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Samnite Religion
The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in modern south-central Italy, placing them between the Latins to the north and the Greek settlements to the south. Consequently, the Samnites had anthropomorphic deities shared with both Rome and Greece, especially after their conquest of Campania at the end of the fourth century BCE. There is additional evidence that suggests the Samnites also believed in spirits called ''Numen, numina''. ''Numina'' are believed to have been kinless, animistic spirits that could take human form to walk amongst the living. To the Samnites, having good relations with these spirits was of the utmost importance. To honor these deities, the Samnites would sacrifice either Organism, living things or make votive offerings. The Samnites practiced a type of sacrifice called the ver sacrum. In this kind of sacrifice, infants were offered to the god Mars (mythology), Mamers in hopes of more cattle and offspring. Once they reached adulthood they would be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samnites
The Samnites () were an ancient Italic peoples, Italic people who lived in Samnium, which is located in modern inland Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania in south-central Italy. An Oscan language, Oscan-speaking Osci, people, who originated as an offshoot of the Sabines, they formed a confederation consisting of four tribes: the Hirpini, Caudini, Caraceni (tribe), Caraceni, and Pentri. Ancient Greek historians considered the Umbri as the ancestors of the Samnites. Their migration was in a southward direction, according to the rite of ver sacrum. Although allied together against the Gauls in 354 BC, they later became enemies of the Roman Republic, Romans and fought them in a series of Samnite Wars, three wars. Despite an overwhelming victory at the Battle of the Caudine Forks (321 BC), the Samnites were subjugated in 290 BC. Although severely weakened, the Samnites would still side against the Romans, first in the Pyrrhic War and then with Hannibal in the Second Punic War. They also foug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Roman Deities
The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Interpretatio graeca, Greek counterparts, integrating Greek mythology, Greek myths, ancient Greek art, iconography, and sometimes Religion in ancient Greece, religious practices into ancient Roman culture, Roman culture, including Latin literature, ancient Roman art, Roman art, and Religion in ancient Rome, 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 Roman Kingdom, era of kings, the so-called "religion of Numa Pompilius, Numa", which was perpetuated or revived over the centuries. Some archaic deities have Italic peoples, Italic or Etruscan religion, Etruscan counterparts, as identified both by ancient sources and by modern scholars ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heracles
Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through Amphitryon, Heracles receives the epithet Alcides, as "of the line of Alcaeus (mythology), Alcaeus", father of Amphitryon. Amphitryon's own, mortal son was Iphicles. He was a descendant and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (), and a champion of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Roman mythology, Rome and the modernity, modern western world, West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. Details of his cult (religion), cult were adapted to Rome as well. Origin Many popular stories were told ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venus (mythology)
Venus (; ) is a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. As such, she is usually depicted nude. Etymology The Latin theonym and the common noun ('love, charm') stem from a Proto-Italic form reconstructed as ''*wenos-'' ('desire'), itself from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ' ('desire'; cf. Messapic , Old Indic 'desire'). Derivatives include ''venust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spes
Spes (Latin for "Hope") was worshipped as a goddess in ancient Roman religion. Numerous temples to Spes are known, and inscriptions indicate that she received private devotion as well as state cult. Republican Hope During the Republic, a temple to "ancient Hope" () was supposed to have been located near the Praenestine Gate. It was associated with events that occurred in the 5th century BC, but its existence as anything except perhaps a private shrine has been doubted. A well-documented Temple of Spes was built by Aulus Atilius Calatinus along with Fides, as the result of vows () made to these goddesses during the First Punic War. This was built at the vegetable market () just outside the Carmental Gate. It was twice burnt down and restored, first in 213 BC and then again in AD 7. At Capua in 110 BC, a temple was built to the triad of Spes, Fides, and Fortuna. Imperial Hope Spes was one of the divine personifications in the Imperial cult of the Virtues. Spes Augusta w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fides (deity)
