The Lesser-Known Gods of Rome Trivia Quiz

Answer: Summanus

Summanus' name has been subjected to many attempts at an etymology. Late Antiquity grammarian and poet Martianus Capella thought it means "foremost of the underworld deities" ("summus" means foremost in Latin and the Manes are the spirits of the dead). Summanus was used in the Renaissance and early modern poetry as an allusion to the Christian Satan.

His association with nocturnal thunder points, however, to Etruscan connections, given that the Etruscans had a highly-developed thunder calendar and knew of nine different omens based on thunder patterns.

Answer: Vertumnus

Vertumnus' name derives from the Latin verb "verto", meaning change. The Roman theologian Varro was certain that Vertumnus had Etruscan roots. The poet Ovid, on the other hand, gives an obviously false, yet creative, etymology for the god's name, stating that Vertumnus took that name in a very ancient era, when he reversed the course of a river ("averso amne" in the Latin original) and turned a marshland into the Forum Romanum.

Answer: Dea Dia

"Dea Dia" means just bright goddess"or goddess of the daylight. It is unclear if she can be identified with Ceres. Most likely, she is a relic of the earlier Italic practice of giving rhyming and alliterative names to gods who were not depicted in human form.

Answer: Consus

Although the name "Consus" derives from a verb meaning "to sow", the aural similarity between his name and the word "consilium" (whence the English word "council") gave rise to an etymological theory that his name derives from this word, making him a god of the popular assembly and its councils. Tertullian, one of the Church Fathers, stated that there was a turning point in the Roman Hippodrome which bore an inscription stating "Consus is powerful in the council, Mars in war, the Lares in the marriage bed".

Answer: Almo

Today the river is called Almone, located just south of the Eternal City. The river-god Almo was important to the Romans, since the stone entrusted to him for purification was viewed as essential for the wellbeing of the city. His daughter, Larunda, gave birth to the Lares, gods that protected the households of the Romans and the city as a whole. Robbed of the power of speech because she had denounced an affair of Jupiter, Larunda also became known as Muta and Tacita, a goddess of death feared and held at arm's length.

Answer: Aius Locutius

"Aius Locutius" literally means spoken affirmation. The voice of the deity was said to have been heard by a commoner named M. Caedicius. Caedicus passed the warning that the Gauls would attack to the tribune of the plebs, but his claims were rejected, because he was just a humble commoner.

As a consequence, Rome was sacked and the people, wishing for such a calamity never to befall their city, sought for the place where the voice had emanated from. They found it, gave the divine voice a name and built a temple and the altar. Aius Locutius, however, never again spoke to the people of Rome.

Answer: Robigus

The name Robigus derives from the word "robigo", meaning wheat rust, ultimately from the word "ruber", denoting the color red. That's why red dogs were offered to the god. Given that the sacrificial animals were not fit for consumption, this indicates a private and magical nature of the ritual. So strong was the memory of the sacrifices in propitiation of Robigus that the Christian feast of the Major Rogation is always held on April 25, the date of the ancient festival.

Answer: Carmenta

The Latin word "carmen", denoting a song (in archaic Rome, it denoted a magic song) is the basis of her name. It is said that Carmenta mated with the god Hermes/Mercury and bore King Evander of Arcadia, who left his homeland for Italy and transmitted Greek wisdom and law in Latium. For all the reworking of the myth by imperial propaganda in later centuries, there seems to be a grain of historical truth in it, given that Greek influences were already present in Italy at the time Romans formed a distinct community.

Answer: Rediculus

The information connecting Rediculus to Hannibal appears in the grammarian Festus' works. Varro also has the deity speak in a poem, where he claims that he frightened Hannibal with dark visions, thus being both a god of laughter and a protector of Rome.

Answer: Vervactor

The name "Vervactor" derives from the verb "Vervago", meaning perform an act in spring, as per Pliny the Elder.

The twelve helpers of Ceres were invoked alongside their mistress at the festival of Cerealia. The other eleven helpers were: Reparator (the one preparing the soil), Imporcitor (plougher using a wide furrow), Insitor (seed-planter), Obarator (tracing the first ploughing), Occator (harrower), Serritor (digger), Subruncinator (weed-remover), Messor (reaper), Convector (grain-carrier), Conditor (grain-accumulator) and Promitor (grain-distributer).