62 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



Still more striking is the case of Mars. To classical students he 

 stands for the god of War, most Roman of all Roman deities, father 

 of Romulus, giving his name to the first of the Roman months, and 

 at the same time the counterpart of the Greek Ares. Yet in the 

 earliest religion this was not his characteristic: he was origmally 

 connected with the growth of vegetation. As Mr. Warde Fowler 

 has put it, he represents the consciousness " of some great numen 

 (or divinity) at work in the spring time, quickening vegetation and 

 calling into life the powers of reproduction in man and the animals." 

 So in the invocation we find given by Cato: " Father i\Iars, I pray 

 and beseech thee that thou mayest be gracious and favorable to me, 

 to my home and to my household, for which cause I have ordained 

 that the offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried round my fields, my 

 land and my farm: that thou mayest avert, ward off and keep afar 

 all disease, visible and invisible, all barrenness, waste, misfortune 

 and bad weather; that thou mayest suffer our crops, our corn, our 

 vines and bushes to grow and come to prosperity ; that thou mayest 

 preserve the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant health and 

 strength to me, to my home and to my household." 



Though slightly out of place here, it may be interesting to hint 

 at the process by which this agricultural divinity was gradually in 

 the historical evolution of the Roman state connected with war. As 

 we see him addressed in the prayer I have quoted, he is the god " par 

 excellence " of the farmer. But when this agricultural community 

 grew into a state, coming into collision with neighboring Latin states, 

 it was only natural that the deity who concerned himself with the 

 interests of the farmer should also take upon himself the protection 

 of the farmer turned soldier for the protection of his lands. Later 

 on when the Roman was an empire builder and less of a farmer, it 

 was the warlike attributes of the god that were most prominent, 

 though the agricultural attributes never disappeared, particularly in 

 the countryside. 



Before going on to enumerate some of the other divinities of 

 early Rome, it may be well to call attention to two points that emerge 

 from a consideration of those already mentioned. In the first place 

 the slightest knowledge of Greek religion will show how incorrect 

 it is to do as the Romans themselves did later, that is, to identify the 

 divinities of the two nations. The Greeks, at least in the period we 

 know them and particularly at the time we are now speaking of, had, 

 for instance, no parallel to the number of divinities presiding over 

 the various stages of the growth of the corn ; nor when we look at 



