Roman gods are not Greek gods: Mars
To start this series, I think the best deity to exemplify the difference between Greek and Roman gods is Mars, the Roman equivalent of Ares.
Everybody knows Ares. The cruel and bloodthirsty god of war, a deity who enjoys bloodbaths and massacres, the twin brother of strife and discord, the father of terror and panic, an embodiment of brutality and violence existing to oppose the most rational, civilized, intelligent and honorable form of war practiced by Athena, deity of strategy, peace and wisdom.
And yet, when you look at Mars, over in Rome… While he is indeed a god of war, like Ares, he has absolutely none of the “dark” or “ugly” sides of Ares. He isn’t a brute, he isn’t mindless, he isn’t a god of carnage feared by all. He isn’t a god of destruction. In fact, he is the sole embodiment of the “good war”. All of Athena’s symbolism as the “goddess of the right way to wage war” can be found in Mars, and all of Ares’ symbolism as the “god of the wrong way to wage war” is thrown out of the window, nowhere to be seen. The reason why is in my general introduction: the Romans were soldiers at heart. Roman culture was a military culture. Waging war and sending legions to conquer their neighbors was how Rome asserted itself as a great power, how the city-state grew into an empire, how the Romans built themselves as people. The army was the main way to maintain order and control in the various provinces of the Empire ; being a soldier was one of the most common careers of a Roman, and the military hierarchy was just a common way of climbing the social ladder ; a part of the nobility of Rome was of military origins. War was a big, big thing for Ancient Rome – and as a result they did not had any “negative” view of war (unlike the Greeks who constantly lived in the fear of both barbarian invasions and civil war among themselves). For them, a god of war would be the god that helped their culture affirm itself, that helped their empire grow, that was present in their everyday life, that maintained order in their lands and that helped structure their very society. And this is why Mars is a “good” god of war, unlike Ares.
To illustrate this, the cult of Mars was heavily centered around shields – showing that he embodied a war and a military supposed to protect as much as it should attack. He was a god that generals prayed to before going on any military campaign, offerings were given to him before any battle, and if the Romans were victorious it was him they thanked. In fact, Mars was often depicted in the company of personifications of victory, such as Victoria or Vitula. Yes, he was also escorted by deities that inflicted terror on his enemies, similar to the Greek Phobos and Deimos (here Pavor and Pallor), but he also counted among his companion allegories such as Honor or Virtus – the very concept of honor and courage, for Mars was a god of bravery and the keeper of the moral code of warriors. His war was one of virtue and discipline, not of chaos and wickedness.
But this is all just one of the two main aspects of Mars – the other being… flowers. Yep. A flower god. Now we’re really not in Kansas anymore – you imagine Ares as a god of flowers? As I said in my general introduction, the Romans were primarily “farmer-soldiers”, with a very… rustic and agricultural pantheon before the massive Hellenization. And Mars is the “perfect” Roman god because he literally has both sides: a god of war and a god of plants. In his “primitive”, more Latin incarnation, Mars started out as a protector of vegetation and a deity making sure that nature flourished – his festivals were during the third month of the year, the month of March (named after him) and coincided with the opening of the tree-buds and the apparition of the first flowers, making him a god of spring.
While he lost most of his agricultural functions to Ceres and Liber Pater as Rome became a much more military nation, he still kept several traits of his primal characterization – for example his old epithet “Gradivus”, originally tied to “grandiri” (to grow, to become tall) was reinterpreted as tied to “gradi, gradus” (to march, to step) and from a god helping plants grow he became the god of the marching soldiers, aka infantrymen – it was on Mars Gradivus that generals and soldiers swore an oath to be valorous in battle. There is also how soldier’s prayers for Mars to protect their weapons and blade from “rust” originated as prayers by farmers to have their wheat protected from another type of “rust”, a special type of wheat fungus. The fact he was celebrated in spring became more than just a celebration of him “waking up” nature and giving back life to strength and plants – he was also perceived as “waking up” bravery and courage in men’s hearts. Because, with the end of winter, battles and military operations could start again (they were usually “paused” during the winter). And thus “war and prosperity” became seen by the Romans as just two sides of the same coin, and spring as the season of both flowers and soldiers. Mars was perceived as the god of “virility”, and for the Romans virility was as much a social virtue AND the very concept of life force – virility was the way a soldier or general had to be, but it was also virility that helped crops grow and that helped create plants.
A last interesting way the two sides of Mars were united is through his spear. Mars’ iconic weapon was his spear (the two items of his military cult were the shield and the spear) – and often said spear was depicted as wrapped in laurel garlands. While originally a symbol reflecting his role as a vegetation god, the idea of garlands of leaves and flowers became associated with victory in battle and peace after war – which is why for example a crown of laurel became a symbol of a champion, winner or conquerer in Rome.
