by canberk |
Last Updated: January 28, 2022 Older faiths had a large number of gods. Romans created deities for anything and everything we could imagine to be significant or powerful. For example, Romans formed gods of thunder when we witnessed thunder rolling across the sky.
Romans built gods of water out of the crashing waves of the sea when we saw them.
After that, though, we didn’t rest there. Apollo and Jupiter are two of the most famous Roman gods, although many others. For everything you can think of, Romans’ve created gods—even ones you didn’t think we needed.
8 Weirdest Roman Goddesses and Gods
So we listed weird Roman gods here for you to be stunned:
- Cardea
- Terminus
- Devera
- Febris
- Cloacina
- Liber
- Dis Pater
- Orcus
If you are interested in mythology, you can check Weird Aztec Gods too!
Cardea
Cardea, the Roman goddess of hinges and doors, may not be well-known today, but she had an important role in Roman religion. As part of the Roman pantheon of gods, she had her own legendary past. So she wasn’t merely a minor deity or luck charm.
She guarded the home, keeping the evil spirits and bloodsucking monsters known as Striga out. These monsters were believed to prey on children in particular, drawing blood from them. Cardea was known to be using hawthorn sprigs, a sacred plant used for luck and protection, to keep these creatures away.
Terminus
Terminus was one of the first gods that the Romans created. He was the deity of landmarks and boundary stones erected by the Romans, and he was not to be messed with.
You were in danger if you moved one of his stones, which he referred to as termini.
Everyone in Rome had the legal right to pursue and kill you the instant you pushed a terminal out of position.
For someone who had enraged Terminus, simply dying was a fortunate fate. “Whosoever shall take away this, or shall order it to be taken away, may he die the last of his family,” the inscriptions on his stones warned.
Romans and Greeks not the only ones who worshipped Gods for many things, you can also browse the list of weird Hindu gods here.
Devera
It’s common to think of Devera as a goddess of brooms, but this isn’t entirely the whole picture. One of the Roman deities, Devera, was believed to be present during childbirth. She was a guardian for midwives and mothers-to-be.
In addition to this, she was also known to use brooms in her work. An exceptional broom was at hand.
Of course, the Romans had a lot of temples, and they needed to be cleaned and sanitized. Consequently, the brooms used to purify these hallowed places were associated with Devera. She was depicted as a broom-wielding deity who protected pregnant women by sweeping away evil.
Febris
Roman goddess Febris was depicted as a personification of fever. Because she could both bring and treat fever, she was both a terrible and a benevolent deity. While Apollo was a god of healing, he also had a reputation for causing the plague; Febris, as a goddess of fever, dealt with a particular specific type of sickness. This type of dualism was widespread among the gods, but Febris dealt with only one type of illness.
Februus, a Roman god of purification, is formerly an aspect of Februus, who eventually became a divinity in her own right.
Cloacina
In addition to being weird Roman goddess, Cloacina’s work was also a little disgusting. She was a goddess of filth and beauty who ruled over the sewers of Rome.
Cloacina, sadly, appears to have had a more pleasurable past ,and less smelly role. When she was included in the Roman pantheon, she was an Etruscan goddess who had been given a new duty and responsibility.
In Rome, Cloacina was a goddess revered, and there are ruins of a shrine to her in the Roman Forum, where she was worshipped.
Proper sewage is crucial for any city, as any leak into the water supply might lead to the spread of dreadful diseases like cholera, which is why it’s not something that people enjoy thinking about.
Cloacina’s job may seem insignificant and disgusting today for a goddess, but in the ancient Roman world, she would have given a vital service in keeping the sewers clean and functioning. This situation makes her one of the weird Roman gods.
Liber
Liber’s origins are mostly unknown; he was undoubtedly worshiped in Italy for a long time and accompanied by his female partner Libera, but he was a significant god in the Roman pantheon.
He was a strange conflation of rights, masculinity, fertility, and partying, as well as the deity of male fertility, the passage to adulthood, the bounty of the crop, and the common person.
Perhaps the best term to describe it is “liberty.” The Liberalia celebration in Rome was devoted to him for a month, during which a gigantic penis was paraded around, ostensibly to safeguard the crops, as penises are wont to do.
Liber was eventually supplanted by Dionysis, the Greek god of wine, who was called Bacchus, but Liber’s worship persisted, morphing into cults known for sexual free-for-alls and the occasional murder.
We also listed the weird Greek Gods, you can check them here.
Dis Pater
Dis Pater was a weird Roman god of earthly riches in his early years, such as fertile land and valuable minerals. However, because he came to represent the underworld’s treasures, he was transformed into a god of death. To move from the god of gems and stuff to the god of the place where people go when they die is a weird association, which is probably why he was subsumed into Pluto when the Greek gods arrived.
Pluto, the deity of the underworld, was a considerably more striking and imposing figure.
Orcus
Early in Rome’s history, the Etruscans were a group of people living near Rome and subjugated.
As a result, Orcus is thought to have been the Etruscan deity of death and the afterlife. Orcus eventually came to represent the more evil, monstrous aspects of the afterlife. He was viewed as a demonic tormentor of the damned and mostly worshiped on farms rather than cities. He remained a divinity long after Dis Pater had vanished into Pluto.
Weird fact: The name Orcus inspired J.R.R. Tolkien for orcs in his The Lord of the Rings.
Conclusion
Many people have pondered and been mesmerized by the darker side of human nature due to our Roman ancestors’ creativity in generating these myths and stories. So, the doctrines of many of today’s religions often hinder this freedom of thought.
While there are many weird Roman gods and goddesses on this list, there are certainly others who are being overlooked.