THE 21 MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN GODDESSES (WITH PICTURES) - HISTORY - 2025

This list of Roman goddesses includes both traditional characters of their culture, as well as deities that were not original to their mythology. The Romans in terms of religion used to be very specific, especially when it came to designating deities. They created myths around their gods and gave them human characteristics in order to create empathy between people and their idols.

When there was nothing in their pantheon that they considered necessary to highlight, they took it from other cults. In addition, when conquering a new territory, they also included those gods in the Roman pantheon, making the new people easily assimilate.

1 - Bellona

Alessandro Turchi She is famous for being the Roman goddess of war. Originally there was no very precise description of its history, although this deity was later related to the Greek goddess Enio.

In some of the representations of Bellona, ​​she was found as the wife of the god Mars, who was the highest deity of war.

In other cases, this goddess could be seen driving a chariot, while exhibiting very unpleasant, fear-inspiring physical characteristics. In her hand she carried a torch, sword or spear.

2 - Ceres

Óscar Marín Repoller, from Wikimedia Commons She was the goddess of vegetation, crops and fertility. It was part of the main pantheon of the Romans, that is to say it was a Dii Consente. Daughter of Saturn and Ops, Ceres was also the mother of Proserpina.

It served as the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Demeter. Many are the aspects that demonstrated this. Its name is related to a root, whose meaning was to sprout.

The stories that are known of Ceres are practically a literal translation of those of Demeter.

It is said that when the Etruscans attacked Rome, the city was on the brink of starvation. The Greek scriptures were then consulted, and in 496 BC, the story of Dionysus and Demeter on Aventine was introduced to Latin worship.

3 - Cibeles

Carlos Delgado was also known to the Romans as Magna Mater or Mater Magna, which meant the Great Mother. It was a foreign divinity brought to Rome by the Empire's ties with other peoples of Asia Minor.

His cult came from Phrygia, he had power over the entire nature and personified vegetation. In 204 BC, the Roman Senate brought the black stone that symbolized the goddess Cybele to its capital.

Through time, the cult of Cybele in Rome grew and his festivals became an orgiastic event that lasted until the late Roman Empire under the name of Megalesias.

The Magna Mater was represented as a woman who wore a crown of towers, and who was accompanied by lions, or who was traveling on a chariot carried by the same wild beasts. Some consider it to be the Phrygian representation of Rhea, the mother of Zeus from Greek mythology.

4 - Diana

It was an original Italic deity of the area, worshiped by aboriginal tribes. She was the goddess of the moon, nature, hunting, as well as virginity and birth. Normally she was represented with a bow and arrows, possessing a very athletic body.

In the middle of the 5th century BC, Diana was related to the Greek story of Artemis, since then many versions were added to her story and she was considered the sister of Phoebos or Apollo.

5 - Fauna

Brbbl, from Wikimedia Commons It is described by different sources as a deity with various origins and characteristics. However, it is thought that she was the female counterpart, sister and wife, or daughter in other stories, of Fauno, who in turn was Latino's father.

Fauna was identified with good luck, which is why she was also known as Bona Dea, that is, good or favorable goddess. It was represented with characteristics similar to those of a faun.

6 - Fides

Coin with the face of Pompeia Plotina and the goddess Fides on the right. (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.

This was the goddess of fidelity to the Romans. It represented the word that a man pawned when making a promise.

Normally she was shown as an older woman, graying and older than Jupiter. That meant that respect for what someone promises is the basis of order in a society.

To make offerings the right hand should be wrapped in a white cloth.

7 - Flora

Coyau / Wikimedia Commons

She was adored by Latinos and non-Latinos from the Italic region. It is said that she had power over all flowers, both ornamental and crop.

A myth related it to the birth of the god of war; Juno became upset after the birth of Minerva from the head of Jupiter, and requested the help of Flora to have a child without the participation of her husband. Thanks to some magical flowers, Juno was able to give birth to the god Mars.

8 - Fortune

CristianChirita, from Wikimedia CommonsThis deity is believed to have been added to the pantheon of Roman gods by King Servius Tulio. He identified with abundance and the direction of life. She was known as the wife of Fors the god of chance, and was depicted with a cornucopia and a rudder.

9 - Juno

Louvre Museum She had the role of the queen of the gods. It was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Hera. Juno was the protector of women and the home, especially wives. She was one of the Dii Consentes and part of the Capitoline triad.

She was Jupiter's wife, at the same time as his sister; both gods were sons of Saturn and Ops. Juno had three children named Mars, Vulcano, and Bellona.

10 - Justice

Her original name was Iustitia. She was the personification of justice.

Her myth ensures that she lived with people on earth, but as the world was filled with bloody crimes, she had to take refuge in heaven where she became a constellation.

11 - Juventus

She was the goddess of youth, especially she protected those adolescents who had just reached the necessary age to wear the virile toga, that is, the moment they went from being children to men. Juventus was revered in Rome since before the introduction of the Capitoline triad.

