List of Roman deities


The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts, integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin literature, Roman art, and religious life as it was experienced throughout the Roman Empire. Many of the Romans' own gods remain obscure, known only by name and sometimes function, through inscriptions and texts that are often fragmentary. This is particularly true of those gods belonging to the archaic religion of the Romans dating back to the era of kings, the so-called "religion of Numa", which was perpetuated or revived over the centuries. Some archaic deities have Italic or Etruscan counterparts, as identified both by ancient sources and by modern scholars. Throughout the Empire, the deities of peoples in the provinces were given new theological interpretations in light of functions or attributes they shared with Roman deities.
A survey of theological groups as constructed by the Romans themselves is followed by an extensive alphabetical list concluding with examples of common epithets shared by multiple divinities.

Collectives

Even in invocations, which generally required precise naming, the Romans sometimes spoke of gods as groups or collectives rather than naming them as individuals. Some groups, such as the Camenae and Parcae, were thought of as a limited number of individual deities, even though the number of these might not be given consistently in all periods and all texts. Others are numberless collectives.

Spatial tripartition

grouped the gods broadly into three divisions of heaven, earth, and underworld:
  • di superi, the gods above or heavenly gods, whose altars were designated as altaria.
  • di terrestres, "terrestrial gods," whose altars were designated as arae.
  • di inferi, the gods below, that is, the gods of the underworld, infernal or chthonic gods, whose altars were foci, fire pits or specially constructed hearths.
More common is a dualistic contrast between superi and inferi.

Triads

Lectisternium of 217 BC

A lectisternium is a banquet for the gods, at which they appear as images seated on couches, as if present and participating. In describing the lectisternium of the Twelve Great gods in 217 BC, the Augustan historian Livy places the deities in gender-balanced pairs:
  • Jupiter–Juno
  • Neptune–Minerva
  • Mars–Venus
  • Apollo–Diana
  • Vulcan–Vesta
  • Mercury–Ceres
Divine male-female complements such as these, as well as the anthropomorphic influence of Greek mythology, contributed to a tendency in Latin literature to represent the gods as "married" couples or lovers.

''Dii Consentes''

uses the name Dii Consentes for twelve deities whose gilded images stood in the forum. These were also placed in six male-female pairs. Although individual names are not listed, they are assumed to be the deities of the lectisternium. A fragment from Ennius, within whose lifetime the lectisternium occurred, lists the same twelve deities by name, though in a different order from that of Livy: Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jove, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.
The Dii Consentes are sometimes seen as the Roman equivalent of the Greek Olympians. The meaning of Consentes is subject to interpretation, but is usually taken to mean that they form a council or consensus of deities.

''Di Flaminales''

The three deities cultivated by the major flamens were:
  • Jupiter
  • Mars
  • Quirinus
The twelve deities attended by the minor flamens were:
Varro gives a list of twenty principal gods of Roman religion:
  • Janus
  • Jupiter
  • Saturn
  • Genius
  • Mercury
  • Apollo
  • Mars
  • Vulcan
  • Neptune
  • Sol
  • Orcus
  • Liber
  • Tellus
  • Ceres
  • Juno
  • Luna
  • Diana
  • Minerva
  • Venus
  • Vesta

    Sabine gods

Varro, who was himself of Sabine origin, gives a list of Sabine gods who were adopted by the Romans:
  • Feronia
  • Minerva
  • Novensides
  • Pales
  • Salus
  • Fortuna
  • Fons
  • Fides
  • Ops
  • Flora
  • Vediovis
  • Saturn
  • Sol
  • Luna
  • Vulcan
  • Summanus
  • Larunda
  • Terminus
  • Quirinus
  • Vortumnus
  • Lares
  • Diana
  • Lucina
File:Livia statue.jpg|thumb|150px|Livia, wife of Augustus, dressed as the goddess Ops
Elsewhere, Varro claims Sol Indiges – who had a sacred grove at Lavinium – as Sabine but at the same time equates him with Apollo. Of those listed, he writes, "several names have their roots in both languages, as trees that grow on a property line creep into both fields. Saturn, for instance, can be said to have another origin here, and so too Diana."
Varro makes various claims for Sabine origins throughout his works, some more plausible than others, and his list should not be taken at face value. But the importance of the Sabines in the early cultural formation of Rome is evidenced, for instance, by the bride abduction of the Sabine women by Romulus's men, and in the Sabine ethnicity of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, to whom are attributed many of Rome's religious and legal institutions. Varro says that the altars to most of these gods were established at Rome by King Tatius as the result of a vow.

