This is completely unrelated and off topic, but interesting nevertheless. Sometimes I see mention of some of the old Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and have completely forgotten their names and a great deal about their story. This is from a beginning Latin I high school class.

12 Major Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses

• all live in Mount Olympus, close to the heavens, originally Greek
• below Greek names are listed with Roman names in parenthesis
• Romans stole the mythology from the Greeks

1. Zeus (Jupiter)

•  Zeus and Hera were/are husband and wife and brother and sister, the stories can be entertaining/interesting

2. Hera (Juno)

• queen of the goddesses, often got mad at Zeus for cheating and or flirting with other goddesses and mortals and half-mortals

3. Aphrodite (Venus)

• goddess of love, Venus is the only planet you can see with the naked eye, Mars and Venus are aligned and in mythology had an affair

4. Athena (Minerva)

• goddess of war, born from Zeus’ head and reportedly has no mother, more focused on the strategy of war

5. Ares (Mars)

• god of war, focused on the gore and blood of fighting in war, the planet Mars is red like blood

6. Apollo (Apollo)

• music, sun, prophecy, twin to Artemis

7. Hephastus (Vulcan)

• god of fire, in the mythology Vulcan lives in a volcano and made weapons

8. Hermes (Mercury)

• god of messengers, quick, swift, Mercury is the fastest planet

9. Demeter (Ceres)

• goddess of grain, harvest, rain, responsible for the seasons as explained by the story where she was kidnapped by Zeus and was eating pomegranate seeds and how she missed her mom that was also a goddess or something like that, would have to look this up, can’t remember the story =(

10. Poseidon (Neptune)

• God of the sea, Neptune is a blue planet

11. Hestia (Vesta)

• goddess of the hearth, fire, home, cooking

12. Artemis (Diana)

• goddess of the hunt, associated with the moon

There are more Greek and Roman gods and goddesses such as Eris, the goddess of discord, which I am pretty sure got Zeus in a troubling situation in which he had to answer which goddess was the most beautiful. It is the golden apple story in which the apple said to the fairest and Athena and Aphrodite were fighting over it. There is Romulus and Remus (twin brothers) and the legend in which Romulus founded Rome as a monarchy surviving with a wild wolf for a mother.

This information comes from a Latin I course I took in high school. I have in my high school notebook:

• 753 BC to 509 BC Rome was a monarchy beginning with King Romulus
• 509 BC to 27 AD was a republic and
• 27   BC or BCE (before common era – to be more politically correct) to 476 AD or ACE (after common era) Rome was an empire

There are lots of great stories, some myth, some legend, and some true such as the crossing of the Rubicon, which signified there was no turning back. So when someone uses that expression that is what it means. I cannot remember it well, but when you read the accounts they are almost always intriguing. There were quite a few Caesars and below is a famous quote by either the first Caesar or one of his successors:

•  “Veni, vidi, vici” – Julius Caesar (“I came, I saw, I conquered.”)

I put that under the quotes section of this site under the website heading. The history and story behind the quote will probably intrigue most. Honestly, I don’t remember it accurately or have forgotten like 90% of it. Something probably with militarily taking over an area and expanding the empire. Rome had pretty much all of the known ancient world.  A lot of this happened like 2,000 years ago, but I am pretty impressed with the ancients. When I see the pictures of things that have been uncovered or statues that remain, they are very beautiful and rival the best artists even today. However, it is probably better to live now the the advanced medicine and technology we have. There was a lot of luxury, art, and even advanced academics back then though.