Under his name many institutions were created to group young people for different purposes, especially military. Normally the boys left tributes to Juventus. At some point he assimilated with Hebe, his Greek equivalent, who was the daughter of Zeus and Hera.

12 - Moon

antmoose from Rome, Italy, via Wikimedia Commons She was once the goddess of the moon. However, when the myth of Phoebos (Apollo) and Diana became related to it, the cult of the moon was absorbed by the figure of Diana. From then on, little by little this secondary deity disappeared.

13 - Minerva

Louvre Museum Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and intellectuality, especially devoted to school. It was also related to other important activities such as war, art, and commerce.

His myth was equivalent to that of Athena for the Greeks. She was born from the head of the god Jupiter. He was part of the Capitoline triad along with his father and his wife, Juno. Despite that, he does not participate in many traditionally Latino myths.

14 - Need

The goddess of destiny. Necessity or Necessitas personified the absolute and inevitable obligation of the will of destiny. In the Greek pantheon she was known as Ananké, which represented a force that even the gods had to obey.

15 - Pax

АНО «Международный нумизматический клуб», via Wikimedia Commons It was the deified representation of peace. In times of conflict, the Romans asked him to restore order in the city. Her cult began approximately in the 1st century BC. Her Greek equivalent was Irene.

16 - Proserpine

Dante Gabriel Rossetti She was the goddess of the underworld and also, at the beginning, she was related to agriculture, especially the germination phase of the grain.

The cult of Proserpina began in approximately 249 BC, in the city of Tarentum where a temple was erected for her and a stone was discovered that already had the name of this goddess inscribed. It is said that she assimilated the features of the Greek goddess Persephone. She was the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter.

Her myth says that when she was kidnapped by Pluto, her mother started looking for her all over the earth without finding anything else. Later, Pluto accepted that Proserpina live 6 months with her mother and six months with him in the Underworld.

Every time Proserpina visited Ceres the land would dress with flowers in spring and when Proserpina returned to the underworld everything would wither.

17 - Tellus

It was also known by the name Terra Mater, which means "the motherland." This was the goddess of the planet and the earth. It represented a Roman equivalent for the Greek pantheon goddess Gaia, the mother of the Titans.

The goddess Tellus did not possess a myth; However, it was identified as the primordial element from which the rest of the races emerged, that is, the gods. It was thought that it had its male counterpart, which was called Tellumo, since the Romans always liked to create a complement of the opposite gender.

18 - Venus

This was an ancient Latin goddess venerated since ancient times by the inhabitants of the area. Venus, originally, was linked to the protection of orchards. Prior to the founding of the city of Rome, the goddess owned a cult site near Ardea.

From the second century BC, her characteristics were assimilated with those of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. From then on, she also happened to be the goddess of love, beauty and sexuality, and was one of the Dii Consentes.

19 - Vesta

Lalupa, from Wikimedia Commons She was the fire goddess of the hearth, which was understood as the center of the house of the Romans. She belonged to the group of the Dii Consentes since she was one of the main figures in the pantheon of Latinos.

Her cult was one of the most important in Roman religion and was attended by the Grand Pontiff and the Vestals, who were virgin priestesses who consecrated their lives in the service of this goddess.

Vestals had to belong to important families and were ordained at 10 years of age. Her job was to keep Vesta's fire burning. That flame represented the same goddess and if it were extinguished it would constitute a misfortune for all the people of Rome.

His cult was introduced to the city by its own founder, Romulus. The sacred animal of the goddess was the donkey and in Vestalias, festivals in honor of the deity, these animals wore flower crowns and did not work.

Vesta was one of the daughters of Saturn and Ops. She was also considered as the goddess of fidelity and the heart.

20 - Victory

Ailura, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT It was the divine representation of victory. It is considered as the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike. Victoria was always shown as a winged female figure who placed a laurel wreath on the temples of the victors.

The cult of this goddess was very important to the Romans, who erected numerous altars in her honor, in addition to giving her an important place in representations made both on coins and in art in general.

It is believed that when the Catholic religion spread through Roman civilization, the figure of angels was taken from the references that existed in the empire of Victoria.

Extra: 21 - Rome

Dea Roma, via Wikimedia Commons The Romans liked to recreate in their pantheon those things that they considered important, so they included a goddess called Roma, who represented the Roman State. Some debate whether the representation of Rome was a female figure wearing a helmet or whether it was that of an Amazon.

Others consider that Rome was not properly a goddess, but rather a genius, that is, a spirit that protected the city, the State and its people.

However, as the Roman Empire expanded, the cult of Rome also expanded its borders, as a way to bring unity to the inhabitants of distant lands and make them feel part of a great entity.

Mussolini took advantage of the ancient figure of the goddess Rome, as well as the State and Empire, to invoke nationalism in the Italian people.

References

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