Roman gods and goddesses: 17 of the most important deities of ancient Rome

Worshipping these gods was a multi-faceted business in Roman society, from attending temples, shrines and sanctuaries to making offerings or paying private reverence to individual deities within the household. Every need was catered for and, while some held more sway than others, all had their place.

Here are some of the most important names in the Roman religion.

Who are the most famous Roman gods and goddesses?

• Jupiter – King of the gods, and god of the sky and thunder
• Juno – Queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and childbirth
• Mars – God of war
• Venus – Goddess of love, sex and beauty
• Neptune – God of the sea
• Pluto – God of the dead and the underworld
• Saturn – God of time, agriculture and seed-sowing
• Janus – God of beginnings, transition and doorways
• Vesta – Goddess of the hearth, home and family
• Mercury – God of commerce, merchants and travellers
• Ceres – Goddess of agriculture and harvest
• Apollo – God of the Sun, music, archery, healing and prophecy
• Diana – Goddess of the hunt and wild animals
• Minerva – Goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom, justice and war
• Vulcan – God of fire and forges
• Bacchus – God of wine, vines, fertility and revelry
• Sol Invictus – God of the Sun

Jupiter: king of the Roman gods

Known as: Ruler of the Roman pantheon, and god of the sky and thunder

Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, husband (and brother) of Juno, father of Mars, Minerva, Vulcan and more

Greek equivalent: Zeus

When the Romans came across Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, they were so impressed that they appropriated his image, iconography and mythology for their own deific ruler.

A muscular, bearded man wearing a crown, holding a thunderbolt and sceptre, and often associated with an eagle and sacred oak tree, the Romans worshipped him as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Best and Greatest).

As he was god of the sky and thunder too, the worship of Jupiter was the most important across the Roman world. The fifteen principal deities were overseen by priests called flamines, while the priest that looked after Jupiter was called a flamen Dialis. The heart of his cult was a mighty temple inaugurated in 509 BC on the Capitoline, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. It was dedicated not only to Jupiter but his queen, Juno, and daughter, Minerva. Together, they formed the Capitoline Triad at the top of the pantheon.

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Under both the Roman republic and later the Roman empire, Jupiter was revered as the great protector of the Roman state. His festival took place in September, when officials had to sacrifice a white ox in his honour, while many emperors copied his look to assert their power. Such was his status that the Romans named the largest planet in the Solar System after him.

According to the mythology, Jupiter earned his place as king of the gods by surviving his father’s wrath, and then overthrowing him. Saturn, god of time and agriculture, had been told that his children posed a threat to this throne and so devoured each one – Neptune, Pluto, Vesta, Juno and Ceres – as they were born.

Only Jupiter was saved: his mother Ops tricked Saturn into eating a rock instead, causing him to vomit up the other children. Sure enough, they banded together to overthrow him, and divided the universe between themselves.

Juno: queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and childbirth

Known as: The Roman queen of the gods and protector of the Roman state

Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops, wife (and sister) of Jupiter and mother of Mars, Vulcan and others

Greek equivalent: Hera

The most important of the goddesses, Juno was queen of the Roman pantheon, goddess of marriage and childbirth, and the maternal protector of Rome as a whole.

During her festivals in March and July, a procession of married women made its way to her temple, shared with the other two of the Capitoline Triad, to make offerings. Her own temple was built on the Esquiline Hill in the fourth century BC. When entering her sanctuaries, pregnant women had to wear their hair loose, as hair tied in knots were thought to run the risk of problems in childbirth.

More than a mother, Juno looked after the warriors too, and was often portrayed in a goatskin and holding instruments of war like a spear and shield. Usually, she wore a diadem and held a sceptre, and was associated with the peacock, cuckoo and cow.

Her origins may have been Etruscan – bearing a strong resemblance to the goddess Uni – or the Sabine people, but once adopted by the Romans she became nearly indistinguishable from the Greek queen of the gods, Hera.

As Jupiter’s wife, Juno had to endure her husband’s numerous affairs, and the children they produced, and occasionally the legends had her jealously boiling over. She had Latona, mother of Diana, pursued by a giant serpent, and saw to it that the mortal Semele was killed by looking upon the true divine form of Jupiter before she could give birth to Jupiter’s son, Bacchus (who was ultimately saved by Jupiter, and born from his father’s thigh).

Mars: god of war

Known as: The Roman war god

Family: Son of Jupiter and Juno, father of Romulus and Remus

Greek equivalent: Ares

War was a way of life for the Romans, and so it is unsurprising that the god just below Jupiter in importance was Mars, the Roman war god. The month of March would be named after him, as was the Red Planet.

But unlike his Greek counterpart, Ares, who was disliked for his associations with the bloodlust and chaos of war, Mars was widely worshipped as the harbinger of Rome’s military might, a defender of the people, and the bringer of peace.

He was often depicted wielding a spear, which could be wreathed with laurel as a sign of peace, and accompanied by a wolf and a woodpecker, animals revered by the Romans. According to tradition, sacred spears of Mars were kept at a shrine in Rome, and would be shaken by the temple’s consuls at times of impending conflict to ‘wake’ the god.

Beyond his conduct in war, he became notorious for his sexual deeds. It was said that he fathered Romulus and Remus, the legendary brothers at the centre of the founding of Rome, after raping the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia.

Also included in his legends, he made an enemy of his brother Vulcan by bedding his wife Venus, and in his bid to woo the virgin goddess Minerva, he was tricked into marrying Anna Perenna, goddess of renewal and new year.

Festivals in Mars’s honour took place in the spring and autumn, at the beginning and end of the military campaigning season. As these times were also linked with the growing of crops, he also held the role of an agricultural guardian.

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Venus: goddess of love, sex and beauty

Known as: The Roman goddess of love and desire, beauty and fertility, victory and prostitution

Family: Wife of Vulcan, mother of Aeneas of Troy

Greek equivalent: Aphrodite

Since Venus was not initially worshipped in Rome, she had no myths, temples or cults of her own, and so almost completely became identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Yet she grew to be one of the most vital in the Roman pantheon.

The Romans named one of the known planets after her, and celebrated her main festival, Veneralia, in April, the beginning of spring and a time of new life. Others took place throughout the year. Even Julius Caesar claimed to be her descendent.

Traditionally, her rise began around the Second Punic War in the third century BC when she was convinced to switch sides from Carthage to Rome in return for a temple on the Capitoline. As such, she was associated with victory as well as love, sex, beauty, desire, fertility and prostitution.

Like Aphrodite, Venus had an unusual birth. When Saturn castrated the primordial god Caelus and threw his genitals into the sea, she emerged fully grown from the foam – a scene recreated in the Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s famous piece, the Birth of Venus.

In the mythology, she is perhaps most associated with her affair with Mars, which ended in her husband Vulcan crafting a net to trap the pair while naked in bed, so that he could mock them before the other gods. She was certainly desired by all, including the mortal Adonis, and had several children, including Aeneas of Troy (the ancestor of Romulus and Remus).

Neptune: god of the sea

Known as: The Roman god of the sea and freshwater

Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, brother of Jupiter and Pluto

Greek equivalent: Poseidon

While his brother Jupiter became god of the sky, Neptune took command of the sea, much like his Greek counterpart Poseidon (that was an upgrade from his original role as god of freshwater).

Though the Romans were not as reliant on seafaring as their neighbours to the east, the worship of Neptune was still significant. Neptune was often heralded as one of the three most important Roman gods – though the Greeks endowed their sea god with the creation of horses, a connection never carried over by the Romans.

His importance increased as the Romans extended their power over the Mediterranean, but Neptune only had one temple in Rome, near the Circus Flaminius, while the timing of his festival in July at the height of summer when water shortages were more likely, and so seemingly more a nod to his freshwater origins.

Neptune’s iconography was highly distinctive, though. Married to Salacia, goddess of saltwater, he resided in a palace at the seabed, from which he used his mighty trident to control the waves and storms, and rode a chariot pulled by seahorses or dolphins.

When the eighth planet of the Solar System was discovered in 1846, the decision was made to continue the tradition of using Roman names and, given its blue colour, Neptune was deemed a suitable choice.

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Pluto: god of the dead and the underworld

Known as: The Roman god of the underworld

Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, brother of Jupiter and Neptune, husband of Proserpina

Greek equivalent: Hades

Given his association with death and what comes afterwards, it should be no surprise that Pluto was one of the gods that the Romans feared most. He had no temples, although there were altars where sacrifices could be made by priests clad in black robes.

Ruling over the underworld, Pluto was the analogue of the Greek god Hades. That said, the mythology became tangled, so that Hades was also used as the name of the Roman underworld itself. For the Romans, he was also referred to by another name, Dis Pater, which means ‘rich father’, giving rise to the idea that the god was responsible for the mineral wealth underground.

The son of Saturn and Ops, Pluto was one of the children to be devoured, and saved, before dividing responsibility of the world with his brothers Jupiter and Neptune. His most famous myth, however, relates to how he came to be married to the renowned beauty Proserpina.

