tradition

Roman religion

The civic cults, priesthoods, and household rites of Rome, known from laws, poets, and later antiquarians. Greek names were borrowed without making the cults identical.

Also known as Roman cult

Meetings with this tradition

Roman religion is historically related to Hellenic religion.
Roman cult borrowed Greek names and stories while keeping civic priesthoods of its own. Virgil’s poem is one famous Latin weaving of that borrowing.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
historically related to · sourced · culturally specific
Roman religion is connected to Fate.
Virgil’s Aeneas is driven by a fatum that is a Roman epic duty. That fate is not Ptolemy’s natal inclination and not the Moirai’s spinning.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
connected to · sourced · documented
Roman religion appears in Hades.
Aeneid 6 sends Aeneas into a below that is a Latin poetic Hades. The visit is Roman literature about a Greek geography, not the Duat.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · culturally specific
Roman religion is associated with Descent.
Aeneas’s katabasis is a Roman epic descent for a father’s counsel and a future. The reason is Virgil’s, not Eleusis and not Gilgamesh.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
associated with · sourced · documented
Roman religion is used in Hearth.
Roman religion cares for a civic and household fire. Virgil inherits a Troy-to-Latium hearth as a token of continuity.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
used in · partially sourced · documented
Hearth appears in Roman religion.
Roman household religion keeps Vesta and the hearth among its cares. The public Vesta is a civic expansion of that care, not a Greek Hestia copied wholesale in this record.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · partially sourced · culturally specific
Hermes is a counterpart of Roman religion.
Romans named a civic Mercury beside the Greek Hermes. Virgil inherits that naming; the cults are historically related, not identical.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
counterpart of · partially sourced · culturally specific
Minerva belongs to Roman religion.
Minerva belongs to Roman craft and Capitol cult. Ovid’s Greek stories are literature in Latin dress.
from Ovid · Metamorphoses, 8 CE
belongs to · sourced · documented
Prophecy appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid gives the Cumaean Sibyl a prophetic office before she guides Aeneas below. That is Roman epic prophecy, not Delphi’s civic oracle and not Virgilian fate-talk alone.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Styx appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid places the Styx among the waters Aeneas must face in the Roman epic underworld. A named dread river of crossing in that poem, not every river of the dead.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Elysium appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid places Elysium among the Blessed Fields Aeneas reaches in the Roman epic underworld. A named pleasant below in that poem, not Hades, not Tartarus, and not Valhalla.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Lethe appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid places Lethe among the underworld rivers Aeneas reaches; souls drink forgetfulness there. A named river attested in that Roman katabasis, not Styx the oath-crossing and not a generic water of the dead.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Palladion appears in Roman religion.
Aeneid 2 tells the stolen Palladium as the luck of Troy. Roman epic’s Trojan image, not Athena’s aegis and not every later palladium-slogan.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Golden Bough appears in Roman religion.
Aeneid 6 has Aeneas pluck the golden bough as the token for the katabasis. A named Virgilian branch, not the Golden Fleece and not the Hesperid apples.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Trojan Horse appears in Roman religion.
Aeneid 2 tells the wooden horse that opens Troy. A named Virgilian stratagem-object, not a being and not the Argo.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Fasces appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid shows the fasces of Brutus among the parade of Roman heroes in the underworld. A named rod-bundle of magistracy in that epic, not a labrys and not a generic axe.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Lituus appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid seats Picus with the Quirinal lituus, the curved augur-staff of that Latin king-gallery. A named staff of Roman rite in that epic, not Caduceus and not the fasces.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Ancile appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid has Picus hold the ancile, the sacred shield of Roman story, beside the Quirinal lituus. A named cult-shield in that epic, not aegis, not chimalli, and not a generic oval.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
Tartarus appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid 6 walls Tartarus as the iron prison of the damned that Aeneas is shown and not entered. A named Roman epic below, not Hesiod’s cosmogonic pit, and not a Christian hell.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented