Home›Roman Deities›Interpretatio OfBrowse ByInterpretatio OfThis page groups deities by the foreign god that ancient writers equated them with, the old habit of mapping one culture's gods onto another's. Wikipedia describes this practice, known as interpretatio graeca when the Greeks did it, as "a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures using familiar terms." Browsing this way lets a visitor see how, for example, a Roman writer might treat a Gaulish or Egyptian god as another name for one of their own.FactsLearn MoreInterpretatio OfSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedThe gods of Roman public and household religion, a tradition defined more by correct performance of rite and by divine function than by narrative. Rome's major gods were progressively identified with Greek ones and much of the myth attached to them is Greek; the archaic priesthoods, the festival calendar and figures such as Janus and Vesta are where the native religion is clearest. 2AttestationEra of AttestationWell-attestedAttested from the sixth century BCE in inscriptions and in the archaic festival calendar; the public cult ended with the imperial legislation of 391 to 392 CE. 2Veneration TodayWell-attestedThe public cult was ended by law in late antiquity; no continuous worship survives. 2DirectoryCategoryWell-attestedDeities 1Learn MoreThe gods of Rome This group holds the deities of ancient Roman religion. Roman worship began with native Italic and household gods and a strong sense of divine functions and rites, and over time identified its major gods with those of Greece, adopting much of Greek myth in the process. The browser will find the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, along with Mars, Venus, Neptune, Mercury and the rest of the Olympian equivalents, as well as distinctively Roman figures such as Janus, the two-faced god of doorways and beginnings, and Vesta of the hearth. The entries note the Greek counterpart of each syncretised god.Interpretatio OfFilter Results1 entryAttributes and IconographyAllHe is shown crowned with a radiant solar halo, driving a four horse chariot whose team is individually named in later sources as Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon and Phlegon. (1)Domain / FunctionAllSun (1)Era of Attestation End YearAll400 (1)Era of Attestation Start YearAll800 BCE (1)GenderAllMale (1)Historical NoteAllThe Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was a bronze statue of Helios erected around 280 BC to celebrate the island's successful defense against siege, and it stood for only about fifty six years before an earthquake toppled it. (1)HistoricityAllNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being (1)Key TextAllThe Homeric Hymn to Helios describes the sun god driving his chariot across the sky each day, his radiant helmet lighting the faces of gods and mortals alike, an image later famously monumentalized in the Colossus of Rhodes erected in his honor. (1)LineageAllHesiod's Theogony reckons Helios a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, making him brother to Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn; the three siblings together were read by later mythographers as the sun, moon and dawn personified as one Titan generation. (1)Mythic AssociationAllBecause he sees everything from on high, he is the witness who tells Demeter of Persephone's abduction and who exposes the affair of Aphrodite and Ares; his son Phaethon lost control of the sun chariot and scorched the earth, and his daughter is the sorceress Circe. (1)The nymph Clytie, spurned once Helios transferred his love to Leucothoe, is said to have pined away watching his daily course until she turned into the heliotrope, a flower that still turns to follow the sun. (1)Origin AccountAllThe myth of Phaethon, Helios's mortal son, recounts him begging to drive his father's sun chariot for a single day to prove his divine parentage, only to lose control of the horses and scorch the earth so badly that Zeus was forced to strike him down with a thunderbolt to prevent the world's total destruction. (1)Origin of the NameAllHelios is the Greek word for the sun itself, so the god and the sun share a single name in Greek usage. (1)Place of ActivityAllIn Greek cosmology Helios's daily course runs from the river Oceanus in the east to Oceanus again in the west, where each evening he boards a golden cup or bowl that ferries him back across the northern edge of the world overnight to his eastern starting point by dawn. (1)Principal Cult CentreAllRhodes, whose colossal bronze statue the Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to Helios, was his most celebrated cult centre. (1)TheologyAllPolytheistic: many gods (1)Veneration TodayAllHistorically attested; no continuous cult (1)Worship and PracticeAllRhodes held Helios as its patron deity, and ancient sources record that the island annually cast a four horse chariot into the sea as an offering to him, a rite connected to the belief that the god needed a fresh team each day to drive his sun chariot across the sky. (1)HeliosInterpretatio Of1 entrySources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editiontier 1Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012s.v. religion, RomanView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. 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