Longing for a wife and struck by one of Cupid’s arrows, he saw Proserpina in a field and immediately rode up in his chariot, seized her and took her to the underworld. Proserpina’s mother, the goddess Ceres, searched the world in vain for her, leaving Pluto’s reluctant bride to live in his underworld palace, only to return to the surface for a few months a year.

Saturn: god of agriculture and seed-sowing

Known as: The Roman god of time and sowing seeds

Family: Father of Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Juno, Ceres and Vesta

Greek equivalent: Cronus

In Rome today, the ruins of the Forum are dominated by eight columns still standing, which once belonged to a massive temple dedicated to Saturn from the early fifth century BC. He was honoured as the god of agriculture, particularly the sowing of seeds, and was associated with time.

The Romans saw him as an old man with a long beard and holding a scythe. The Greeks knew him as Cronus.

The son of the primordial deities of the sky and earth, Saturn fathered the gods Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. As he had overthrown his father Caelus, he feared his children would do the same and so devoured them. It was only thanks to his wife Ops that Jupiter was saved from the fate, and she tricked Saturn into vomiting the others back up so that the pantheon was salvaged.

Saturn was exiled from Greece. And yet he then went through an extraordinary revival of his reputation. Settling in Latium, he oversaw a golden age that saw the land become Rome. The Romans named both a day of the week and the furthest planet they knew after him, and marked his worship with their most popular festival of the year.

For the week of Saturnalia every December, the Romans enjoyed a time of eating, drinking, games, gift-giving and breaking from societal norms (for instance, masters would wait on their slaves). We now recognise Saturnalia as a forerunner of Christmas.

Janus: god of beginnings, transition and doorways

Known as: The Roman household spirit of doorways and beginnings

Family: Inconclusive

Greek equivalent: None

While the Romans have the Hellenistic world to thank for nearly all of their gods and goddesses, Janus was different. His worship had no Greek counterpart, going back before the adoption of their pantheon right to the founding of Rome by Romulus.

He was one of the spirits of the household, namely doorways. Representing every entrance and exit, he symbolised both beginning and end; both transition and time. His place in Roman religion was ubiquitous. They invoked his name in prayers before Jupiter and honoured him at the start of each new month. January, the beginning of the new year, was named after him.

Janus’s origins were murky, at best. It was said that he may have been a mortal king of the land of Latium – which would become Rome – who welcomed the fallen god Saturn after he was overthrown by his children and deified after death. He was most often depicted as literally two-faced so that he could look ahead and back at the same time.

The Romans celebrated Janus by building ceremonial gateways in Rome. The Janus Geminus, for example, was near an entrance to the Forum and, according to tradition, the doors were closed in times of peace and open in war so that the god could always be free to assist Rome’s armies.

Vesta: goddess of the hearth, home and family

Known as: The Roman goddess of the hearth

Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops

Greek equivalent: Hestia

The worship of Vesta was as old as Rome itself and outlasted many of the cults that disappeared when Christianity came along. Her importance as goddess of the hearth was borne from the vital need to keep a fire going to make food and water, and also from the hearth’s role in Roman society as a gathering place for the family.

At the Temple of Vesta in the Forum, a perpetual fire was maintained throughout the year, only to be officially extinguished and then relit every first day of March. If it went out at any other time, it would be seen as a portent of disaster.

Keeping the fire was the task of the Vestal Virgins: six priestesses chosen as between the ages of six and ten and committed to a service of 30 years. During that time, they could not marry or – as their name suggests – have any sexual partners, to emulate the virginal Vesta (or Hestia in Greece).

If the priestesses did break their chastity, they would be buried alive. But serving as a Vestal Virgin did come with notable advantages, including greater freedoms and privileges than many other women of Rome.

At the festival of Vestalia in June, only matrons could enter the shrine, which they did barefoot. Afterwards, the shrine had to be swept and until the debris was thrown into the Tiber River, bad luck could befall Rome.

Mercury: god of commerce, merchants and travellers

Known as: The Roman god of shopkeepers, merchants, travellers, thieves and tricksters

Family: Son of Jupiter and Maia (one of the nymphs known as the Pleiades)

Greek equivalent: Hermes

In his winged sandals and cap, and carrying a caduceus (a staff intertwined with two snakes), Mercury is one of the more instantly recognisable of the ancient gods. He was also one of the most popular given his role as an intermediary between deity and mortal.

To the Greeks, he was Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The Romans regarded Mercury, however, as the protector of shopkeepers, merchants and travellers, since he controlled the movement of all things and represented commerce. Depictions often show him grasping a money bag.

