4 Roman Planetary Gods Story: Myths and legends

4 RomanPlanetary Gods

what a myth is how the Romans adopted Greek gods about the gods whom the planets in the solar system were named after. generation, gladiatorial, lararium, mythology, offering, supernatural, underworld Astronomy is the earliest known science. Ancient astronomers studied the night sky and learned the position of the stars long before telescopes were invented. Many ancient cultures used myths to link the stars to life here on Earth. What is a myth? We are familiar with a variety of stories, including fairy tales, legends and fables. A myth is a type of story that has been passed down from generation to generation over thousands of years. It tries to explain something that the people who created the myth could not understand. It might try to explain why lightning occurs, why the sky is blue, why crops fail or what causes storms at sea. Myths typically involve gods or other beings with supernatural powers. The characters often have exaggerated qualities. For example, they might be very beautiful, mean or bad-tempered. Gods in Ancient Rome The Ancient Romans believed that the world was created by gods who lived in the sky. The gods, they said, controlled or influenced what happened in people’s lives. The Romans honoured the gods by building temples and displaying images of them on buildings. They brought meat and other items to the temples as offerings to the gods, and held festivals in their honour. Every household had a shrine called a lararium, which was dedicated to the gods the family worshipped. ©The Educational Company of Ireland

The Pantheon temple in Rome was built as a temple dedicated to all the Roman gods. Lararium

After Rome was founded in 753 BC, the Roman Empire began to spread. The Romans came into contact with the Greeks, who had a very old culture with a religion that involved many gods. The Romans adopted some of the Greek gods, and gave them a makeover and a new name! The Greek gods had human traits and characteristics, so the Romans saw them as examples for how people should live.

The naming of the planets and the sun

The Romans named the five planets they knew after the gods Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars. They named the sun after the sun god Sol Invictus. (The word ‘solar’ in

‘solar system’ comes from this name.) The Earth was not named after a god because the Ancient Greeks and Romans had false ideas about what the Earth was. The word ‘planet’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘wanderer’. To the

Ancient Greeks and Romans, the planets had special powers that allowed them to wander around the sky at night. The ancient astronomers did not realise that the Earth was also a planet. They thought that it was at the centre of the universe and everything else ‘wandered’ around it!

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, so the Romans named it after the king of the gods. In Roman mythology, Jupiter and his brothers Neptune and Pluto divided the world between them. Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the ocean and Pluto got the underworld. However, Jupiter was in charge. He had magical powers that allowed him to transform into any person or animal. He is sometimes shown flying through the sky with a winged horse named Pegasus, throwing lightning bolts when he got angry.

Greek god name Roman god name

Zeus Ares Hermes Poseidon Aphrodite Cronus Hades Jupiter Mars Mercury Neptune Venus Saturn Pluto Statue of Zeus Bust of Jupiter Sol Invictus Jupiter ©The Educational Company of Ireland

35

Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars

Saturn

Saturn was Jupiter’s father. He was the god of agriculture and the harvest. He was a very popular god because he had taught people how to farm the land. The Romans regularly made offerings of meat, wine, cheese and bread at his temples. A winter festival called Saturnalia was also held in his honour each December. The festivities included feasts, games, gladiatorial contests and the exchange of gifts. Mercury was the messenger of the Roman gods. He wore a winged hat and winged sandals that enabled him to fly. The planet Mercury was probably named after him because it was the fastest-moving planet in the night sky. The planet Venus was the brightest object in the night sky after the moon, so it was named after the goddess of love and beauty. Venus was a daughter of Jupiter. Mars, the god of war, was a son of Jupiter. The planet Mars was named after him because it was red – the colour of blood. Mars was very handsome, but he was mean and self-centred, and he loved bloodshed. Roman soldiers prayed to him before going into battle.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

Astronomers have continued with the tradition of naming planets and other objects in the solar system after ancient gods. In 1781, Uranus became the first planet to be discovered with the use a telescope. It was named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the father of Cronos (the Greek version of Saturn) and the grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). In 1846, the planet Neptune was discovered. Neptune is a bluish colour, so it was named after the Roman god of the sea, who had blue eyes and long green hair. He was thought to be very badtempered, so the Romans brought gifts to his temples to keep him in a good mood. In 1930, the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered. It was named after the Roman god of death because it was so far from the sun. The god Pluto wore a warrior’s helmet and lived under the ground in a dark palace with his three-headed hound, Cerberus.

Mercury Mars

Pluto

Uranus Venus Neptune ©The Educational Company of Ireland

The importance of myths

Myths provide a link with the past and help us to understand ancient cultures. The more you learn about Roman mythology, the more you realise how influential it has been. For example, the Romans named the sixth day of the week, Saturday, after the god Saturn. In the early days of the Catholic Church, the festival of Saturnalia was replaced with Christmas. Many of the same practices continued, including feasting and exchanging gifts.

1 Explain what myths are and how they came about. 2 How did the Ancient Romans honour the gods? 3 Why was Earth the only planet not named after a god? 4 Which god is sometimes shown with a flying horse named Pegasus? 5 Why was Pluto named after the Roman god of death? 6 Which god do you think was the scariest? Why? 7 Why, do you think, did the Catholic Church replace Saturnalia with Christmas? 1 Imagine you are on holiday in Rome and have seen many statues of Roman gods and goddesses. Draw a postcard on a sheet of paper and pretend you are going to send it to a friend or family member. Tell them about a god or goddess that you have learned about in Rome. 2 Pair work: Choose three or more Roman gods and design a lararium dedicated to them on your worksheet. 3 Group work: Research a Roman myth connected to one of the planetary gods, such as Jupiter and the Bee, Mercury and Apollo, Minerva and Neptune or Pluto According to myth, Rome was founded by twin brothers named Romulus and Remus. They were the children of the god Mars and a woman named Rhea Silvia. The boys were abandoned by their parents as babies, but a she-wolf found them and reared them near the River Tiber. When they grew up, they founded a city there, but argued about who should rule. They fought, and Remus was killed. Romulus became the ruler and named the city after himself: Rome. Statue in Rome of Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf ©The Educational Company of Ireland and the King of Corinth. Make up a storyboard, poem or song retelling the story.