Fides () was the goddess of trust, faithfulness, and good faith ('' bona fides'') in ancient Roman religion. Fides was one of the original virtues to be cultivated as a divinity with ceremonies and temples. Fides embodies everything that is required for "honour and credibility, from fidelity in marriage, to contractual arrangements, and the obligation soldiers owed to Rome." Fides also means reliability, "reliability between two parties, which is always reciprocal." and "bedrock of relations between people and their communities", and then it was turned into a Roman deity and from which we gain the English word, 'fidelity'. Under the name ''Fides Publica Populi Romani'' ("Public Trust of the Roman People"), she may be exemplified in Marcus Atilius Regulus, "who refuses to save himself at the expense of the Republic. Regulus defied his own best interests for those of his country. In this act alone, he acted with fides." Iconography Fides is represented as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortuna
Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek mythology, Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Renaissance. The blindfolded depiction of her is still an important figure in many aspects of today's Italian culture, where the dichotomy ''fortuna / sfortuna'' (luck / unluck) plays a prominent role in everyday social life, also represented by the very common refrain "La [dea] fortuna è cieca" (latin ''Fortuna caeca est''; "Luck [goddess] is blind"). Fortuna is often depicted with a Gubernaculum (classical), gubernaculum (ship's rudder), a ball or Rota Fortunae (wheel of fortune, first mentioned by Cicero) and a cornucopia (horn of plenty). She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, except that Fortuna does not hold a ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana (mythology)
Diana is a goddess in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon. She is Syncretism, equated with the Greek mythology, Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter (mythology), Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo,''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. though she had Diana Nemorensis, an independent origin in Italy. Diana is considered a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth. Historically, Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria (mythology), Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god. Diana is revered in modern Modern paganism, neopagan religions including Reconstructionist Roman religion, Roman neopaganism, Stregheria, and Wic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angitia
Angitia was a List of Roman deities, goddess among the Marsi, the Paeligni and other Osco-Umbrian languages, Oscan-Umbrian peoples of central Italy. She was associated in antiquity with snake-charmers who claimed her as their ancestor. Roman mythology, Roman interpretations probably obscure her Marsian significance. Angitia's myths vary. According to Gnaeus Gellius (late 2nd century BC), Angitia was one of the three daughters of Aeëtes, along with Medea and Circe, two of the most famed sorceresses of Greek myth. Circe, as widely known from the ''Odyssey'', practiced transforming spells; Medea ended up in Italy, where her son ruled over the Marsi. Angitia lived in the area around the Fucine lake and specialized in curing snakebites. Angitia is attested by inscriptions in the territory of the Marsi and elsewhere in the Apennines#Central Apennines, Central Apennines. She is named in three inscriptions from Luco dei Marsi, in antiquity known as ''Lucus Angitiae'', "Sacred Grove of A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the ''kouros'' (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth). Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as ''Apulu''. As the patron deity of Delphi (''Apollo Pythios''), Apollo is an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Pythia, Delphic Oracle and also the deity of ritual purification. His oracles were often consulted for guidance in various matters. He was in general seen as the god who affords help and wards off e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mefitis
In Roman mythology, Mefitis (or Mephitis; Mefite in Italian) was a minor goddess of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors. Overview Mefitis was the Samnite and Oscian goddess of the foul-smelling gases of the earth, worshipped in central and southern Italy since before Roman times, with her main shrine at the volcano Ampsanctus in Samnium. There were temples dedicated to her in Cremona and on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. It is theorized that Mefitis was originally a goddess of underground sources, such as natural springs— the fact that many of these springs were sulfurous led to her association with noxious gases. She is almost always identified with volcanoes, having been worshipped at Pompeii. Her name, which likely means "one who smokes in the middle", is sometimes spelled Mephitis. The connection with subterranean spaces also links her with Chthonic deities. Foul-smelling geological fissures connected to the divinity (see below) are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
