Roman

Rome and its empire, c. 750 BCE to the 4th century CE.

Roman religion was about cult and contracts with the gods (pax deorum) more than stories. The myths we have were largely taken from the Greek, a process the Romans themselves (and later scholars) called interpretatio graeca, so many genealogies below are the Greek ones transferred. Truly Roman figures such as Janus, Vesta, Quirinus and Faunus show what existed before.

Giacomo Caneva, photograph of a statue of Jupiter in the Campana collection, 1850s.

Family graph

Parent lines run downward, partners are joined by a thicker line. Select a deity to trace its ancestry.

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

The deities

Saturnagriculture, the Golden Age, the Saturnalia Opsabundance Jupitersky, thunder, oaths Junomarriage, women, the state Neptunethe sea, horses Pluto / Dis Paterthe underworld, wealth Ceresgrain, motherhood Vestathe hearth, the state fire Marswar, agriculture, the father of Romulus Venuslove, beauty, Rome's ancestress Minervawisdom, crafts, strategy Apollohealing, prophecy, music Dianathe hunt, the moon, childbirth Mercurytrade, messengers, travellers Vulcanfire, smiths, volcanoes Bacchus / Liberwine, ecstasy Janusdoorways, beginnings, war and peace Quirinusthe deified Romulus, the Roman people

Today

The state cult ended with the Christianisation of the empire in the 4th century. Small modern groups, such as those in the Roman reconstructionist movement, revive it; they are not continuous with antiquity. Greek counterparts live at thegreekgods.org, and this section does not duplicate them.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Sources used

Ovid, Fasti (a poetic calendar of Roman festivals, 8 CE)
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Virgil, Aeneid
Varro, De lingua Latina (1st century BCE)
Cicero, De natura deorum
Macrobius, Saturnalia (c. 430 CE)