''Indigitamenta''

The indigitamenta are deities known only or primarily as a name; they may be minor entities, or epithets of major gods. Lists of deities were kept by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct names were invoked for public prayers. The books of the Pontiffs are lost, known only through scattered passages in Latin literature. The most extensive lists are provided by the Church Fathers who sought systematically to debunk Roman religion while drawing on the theological works of Varro, also surviving only in quoted or referenced fragments. W.H. Roscher collated the standard modern list of indigitamenta, though other scholars may differ with him on some points.

''Di indigetes'' and ''novensiles''

The di indigetes were thought by Georg Wissowa to be Rome's indigenous deities, in contrast to the di novensides or novensiles, "newcomer gods". No ancient source, however, poses this dichotomy, which is not generally accepted among scholars of the 21st century. The meaning of the epithet indiges has no scholarly consensus, and noven may mean "nine" rather than "new".

Alphabetical list

A

  • Abundantia, divine personification of abundance and prosperity.
  • Acca Larentia, a diva of complex meaning and origin in whose honor the Larentalia was held.
  • Acis, god of the Acis River in Sicily.
  • Aerecura, goddess possibly of Celtic origin, associated with the underworld and identified with Proserpina.
  • Aequitas, divine personification of fairness.
  • Aesculapius, the Roman equivalent of Asclepius, god of health and medicine.
  • Aeternitas, goddess and personification of eternity.
  • Agenoria, goddess and personification of activity.
  • Aion, Hellenistic god of cyclical or unbounded time, related to the concepts of aevum or saeculum
  • Aius Locutius, divine voice that warned the Romans of the imminent Gallic invasion.
  • Alernus or Elernus, an archaic god whose sacred grove ' was near the Tiber river. He is named definitively only by Ovid. The grove was the birthplace of the nymph Cardea, and despite the obscurity of the god, the state priests still carried out sacred rites ' there in the time of Augustus. Alernus may have been a chthonic god, if a black ox was the correct sacrificial offering to him, since dark victims were offered to underworld gods. Dumézil wanted to make him a god of beans.
  • Angerona, goddess who relieved people from pain and sorrow.
  • Angitia, goddess associated with snakes and Medea.
  • Anna Perenna, early goddess of the "circle of the year", her festival was celebrated March 15.
  • Annona, the divine personification of the grain supply to the city of Rome.
  • Antevorta, goddess of the future and one of the Camenae; also called Porrima.
  • Apollo, god of poetry, music, and oracles. Twin brother of Diana and one of the Dii Consentes.
  • Arimanius, an obscure Mithraic god.
  • Aura, often plural Aurae, "the Breezes".
  • Aurora, goddess of the dawn.
  • Averruncus, a god propitiated to avert calamity.

    B

  • Bacchus, god of wine, sensual pleasures, and truth, originally a cult title for the Greek Dionysus and identified with the Roman Liber.
  • Bellona or Duellona, war goddess.
  • Bona Dea, the "women's goddess" with functions pertaining to fertility, healing, and chastity.
  • Bonus Eventus, divine personification of "Good Outcome".
  • Bubona, goddess of cattle.

    C

  • Caca, an archaic fire goddess and "proto-Vesta"; the sister of Cacus.
  • Cacus, originally an ancient god of fire, later regarded as a giant.
  • Caelus, god of the sky before Jupiter.
  • Camenae, goddesses with various attributes including fresh water, prophecy, and childbirth. There were four of them: Carmenta, Egeria, Antevorta, and Postvorta.
  • Cardea, goddess of the hinge ', identified by Ovid with Carna
  • Carmenta, goddess of childbirth and prophecy, and assigned a flamen minor. The leader of the Camenae.
  • Carmentes, two goddesses of childbirth: Antevorta and Postvorta or Porrima, future and past.
  • Carna, goddess who preserved the health of the heart and other internal organs.
  • Ceres, goddess of the harvest and mother of Proserpina, and one of the Dii Consentes. The Roman equivalent of Demeter .
  • Clementia, goddess of forgiveness and mercy.
  • Cloacina, goddess who presided over the system of sewers in Rome; identified with Venus.
  • Concordia, goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony.
  • Consus, chthonic god protecting grain storage.
  • Cupid, Roman god of love. The son of Venus, and equivalent to Greek Eros.
  • Cura, personification of care and concern who according to a single source created humans from clay.
  • Cybele''', an imported tutelary goddess often identified with Magna Mater