Gods, Goddesses, and Ancient Legends
Julian Crestwood 
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.
When Rome’s legionary eagles were captured at Carrhae in 53 BCE, the Romans didn’t just mourn a military defeat — they mourned a religious catastrophe. The aquila wasn’t a flag. It was a sacred object, and its loss was a rupture in Rome’s relationship with Jupiter himself.
The Romans had a precise wreath for every kind of achievement — oak for saving a citizen’s life, grass for relieving a siege, gold for valor. The laurel outranked almost all of them. Understanding why means understanding what Apollo’s grief over a transformed nymph had to do with the most powerful men in Rome.