollo? In fact, why did the Romans feel the need to change the names of the greek gods at all?

Why did the Romans adopt all these new gods in the first place? Didn’t they have a religion of their own? What was that earlier religion like, and were any old customs retained when they adopted a new pantheon of dieties (the way that “Saturnalia” was adopted by the Christian faith as “the twelve days of Christmas.”)?

Here’s a good article that gives the basics of Roman adoption of Greek deities. An excerpt:

The religion of the Romans had undergone several evolutionary changes throughout the history of Rome. One of the greatness of Rome was their ability to change, adapt or absorb foreign ideas, customs and practices.

The early Romans see their deities performing certain functions. They were deities with specialised functions. The god would perform his task if his name were invoked. These gods were seen as objects that perform a task, such as a door. Or the god was a force of nature, that cause sky to the rain, involve in change of season, etc.

Unlike other religions, the early Roman deities had no myths. The early Romans did not feel the needs to try to humanise their deities with human action or personality.

…

It wasn’t until the Romans came into the contact with the Etruscans and the Greeks living in the Campania, that the early Roman deities underwent changes. They were particularly influenced by the tales in the Greek myths. The Roman deities became increasing humans, where they can suffer from rage, lust and anger.

The earliest Roman deities were either invented by themselves, or their origin comes from Latin or Sabine pantheon. The Roman had also adopted many Etruscan deities.

The three most powerful and important gods were the triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. During the period of the Etruscan kings, a great temple was built on the Capitoline Hill, honouring a triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Vesta and Janus were also important early deities, enjoying worship at first in the private shrine in each Roman house, later to a more formalised State religion. There was no Roman equivalent to the Greek Apollo. Apollo was a direct import from Greece, and enjoyed popular status in Rome. The Roman name for the Olympians, the twelve great gods of Olympus, was Dii or Di.

By the time of the 1st century BC, it was difficult to identify the original nature of the Roman deities. They adopted attributes of the Greek deities and incorporated Greek myths into their own myths.

The Romans had adopted many non-Greek deities into their pantheon. Among the notable deities were the Phrygian Cybele, the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Celtic horse goddess Epona, and the Persian god Mithras.

Much more information at that site.

[Polycarp]

What people often miss is that Greek and Roman religion were syncretistic, equating existing deities known to group X with those worshipped by group Y. The sorts of summaries of the two pantheons in Edith Hamilton or the World Book do not explore this intricate web of deities-equated-to-other-deities. But consider: Aphrodite/Venus is usually conceived of as goddess of love. But some Greek cities worshipped her as Aphrodite Urania, Queen of Heaven – definitely not something that matches the rather wanton lady of the typical short summary. Demeter/Ceres, goddess of agriculture, is a rather prim individual in those sources – but inspired orgiastic worship in Asia Minor. Diana the virgin huntress was also the Great Mother of the Gods in Ephesus – “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” from the book of Acts in the Bible does not reference the figure we know from the typical myths. Eros/Cupid, the minor figure who acts as Venus’s messenger in the “Bowlderized” myths, was in some traditions god of homosexual love, and in one account the creator god, supreme over all the rest.

Amon of the Egyptians was equated to Zeus, most of the Celtic gods of the Gauls were wedged into niches as “the Celtic Mars, the Celtic Hercules,” and so on. There is even, IIRC, a reference to the Germanic Loki as equivalent to Prometheus in one account, though this may be the speculation of the modern writer on myth and not the ancient author he was analyzing – it’s been a long time since I read that.