The son of Jupiter and Maia (daughter of the Titan, Atlas), he had a mischievous side too, earning him the reverence of thieves and tricksters. In one story, Mercury stole a herd of cattle, but was witnessed by a man named Battus. Having made the man vow not to tell anyone, the god then came to Battus in disguise and convinced him to tell the whole story; Mercury punished Battus by turning him into stone.

His temple on the Aventine Hill may have gone back as far as 495 BC, and his festival, Mercuralia, was held every May. Swift and agile, the smallest planet in the night sky was named after him; the element, also known as quicksilver, similarly shares his name.

Ceres: goddess of agriculture and harvest

Known as: The Roman goddess of agriculture and harvest, and associated with motherhood

Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops, mother of Proserpina

Greek equivalent: Demeter

Today, we honour this goddess with the word that came from her name: cereal. According to tradition, the cult of Ceres first entered Rome around the early fifth century BC to stop a famine.

Like her Greek parallel, Demeter, she was a goddess of agriculture and preserver of the natural cycle of things. Her primary festival of Cerialia lasted for seven days in April and featured games at the Circus Maximus, while other celebrations followed at key times for crop cultivation.

Worship, from a temple on the Aventine Hill, then expanded so that Ceres came to protect women, motherhood and the plebians of Rome.

Seen with the bounty of the fields, she carried either a sickle or cornucopia with sheaves of wheat. Ceres wore a crown of corn and poppies were her flower. But another important icon was the torch, referring to her most enduring myth.

Despite Ceres’ attempts to protect Proserpina from unwanted attention, her daughter was abducted by Pluto and taken to the underworld. Ceres frantically searched the world for her, neglecting her duties until crops began to fail.

When Proserpina was finally found, a deal was struck with Pluto so that she would only live in the underworld for six months of the year, allowing Ceres to focus on her care of the Earth again. Ceres’ sadness during Proserpina’s months away, however, led to the seasons of autumn and winter.

Apollo: god of the Sun, music, archery, healing and prophecy

Known as: The Roman and Greek god of many aspects of life

Family: Son of Jupiter and Latona, twin brother of Diana

Greek equivalent: Apollo

Apollo holds a distinct honour: he has the same name in both Rome and Greece. So revered was he that the Romans took him wholesale and instead of giving him a Roman flavour, as they did with the other gods and goddesses, he remained a foreign part of the pantheon with his mythology unchanged.

Tall, athletic, youthful and beautiful, Apollo was one of the most loved of deities. He had myriad functions and associations, including the Sun and light, archery and music, healing and prophecy, and, as a bringer of law and reason, the harbinger of divine retribution.

Riding a chariot drawn by swans, he wielded both a bow (his archery skills were legendary) and a lyre, referring to his position as a patron of the arts.

The Romans first called upon Apollo around the fifth century BC, in particular for healing at a time of plague, and he remained a mainstay in the religion since then. He was especially beloved by the future emperor Augustus, whose naval victory at the battle of Actium in 31 BC, over the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, took place near a sanctuary of Apollo. This led him to erect a new temple on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

Nearly two millennia later, when NASA needed a name for their ambitious program to launch astronauts into space and land them on the Moon, they chose Apollo.

Diana: goddess of the hunt and wild animals

Known as: The Roman goddess of the hunt, childbirth, the Moon and more

Family: Daughter of Latona, twin sister of Apollo

Greek equivalent: Artemis

When the goddess Latona became pregnant with twins by Jupiter, his jealous wife Juno banished her and set a giant serpent to pursue her across the world. She only found refuge on the island of Delos, where she gave birth to her children: Apollo and Diana.

Like her twin brother, Diana was worshipped for numerous functions, including chastity and childbirth; the Romans saw her as a triple goddess, connected to the underworld and the Moon, too. They preferred to worship her in a natural setting, choosing the grove of Diana Nemorensis on the shores of Lake Nemi.

To this day, Diana is worshipped by neopagan religions, like Wicca. But she is probably still best known as the goddess of the hunt and wild animals, like Artemis in Greece.

She never married, preferring the company of animals and nymphs to gods and mortals. Accompanied by a stag or hunting dog, she wore a shorter dress than the other goddesses to help her run more easily. Some depictions also shows her in a cloak, boots and bejewelled belt.

In the mythology, Diana was once spotted while bathing by a hunter named Actaeon. She grew angry for him looking upon her naked form and transformed him into a deer. He was killed by his own dogs.

Minerva: goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom, justice and war

Known as: The Roman goddess of crafts, wisdom, justice and war

Family: Daughter of Jupiter and Metis

Greek equivalent: Athena

Of all the gods and goddess with unconventional births, the daughter of Jupiter deserves special mention. The story goes that the king of the gods had an affair with a Titan named Metis, but upon hearing that she may be carrying the child that could overthrow him, he swallowed her.

