Founding myths

Main article: Founding of Rome

The Aeneid and Livy's early history are the best extant sources for Rome's founding myths. Material
from Greek heroic legend was grafted onto this native stock at an early date. The Trojan
prince Aeneas was cast as husband of Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, patronymical ancestor of
the Latini, and therefore through a convoluted revisionist genealogy as forebear of Romulus and
Remus. By extension, the Trojans were adopted as the mythical ancestors of the Roman people. [5]

Other myths

Mucius Scaevola in the Presence of Lars Porsenna (early 1640s) by Matthias Stom

Polyphemus  hears of the arrival of Galatea; ancient Roman fresco painted in the "Fourth Style" of

Pompeii (45–79 AD)

The characteristic myths of Rome are often political or moral, that is, they deal with the development
of Roman government in accordance with divine law, as expressed by Roman religion, and with
demonstrations of the individual's adherence to moral expectations (mos maiorum) or failures to do
so.

 Rape of the Sabine women, explaining the importance of the Sabines in the formation of
Roman culture, and the growth of Rome through conflict and alliance.
 Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome who consorted with
the nymph Egeria and established many of Rome's legal and religious institutions.
 Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, whose mysterious origins were freely
mythologized and who was said to have been the lover of the goddess Fortuna.
 The Tarpeian Rock, and why it was used for the execution of traitors.
 Lucretia, whose self-sacrifice prompted the overthrow of the early Roman monarchy and
led to the establishment of the Republic.
  Cloelia, a Roman woman taken hostage by Lars Porsena. She escaped the Clusian
camp with a group of Roman virgins.
 Horatius at the bridge, on the importance of individual valor.
 Mucius Scaevola, who thrust his right hand into the fire to prove his loyalty to Rome.
 Caeculus and the founding of Praeneste.[6]
 Manlius and the geese, about divine intervention at the Gallic siege of Rome.[7]
 Stories pertaining to the Nonae Caprotinae and Poplifugia festivals.[8]
 Coriolanus, a story of politics and morality.
 The Etruscan city of Corythus as the "cradle" of Trojan and Italian civilization.[9]
 The arrival of the Great Mother (Cybele) in Rome.[10]

Religion and myth

Main article: Religion in ancient Rome

Narratives of divine activity played a more important role in the system of Greek religious belief than
among the Romans, for whom ritual and cult were primary. Although Roman religion did not have a
basis in scriptures and exegesis, priestly literature was one of the earliest written forms of Latin
prose.[11] The books (libri) and commentaries (commentarii) of the College of Pontiffs and of
the augurs contained religious procedures, prayers, and rulings and opinions on points of religious
law.[12] Although at least some of this archived material was available for consultation by the Roman
senate, it was often occultum genus litterarum,[13] an arcane form of literature to which by definition
only priests had access.[14] Prophecies pertaining to world history and to Rome's destiny turn up
fortuitously at critical junctures in history, discovered suddenly in the nebulous Sibylline books,
which Tarquin the Proud (according to legend) purchased in the late 6th century BC from
the Cumaean Sibyl. Some aspects of archaic Roman religion survived in the lost theological works
of the 1st-century BC scholar Varro, known through other classical and Christian authors.

Capitoline Triad

The earliest pantheon included Janus, Vesta, and a leading so-called Archaic Triad of Jupiter, Mars,
and Quirinus, whose flamens were of the highest order. According to tradition, Numa Pompilius,
the Sabine second king of Rome, founded Roman religion; Numa was believed to have had as his
consort and adviser a Roman goddess or nymph of fountains and of prophecy, Egeria. The
Etruscan-influenced Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva later became central to official
religion, replacing the Archaic Triad – an unusual example within Indo-European religion of a
supreme triad formed of two female deities and only one male. The cult of Diana became
established on the Aventine Hill, but the most famous Roman manifestation of this goddess may
be Diana Nemorensis, owing to the attention paid to her cult by J.G. Frazer in
the mythographical classic The Golden Bough.