Roman mythology - Jupiter

[JeffF]

Were the Roman myths of Jupiter identical to the Greek myths of Zeus? Was Jupiter the son of Kronos (or whatever name the Romans might have for the leader of the Ztitans)? Did they have their own myths of Jupiter's birth and becomng the king of the gods?

[Lyceum]

I can answer this largely from a Hellenist's point of view actually, which is probably rather helpful given how insanely messed up Roman Religion is.

Well the idea of Roman deities essentially being Greek has long since passed in the academic world, especially in specialist circles, though it has as much purchase as ever outside of academia it seems.

You have to bear in mind the following: a) the poor attested sources before the end of the Republic b) Greek influence c) The ever present Etruscan influence and d) that the Greek influence was varied and itself heavily subject to Near Eastern influence.

Generally speaking it ought to be said that one of the principal differences between Greek and Roman religions is that the Romans were considerably more conservative whilst the Greeks were much more Mediterranean.

To take your example of the story of how Zeus became king of the gods (in the Theogony and elsewhere) well this is originally a Hittite narrative, itself having several bits of Hattian influence. If you search around for the term "kingship in Heaven" you'll get most of the academic literature on it (Walcott, West, Parker, etc etc) in the Hellenic world itself there were many variations of this story (see Pausanias 8 which has Poseidon take Zeus' place) and it didn't always have much, if any, religious authority in Greece.

So if this one example is so multi faceted, how are we to trace direct influence onto Rome? As it stands, we can't. When it comes to religion we can talk of general trends borrowed from Greece i.e the propensity for anthropomorphisation and the tendency to try and formalise divinities but often that's it.

In general the Romans were very secretive, as were the Greeks actually but pretty much everyone seems to think they know what's going on there anyway, at least with Rome the problem is more pronounced. You can often get a feel for Roman religion by reading through Livy, V. Paterculus etc etc.

In general there is a strong suspicion about Roman creation myths being tied up to the Lupercalia, for both internal and comparative reasons, but academics waver over what we can assume.

So, yes, on a religious level they certainly had their own myths but these were secretive and hard to reconstruct. Greek borrowings appear more heavily on a literary level but even these are tempered by Etruscan influences (via West Greek forms hence names like Ulysses, Aiaz etc) and one has to separate the whimsical poet from actual religious practice.

That said, go right now and read the Fasti by Ovid. That seems to answer most questions students raise about Religion.