Roman Mythology Thesis

Ancient Rome research project

Roman Mythology

Thesis:

By looking at Roman mythology, one can see that it is the

body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome?s legendary origins, which is important because the stories are

often concerned with politics and morality, and how individual?s personal integrity relates to his or her

responsibility to the community of Roman state.

Proving my thesis

Roman mythology was hand created by the people of Rome as a religion, it consists of many battles and stories between immortals.Roman mythology completely disregarded the idea of mortality, and said that only life after death is important.Roman gods did not have a personality, instead the looks of the god had to be inferred

The Romans usually treated their traditional events as historical, even when these have inexplicable elements. The stories are often concerned with politics and morality, and how an individual's personal honesty relates to his or her responsibility to the community or Roman state.Bravery is an important theme.

When the stories illuminate Roman religious practices, they are more concerned with ritual, augury, and tradition than with theology or cosmogony.

Roman religion and myth is complicated by the early influence of Greek religion on the Italian peninsula during Rome's protohistory, and by the later artistic imitation of Greek literary models by Roman authors. In matters of theology, the Romans were curiously eager to identify their own gods with those of the Greeks

(interpretatio graeca), and to reinterpret stories about Greek deities under the names of their Roman counterparts.[2] Rome's early myths and legends also have a dynamic relationship with Etruscan religion, less documented than that of the