Salvete!
I found your website through a Google search to find some information on Ancient Roman Paganism. I was enthusiastic to discover you have a forum so that some interaction is possible at least.
My first topic of interest is the Consentes Dii. I would like to know what was the function of these 6 Gods and 6 Goddesses in the Roman Empire and for the populace and how where these Gods seen. All details are appreciated the more you can learn the better.
Valete!
Consentes Dii
Moderator: Aldus Marius
6 posts • Page 1 of 1
by Horatius Piscinus on Thu Sep 04, 2003 11:17 am
Salve Mars Ultor
Do you mean as a group, in pairs, or the gods and goddesses individually? First, as to which deities we speak, the Di Consentes as a group were introduced in 217 BCE when a lectisternium was held. The various deities were placed in pairs on Their respective couches as such: Juno and Jupiter; Apollo and Diana, Ceres and Neptunus, Mars and Venus, and then Vesta and Volconus. These deities were so displayed because they were identified with Greek deities. Indeed the one, Apollo, originated as a introduction from Greece, although indirectly. At Rome Apollo was solely a god of medicine, later among the poets of the Augustan era beginning to take on some of His solar aspects as Augustus was identified with Apollo. It is interesting that three of the Di Consentes were designated to have Their temples lie outside a city, so stated by Vetruvius in planning a Roman city. These were Ceres whose providence is over grain fields; Mars who defends the city from disease as well as from foreign enemies, and then too Volcanus, whose fires were not desirable inside the flammable city itself.
Wherever a Roman colony was established, at its center would be the temples of Jupiter Capitolinus and Juno Capitolina, to mark the city as Roman. The importance of Juno and Jupiter cannot be over-emphasized. Jupiter began in the late Republican era of taking on universal aspects and absorbing the attributes of other deities. That excelerates in the imperial period.
Ceres and Neptune represent the bounty of land and sea. They are first paired, I think, by Ennius, after the Greek model, in his Euhemerius. In southern and central Italy, that is, among the Oscan speaking Italic tribes, Ceres was always paired with Jupiter. There was still that tendency in the imperial period to identify foreign goddesses, and empresses, with Ceres, so that Ceres took on a universal aspect much like Jupiter was to.
Apollo and Diana, and then Mars paired with Venus, were likewise very Greek in nature. You find these pairings in poetry more than in actual practice. Greek and lunar Diana, paired with Apollo, is a notable feature of the Augustan Ludi Saecularum however. The nature of how Romans thought of Volcanus begins to alter with His identification with Greek Hephaestus. Vesta is so central to Roman thought that the Greek association did not seem to alter Her role in the Religio Romana.
As a group, these are certainly some of the most important deities of Rome. But in practice they were never represented in celebrations again in this same manner. Other lectisternia were later held, all of which included Hercules as this one time did not. Hercules was perhaps the most important deity after Jupiter. I say that because there are more inscriptions dedicated to Him in Italy than to other deities, with Juppiter as the one exception, and an image of Hercules was found in many if not most Roman lararia. Comparable to the Di Consentes may be Varro's Dei Praecipui of twenty gods most honored at Rome and all identified with or assimulated from Greek gods. The importance may be that these deities were thought of as the celestial deities ruling over the entire world, while other deities, including ancient Roman deities, were thought of as lesser, local deities. That represented a changing theology for Rome as its empire and intellectual development began to reach new horizons.
Di deaeque te semper ament
Do you mean as a group, in pairs, or the gods and goddesses individually? First, as to which deities we speak, the Di Consentes as a group were introduced in 217 BCE when a lectisternium was held. The various deities were placed in pairs on Their respective couches as such: Juno and Jupiter; Apollo and Diana, Ceres and Neptunus, Mars and Venus, and then Vesta and Volconus. These deities were so displayed because they were identified with Greek deities. Indeed the one, Apollo, originated as a introduction from Greece, although indirectly. At Rome Apollo was solely a god of medicine, later among the poets of the Augustan era beginning to take on some of His solar aspects as Augustus was identified with Apollo. It is interesting that three of the Di Consentes were designated to have Their temples lie outside a city, so stated by Vetruvius in planning a Roman city. These were Ceres whose providence is over grain fields; Mars who defends the city from disease as well as from foreign enemies, and then too Volcanus, whose fires were not desirable inside the flammable city itself.
Wherever a Roman colony was established, at its center would be the temples of Jupiter Capitolinus and Juno Capitolina, to mark the city as Roman. The importance of Juno and Jupiter cannot be over-emphasized. Jupiter began in the late Republican era of taking on universal aspects and absorbing the attributes of other deities. That excelerates in the imperial period.
Ceres and Neptune represent the bounty of land and sea. They are first paired, I think, by Ennius, after the Greek model, in his Euhemerius. In southern and central Italy, that is, among the Oscan speaking Italic tribes, Ceres was always paired with Jupiter. There was still that tendency in the imperial period to identify foreign goddesses, and empresses, with Ceres, so that Ceres took on a universal aspect much like Jupiter was to.
Apollo and Diana, and then Mars paired with Venus, were likewise very Greek in nature. You find these pairings in poetry more than in actual practice. Greek and lunar Diana, paired with Apollo, is a notable feature of the Augustan Ludi Saecularum however. The nature of how Romans thought of Volcanus begins to alter with His identification with Greek Hephaestus. Vesta is so central to Roman thought that the Greek association did not seem to alter Her role in the Religio Romana.
As a group, these are certainly some of the most important deities of Rome. But in practice they were never represented in celebrations again in this same manner. Other lectisternia were later held, all of which included Hercules as this one time did not. Hercules was perhaps the most important deity after Jupiter. I say that because there are more inscriptions dedicated to Him in Italy than to other deities, with Juppiter as the one exception, and an image of Hercules was found in many if not most Roman lararia. Comparable to the Di Consentes may be Varro's Dei Praecipui of twenty gods most honored at Rome and all identified with or assimulated from Greek gods. The importance may be that these deities were thought of as the celestial deities ruling over the entire world, while other deities, including ancient Roman deities, were thought of as lesser, local deities. That represented a changing theology for Rome as its empire and intellectual development began to reach new horizons.
Di deaeque te semper ament
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!
Sapere aude!
-
Horatius Piscinus - Curialis
- Posts: 1194
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by Anonymous on Thu Sep 04, 2003 12:46 pm
Very interesting, but I thought the Consentes Dii included 12 Gods, while you only mentioned 10. Check out this: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/c/consentes_dii.html
You seem to have left out, Neptune and Minerva.
You seem to have left out, Neptune and Minerva.
- Anonymous
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Thu Sep 04, 2003 12:58 pm
Ave Ultor,
Pisci did mention Neptunus
. It's in bold, even.
Vale!
Draco
Pisci did mention Neptunus
. It's in bold, even.
Vale!
Draco
Gn. Dionysius Draco Invictus
-
Gnaeus Dionysius Draco - Curialis
- Posts: 1618
- Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2002 8:04 pm
- Location: Belgica
by Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Thu Sep 04, 2003 1:37 pm
Yup, the Latin name's Mercurius 
.
Draco
.
Draco
Gn. Dionysius Draco Invictus
-
Gnaeus Dionysius Draco - Curialis
- Posts: 1618
- Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2002 8:04 pm
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