Other important facts about Mars:
# Mars had a very important role in Roman history, and was thus seen as one of the “ancestor” gods of the Roman civilization. He was said to have been the father of Romulus and Remus, the brothers who actually built the city of Rome ; and he helped the second legendary king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, by offering him a magical shield that was tied to Rome’s fate and would help protect the city as long as it stayed undamaged. This important role led to him being actually called “father” in religion: Mars Pater, Father Mars (which is a name also present in earlier incarnation of the god as “Marspiter” or “Maspiter”).
# In fact, Mars was one of the most prominent and important Roman gods, with temples present everywhere. It is said that he was one of the gods of the “archaic triad” (the triad of main gods of early Roman religion), alongside Jupiter (imagine: Mars was equal to Jupiter!) and a purely Roman deity known as “Quirinus”. What is slightly confusing however is that while sometimes Quirinus and Mars are treated as separate, other times they are treated as one of the same: “Mars Quirinus” was one of the aspects of Mars, as the god of the “quirites” (citizens of Rome), the protector of Rome’s civilians, as well as the keeper of treaties and oaths ensuring peace as a whole.
# Ovid actually gave Mars a birth legend that was the one of Hephaistos in the Hesiodic tradition: Juno/Hera, jealous of seeing Jupiter/Zeus giving birth to a child on his own (Minerva/Athena), decided in retaliation to also give birth to a child on her own. But unlike Hesiod’s Theogony where Hera worked on her own and the result was an imperfect, deformed baby ; in Ovid’s tales, Juno asked for the help of the goddess Flora, who offered her a magical flower that impregnated the goddess and led to the birth of Mars. (This legend furthers highlights the “vegetation” aspect of Mars).
# While March became the “third month” of the Roman calendar, with the month of January (named after the god Janus) marking the new year ; originally March was the first month of the early Roman calendar, and on the first day of this month (so the first day of the year) was celebrated the Matronalia, a festival of mother and married women centered around Juno. It was also thought to be the day Juno gave birth to Mars. Thus, the birth of Mars, god of vegetation, from the mother-goddess, by a magical flower, was the original opening of the Roman year – a year which, as you can see, in the agricultural lifestyle of early Romans was entirely centered around nature, beginning with the rebirth of vegetation and ending with the “death” of plants in winter.
# While Ares’ sacred animals reflected his nastier side (the destructive boar blinded by rage, the corpse-eating vulture), Mars’ sacred animals were the woodpecker, the bear and the wolf. The latter was very important – a she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus, Rome’s founders, as babes, and thus the wolf became the symbol of the “nurse and nurturer” of Rome, it became the animal of the defense of Rome, and the very representation of Rome itself.
# Ares had a female divine companion, which was a purely Roman goddess and the main “warrior goddess” instead of Athena/Minerva – it was Bellona, goddess of war, sometimes said to be the sister, daughter or wife of Mars. But while she was the main war goddess of the Roman pantheon, she was not the equivalent of Athena at all – in fact, in a true ironic twist, Bellona was said to be a more brutal and savage deity than Mars, asking for mutilation and blood in her sacrifices, and being escorted by the Roman version of Eris (Discordia) and by the Furies (Roman Erynies). So overall, Bellona was more of a “true” equivalent of Ares, while Mars is more of an equivalent of Athena… Mars also had another consort-goddess which was sometimes equated with Bellona: Nerio, the personification of “valor” – and just like Mars, she had a dual nature as both embodying a social virtue, a form of “majestic power” (valor as we understand it today), and a manifestation of the vital force and life-power.
# As you can deduce from above – the whole thing of Mars and Venus being in love actually did not exist until the Hellenization of the Roman religion. It was then that the love story of Ares and Aphrodite was brought over, and forced upon the Roman gods, even though Mars and Venus had nothing to do together prior to that. However, while the Romans quickly adopted the Mars and Venus love, they kind of ditched a very important aspect of the Greek story: the adultery. It was present in the first manifestations of the Greek tale in Rome, but the Romans did not like to speak of such vile or unpleasant things like adultery (unlike rape for example, which Romans ADORED), and so it did not stick. This tale fascinated the poets, the artists, the philosophers, precisely because they adored the beauty and idea of Love and War being united as a couple, and so they refuse to have it be presented in a negative light like the Greek did. Ares and Aphrodite’s relationship wasn’t a love story, but an infidelity story almost turning into a grotesque farce – it was the Romans who romanticized and embellished Mars and Venus’ relationship into a beautiful love story, to the point that the two deities were implied or considered to be married to each other, and were seen as the ideal model for married couples. It helped that both were consider the “parent gods” of Rome, Mars as the “father” through Romulus/Remus, Venus as the “mother” through Aeneas. An interesting thing concerning the Mars-Venus relationship: in Roman depictions of the relationship, Venus is always presented in a dominating or leading position, while Mars is often shown in a submissive, relaxed, rested way, often disrobed, disarmed, if not outright nude or sleeping. As I said, the Mars-Venus relationship was heavily perceived through poetic and philosophical lenses, and as a result these depictions wanted to insist on how Love actually brings calm, peace and rest in War, allowing War to leave its weapons and abandon itself to pleasures and quietness.
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