Roman Mythology

Discover Mars Gradivus, the Roman god who led armies into battle and symbolized disciplined movement and military power.

Discover what Mars represented in Roman mythology, from war and discipline to protection, identity, expansion, and power.

Discover the epithets of Mars and how his many forms reveal his roles in war, protection, and Roman life.

Discover the powers of Mars, from war and discipline to protection, victory, and the strength that shaped Rome.

Discover what Venus represented in Roman mythology, from love and fertility to power, identity, and the origins of Rome.

Explore the relationship between Venus and Vulcan and what it reveals about love, marriage, and desire in Roman mythology.

In 508 BCE, one man held the Etruscan army at a bridge long enough for Rome to destroy it. His name was Publius Horatius Cocles. He survived, which surprised everyone including him.

Tarpeia is one of the few figures in Roman mythology told entirely without sympathy. She opened Rome's gates for gold, died under a pile of Sabine shields, and gave her name to the cliff from which the Republic threw its traitors. Her story was never meant to be complicated — it was meant to be remembered.

Romulus built Rome with a sword. Numa built it with a calendar, a priesthood, and a nymph he met in a grove at night. The Romans remembered both kings, but they credited Numa with something Romulus could not give them: the gods' cooperation.

Aeneas was the son of Venus and the man the Romans chose as their mythological ancestor. Not the strongest hero of the ancient world. Not the most dramatic. The one who carried his father out of a burning city and kept going.

Romulus killed his brother to found Rome, abducted the Sabine women to populate it, ruled for thirty-seven years, and then vanished in a storm. The Romans deified him. They also suspected the senators had torn him apart.

The Greeks called him Heracles and made him a tragic hero. The Romans called him Hercules, gave him actual divine cult worship, and made him the model for what a human being could become through suffering and virtue.