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DEUTSCH | ENGLISH
Religio Romana
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We use the term "legends" rather than "myths" of Rome because the word myth has a modern connotation of falsehood. In the modern parlance, a myth is a story that is perhaps significant or relevant historically or culturally, but is ultimately founded not in truth but in imagination. We take the view that the legends of the earliest days of Rome's founding may not be completely accurate historically, but neither are they complete inventions of the storyteller. They speak to us on a level that ordinary histories cannot, and their impact is made even greater by the plausibility they contain. With some notable exceptions, the legends of Rome are not tales of the Gods (the complex tales of Greek legend were only grafted on to the Gods of the Romans later, as the impact of Greek culture on Roman religion was felt), but tales of mortals. Men and women who exemplify the ideals of the Roman Citizen (or who represent their antithesis) are at the heart of these legends. Thus they are closer to the men and women who heard and hear them, and embrace them as guideposts for their own lives.
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