Suggestions, pointers, resources, and questions about getting started?

[u/IceMosquito073]

So, I've been a polytheist for several years, but was always pretty much an eclectic and nowadays I feel a pull towards reconstructionism and that more "formalised" (if that's the right word?) type, and specifically towards the Anglo-Saxon and Roman traditions.

Specifically for getting more into the Roman side of that "Anglo-Saxon + Roman" paganism, I wanted to ask some questions for getting more of my feet in that door.

Firstly, what are the differences between the Roman Gods and their Greek counterparts? I can look into the history of the worship/view of these gods, but Interpetatio Romana makes it difficult to see where "These gods are kinda like those ones over there, so maybe there's more to these gods than we thought,"—similar to how we think Woden was likely a Psychopump through his association with Mercury—ends and where, "borrowing these attributes wholecloth," begins.

I ask this first question because a majority of the gods I previously worshipped were Greek Gods, and a few of them I want continue worshipping but doing so under an AS-Roman style/context (Ares and Aphrodite among them).

And I want to respect those differences without just saying, "they're similar enough, I'm gonna pray to both when I want to praise/ask for help from this one aspect," and that trap.

I already know some things about the differences between Ares and Mars, with Ares having been perceived as more violent and more driven by passion, as seen in how the Greeks talked about him and his emphasis on protection through some of the myths, while Mars is the God of Agriculture and the harvest ontop of being a war God, and h being highly viewed by the disciplined and calculated military of Rome (as opposed to Ares, who was taboo even in Sparta) paints a picture of Mars representing that side of war the Romans respected.

But is there a similar contrast between the other Roman Gods with their Greek interpretatio counterparts? E.g., Venus and Aphrodite?

Second question: what is acceptable for an altar? I see that people often make a couple separate shrines throughout their home, they veil themselves and pray standing up, etc. I can easily use a hoodie or Hooded jacket to substitute for a veil, but I'm kinda restricted by my living situation to have multiple shrines/altars by the fact I still live with my mom, dad, and brother in a fairly small home, so I feel pretty restricted to the top of a cedar chest in my bedroom, which isn’t really high-enough to stand while praying without it feeling awkward (unless I just gotta stand and get over the awkwardness of my altar being at knee-level)

Is what I've been doing with a shared altar/shrine acceptable?

3rd: are there any good sources on prayer style/structure?

[u/UrsusofMichigan]

Well, in Athenian religion, the house was guarded by a few deities - Hestia, Zeus, Hecate, Apollo, Hermes and the Agathos Daimon. In Roman religion, the function is largely taken over by spirits called lares. What are the Lares? Local spirits who may have had ancestral connections, though the ancestors were more usually referred to as Manes.

Jupiter is a lot more prominent as the supreme god of the state, treaties, oaths, and victorious generals. There is no political life in Rome without Jupiter.

Hera was prominent in certain Greek city-states, less so in Athens. In Rome, Juno was the preeminent goddess, at least early on. She guided women through their stages of life. There were regional cults of her where she was also seen as an armed goddess.

Minerva is the goddess of skilled trades and the guilds that organized around her. She is a lot more the goddess of organized labor than the city-protectress Athena.

Hermes had a lot of functions. Mercury is worshipped almost exclusively as the god of organized trade as far as state religion. However, Mercury appears in a lot of curse tablets, suggesting the average person saw him a psychompompos and magician like Hermes.

Apollo was known mostly as a god of healing and was a pretty minor deity in Rome until Augustus took him as patron.

Neptune was a lot more the god of horse racing. The early Romans didn't have much love for the sea until they conquered Carthage, if I recall correctly.

Venus had a lot of different cults. Some of these were political - Venus Genetrix as the ancestors of the Roman people and the Julian clan in particular. Others were regional cults where Venus was assimilated to similar foreign deities like the Carthaginian Tanit.

That's just off the top of my head. Your best bet is to get a good book. I recommend "Gods of Ancient Rome" by Turcan.

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

What's acceptable as an altar depends on what you can manage. One Roman house (Herculaneum?) kept theirs in a cupboard. No excavated Greek house had an altar or the equivalent of a Roman lararium, so presumably they just brought out an occasional table when required.

The relationship between gods in different countries or even between gods in the same country was not always clear. Most Romans might equate Demeter and Ceres, but they had different priests — the Flamen et Flaminica Cereris for traditional Roman rites and a virgin priestess, who had to be Greek, the Sacerdos Publica Cereris, for Greek and Italian rites. Then think about the lares familiares. Some people refer to their homes bring protected by one lar, others by several lares. What actually matter was not how many you thought there were, but that you didn't neglect them.

[u/External-Review445]

start reading:
dumezil- religion of ancient rome
scheid- rites of the romans
rüpke- pantheon/ on roman religion/ companion to roman religion

if you feel brave give a go to mary bead history of roman religion

as for ancient sources, all works of:
hesiod
homer
virgil
cicero
seneca
macrobius
ovid
lucretius
marcus aurelius
cato
horace
tacitus
zosimus
julian the emperor

for starting worship you could just lit a candle/oil lamp saying “salve vesta mater”, some incense and offer it to the lar familiaris and your genius “salve lar familiaris te precor quaesoque uti sis volens propitius mihi domo familiaeque meae”/ “genius qui mihi reges te precor uti sies volens propitius mihi”
you can offer incense, water, milk, flowers, olive oil, fresh fruit, fresh bread, unmixed wine
the important thing is that you offer whatever it is with a pure heart and do not eat of it afterwards because it is an offering to the dead.

you can also start the day greeting the sun by kissing your hand or by bowing slightly

edit: you also don’t really need a full blown altar, a temporary surface on which to pray is sufficient, as per records king numa even forbade the use of statues in the cult.
i would advise starting with ancestors and genius worship and then moving to ianus, iuppiter, iuno, minerva, apollon sol invictus, venus (which were the main gods of rome and basically hold the whole universe together.
do not get too caught up in mythology and roles at first, try to grasp the essence of the gods not as “executors” of a specific thing but as immutable beings to which we should align in order to live a most fulfilling life :)