The Gods are called the Pantheon (Pan means ‘all’ in Latin) They live in Mt. Olympus (which is like a heaven) They have power over humans and can interfere in humans lives whenever they wish. Humans in ancient Greece and Rome worshipped the gods. They would worship them and pray to them when they needed help in a specific area. For example if someone needed assistance during childbirth or marriage, they would pray to Juno, as she was in charge of that area. They would worship the god by sacrifice – this involved taking an animal to an alter, saying a prayer and killing the animal by cutting it’s throat. This would be done as a gift to the god, and in return the gods should answer your prayer. The term used to describe this is ‘Quid pro quo’ (meaning something for something) religion was like a contract for the people in ancient Greece and Rome.
Connections between the Gods.
Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto and Juno are all brothers and sisters
Juno and Jupiter are married. Mars is their son.
Jupiter had many affairs with humans so he had many children:
Jupiter gave birth to Minerva out of his head (so that is why she represents wisdom)
Jupiter is also father to Venus. She was born out of the sea.
Jupiter is father to Apollo and Diana too.
Venus gave birth to Aeneas (the main character in the book we study)
Mercury is Jupiter’s private messenger
Heroes – There were Heroes in ancient Greek and Roman mythology – one well known Hero was Hercules. The hero of the book we study, is Aeneas. Heroes were below gods but above Humans. They often had god like qualities. Usually one of their parents was a god. For example, Aeneas’ mother was the goddess Venus, but his father was Anchises, a mortal.