Honor the Gods and Goddesses With This Roman Mythology Quiz

A Roman original, the god Janus was always depicted as having two faces on the same neck — one looking to the future and the other to the past. His face could be found in doorways, or “jani,” throughout Rome, as well as on Roman coins. This two-faced depiction of Janus continued beyond the fall of Rome, and is found in medieval art, iconography, and architecture.

After escaping the destruction of ancient Troy, Aeneas set forth on an epic adventure that eventually resulted in Rome’s founding. In the tale, Aeneas is the son of the Roman goddess Venus and Anchises, a member of the Trojan royal family, and is also an ancestor of Romulus and Emperor Augustus. After his death, Aeneas’ mother begs for her son’s deification, and Aeneas becomes the god Jupiter Indiges.

Mars is more than just a protector of Rome — he’s also its progenitor, at least according to Roman mythology, which says the god of war fathered Romulus and Remus, the future founders of Rome, with a sworn-to-celibacy Vestal Virgin named Rhea Silvia. Although they were condemned to death by the king of Alba Longa (an ancient Latin city), the twins, according to legend, survived an attempted drowning and were nursed back to health by a she-wolf.

Held in mid-December, Saturnalia was an ancient pagan festival honoring the god of agriculture, Saturn. During the weeklong celebrations, Romans decorated their homes with wreaths and other greenery while gifting friends terracotta figurines called signillaria. Because the Bible gives no date for Jesus’ birth (scholars think it was likely the spring), early Christianity incorporated the pagan festival into its own traditions.

Much of Rome’s mythology derives from ancient Greece, and few Romans added chapters to these divine dramas. Chief among them was Virgil (70 BCE to 19 BCE), whose epic poem “Aeneid” tells the story of the legendary Trojan Aeneas as he flees his city’s destruction before setting the course of Rome’s founding. Additionally, the narrative poem “Metamorphoses,” written by Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE to circa 17 CE), covers everything from the creation of the world to the rise of the Roman Empire.

The Roman gods Jupiter, Bacchus, and Neptune are based on their Greek counterparts Zeus, Dionysius, and Poseidon, respectively, but Janus is a wholly Latin creation. Janus is the god of doorways, and many ceremonial gates throughout Rome were named “jani.” Janus also stood for beginnings, making him a fitting god for the inspiration of the name of the first month of the year, January.

All the planets in the solar system are named after Roman gods, with two major exceptions: Earth and Uranus. While the word “Earth” has unrelated Germanic roots, Uranus is the name of a primordial god in Greek mythology. Because this planet had the farthest known orbit at the time it was named, Uranus — the mythological grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronus (Saturn) — was proposed by astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1782.

Earth is associated with the Roman deity Terra. Her Greek counterpart was Gaia, and to this day, some Romance languages use “terra” or “terre” to refer to Earth. Many science fiction shows have also imagined distant futures where earthlings are instead referred to as “terrans.”

The Roman goddess Proserpina was said to spend the fall and winter months in the underworld. She was kidnapped and taken there by Jupiter as punishment for eating forbidden pomegranate seeds, but her mother, Ceres, struck a deal with the god of the underworld: In the spring and summer she’d live on Earth with Ceres, and then would return to Hades in the colder months.

In Roman mythology, Cerberus was a fierce three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to the underworld. He was tasked with keeping out trespassers, and also stopping dead souls from escaping. In addition to having three heads, he shared a characteristic with the Greek monster Medusa: Both had hair (or in Cerberus’ case, a mane) made of snakes.

Generally keeping to herself in the woods, the Roman goddess Diana ruled nature, wild animals, and hunting. She used a bow and arrow during her hunts and was known as a master archer. The Romans ascribed three aspects to her: the hunt, the moon, and the underworld, as she protected the boundary between the living and the dead.

Though Minerva, whose Greek counterpart was Athena, was most commonly known as the goddess of war, she was initially an Italian goddess of handicrafts. In one myth, a girl named Arachne claimed to be a better weaver than the goddess, and the two held a competition. Minerva decided Arachne lost, and in retaliation for her bragging, Arachne was turned into a spider.

Known as Liber in Roman and Dionysus in Greek, the deity Bacchus often enjoyed a splendid glass of wine — a beverage of which he was the ruling god. He didn’t only rule over wine, however; Bacchus was also the god of agriculture, fertility, and the theater. He was always ready for a party, and is commonly depicted as jovial and drunk.

In Roman mythology, Mercury was a messenger god and had wings on his feet to expedite deliveries. He was also the god of commerce — when traders wanted increased profits, they prayed to Mercury. Since Mercury oversaw correspondence and circulation, he was also responsible for escorting people to the underworld.

Neptune, the god of the water and sea, carried a trident, a three-pronged fisherman’s spear. Like his Greek counterpart Poseidon, Neptune used the trident both as a weapon and to create bodies of water. Typically, Neptune was depicted riding in a shell-shaped chariot pulled by sea creatures or horses.

Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and home (and most closely related to the Greek god Hestia), was one of Rome’s most important deities. She was the only god with a full-time clergy, known as Vestal Virgins — Roman women who took a vow of chastity and protected the sacred fire at the shrine of Vesta in the Roman Forum.

On September 8, 1966, the world was introduced to “Star Trek,” along with the USS Enterprise, its captain, James T. Kirk, and its first officer, a Vulcan known as Spock. Vulcan was the Roman god of fire, and inspired the name of a planet that 19th-century astronomers believed existed between the sun and Mercury.

The mythology of the ancient Romans was largely based on the myths of their Mediterranean neighbors, the ancient Greeks. When Rome acquired the nearby Greek territories in the second century BCE, the Romans adopted many of the Greek gods and goddesses — although they changed the names of the deities and updated some of the stories to appeal to a Roman audience.

Derived from “pan,” meaning “all,” and “theos,” meaning “gods,” the Pantheon was completed in 128 CE and is dedicated (as its name suggests) to all the gods of ancient Rome. Its most recognizable feature, the massive dome, remained the world’s largest dome until modern times. The temple survived Rome’s many centuries of change to inspire Michelangelo and even the design of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

This ancient myth is still familiar today: If you’re struck by Cupid’s arrow, it means you’ve fallen in love. The god was most often shown as a baby, sometimes one wearing armor. He came by his loving personality naturally; his mother was Venus, the goddess of love.

According to legend, Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, founded the city of Rome. The location wasn’t an easy decision; each brother wanted the city founded on a different hill, and when Romulus began building walls on Palatine Hill, Remus (who wanted the city on Aventine Hill) taunted him. In response, Romulus killed Remus, marking the birth of Rome.