Dare un nome agli dèi stranieri. Aspetti dell’interpretatio nel mondo greco e romano

Abstract

If we compare the Greek and Roman religions, we discover that most Roman gods are closely related to the Greek ones, and their names also have much to do with those of their Greek ancestors. The Latin poets and the Greek historians translated the names of foreign gods into their own languages, since their polytheistic religion was open to all deities. Thanks to the translation of such names – the interpretatio – many aspects of ancient polytheism come to light. The aim of this paper is to deal with the interpretatio of foreign gods and to discuss the role of translation in Greek and Roman polytheism.