Metis gave birth inside Jupiter and set about forging armour for her daughter, Minerva. This caused Jupiter such bad headaches that he had his head split open, and Minerva sprang out fully grown.

This story was taken from the Greek mythology of Athena (after whom the city of Athens was named). Minerva, as one of the Capitoline Triad, was worshipped as goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom and justice, but was also beloved for her virginal purity.

Beginning with a shrine on the Aventine Hill in the third century BC, Minerva grew in stature until she was more associated with war. Particularly, she represented the strategy of battle and victory, often depicted wearing a breastplate, helmet and carrying a spear. Her other symbols included the owl, for wisdom, and olive branch, for victory.

Minerva even began to overshadow Mars, becoming the focus of the Quinquatras, a festival held every March. Then Emperor Domitian escalated the status of her cult further by claiming that she was his personal protector. He built a new temple and named a new legion after her, Legio I Minervia.

Today, her image appears at many universities, especially in the US.

Vulcan: god of fire and forges

Known as: The Roman god of fire, the forge and metalworking

Family: Son of Jupiter and Juno, husband of Venus

Greek equivalent: Hephaestus

Most members of the Roman pantheon tended to be shown as stunningly beautiful or handsome, so it is worth sparing a thought for Vulcan.

Despite possessing such strength to be the master blacksmith of the gods – who made magical tools and weapons, like Jupiter’s lightning bolts and Mercury’s winged helmet – he was said to be so ugly, and lame in one leg, that his mother Juno was disgusted and threw him from the realm of the gods.

Growing up in a cave on Earth, he learned his unparalleled skills as a smith, so much so that he could take his revenge on his mother. Vulcan designed a magnificent throne for Juno, but when she sat in it, a trap mechanism was released that would not let her go. Vulcan only agreed to free her if Venus married him.

It was not a loving relationship: when Venus betrayed him by sleeping with Mars, Vulcan made a special net to catch them in bed.

As god of fire and forges, the symbols of Vulcan – the equivalent of Hephaestus in Greece – were the hammer and anvil. The Romans celebrated his chief festival in August, which involved throwing small fish into a fire as a sacrifice, but his association with the destructive power of conflagrations meant that his temples were built a little outside of the city. Volcanoes, after all, were named after him.

After the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, an altar was erected in Vulcan’s honour at Quirinal Hill in the hopes of placating his wrath and preventing another blaze of such devastation.

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Bacchus: god of wine, vines, fertility and revelry

Known as: The Roman god of wine, revelry and ecstasy

Family: Son of Jupiter and Semele (a mortal daughter of a king)

Greek equivalent: Dionysus

Wine, revelry and festivals of such unrestrained celebration that they were for a time banned in Rome: it is clear why Bacchus was one of the more popular gods.

His Greek equivalent was Dionysus, a name that is thought to have first appeared in the 13th century BC, suggesting he was worshipped in the Mycenaean period. It was Dionysus who gave King Midas his golden touch.

In Roman mythology – which was combined with another god, Liber – Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and a mortal woman, Semele. While still pregnant, Semele was killed after a jealous Juno contrived to have her look upon Jupiter’s true divine form. Bacchus was only saved by Mercury sewing him into Jupiter’s thigh until the child was ready to be born.

Raised by a satyr named Silenus, Bacchus was portrayed as a young, effeminate man in an ivy crown. He held a bunch of grapes and a thyrsus (a stalk of fennel wrapped in ivy and topped with a pine cone) and would be accompanied by big cats like lions, tigers, panthers and leopards.

He travelled the world, as far as India, spreading knowledge of viticulture, the cultivation of grapes and building a following of women called maenads. His importance to wine, vines and having a good time was marked in lively festivals, called Bacchanalia.

Sol Invictus: god of the Sun

Known as: The ‘unconquered Sun’ or ‘invincible Sun’

Family: Unknown

Greek equivalent: Helios

Meaning ‘unconquered Sun’, Sol Invictus would ride a four-horse chariot across the sky as he wears a shining solar crown. It was his responsibility to bring each new day and protect Rome from darkness, which the Romans prayed for at temples on the Quirinal Hill and Circus Maximus.

Sol Invictus had been adapted, with influences from a Syrian deity, from an earlier Sun god, Sol, which had in turn come from the Greek deity Helios.

In the third century AD, emperors Elagabalus and Aurelian both tried to make Sol Invictus the primary god of the Roman pantheon, with the former building a new temple on the Palatine Hill and the latter erecting a shrine in the Campus Agrippae. His festival was marked on 25 December, the Roman celebration of the winter solstice.

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