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Differences and similarities of greek and roman gods
Differences and similarities of greek and roman gods
Differences and similarities of greek and roman gods
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Mars His Roman name was Mars and his Greek name was Ares Mars was the god of war and agriculture while Ares was the god of war. Mars symbols included: his sacred shield, the vulture, the dog, the serpent, the sword and spear, and a war helmet. His mom was Juno and his dad was Jupiter. His “wife” was Venus, the goddess of love. He had many children but some notable ones are: Phobos(fear), Deimos(terror), Harmonia(harmony), and cupid(love). One of Mars most popular myths was his affair with Venus. Venus was married to Vulcan, the god of fire and the smiths. But Vulcan was lame and ugly. So when the handsome Mars came along she went off with him. But Vulcan found out about the affair and wanted to get revenge. So when Mars and Venus were
In early fifth century BC Greece, the Greeks consistently suffered from the threat of being conquered by the Persian Empire. Between the years 500-479 BC, the Greeks and the Persians fought two wars. Although the Persian power vastly surpassed the Greeks, the Greeks unexpectedly triumphed. In this Goliath versus David scenario, the Greeks as the underdog, defeated the Persians due to their heroic action, divine support, and Greek unity. The threat of the Persian Empire's expansion into Greece and the imminent possibility that they would lose their freedom and become subservient to the Persians, so horrified the Greeks that they united together and risked their lives in order to preserve the one thing they all shared in common, their "Greekness".
Zeus’ marriages to Demeter, Leto and Hera yield the gods and goddeses familiar to the Greek world, Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia, and he himself eventually bears Athena (912-24). These are not elements of good rule, but simply the gods of the Greek polis. Demeter and Persephone are worshipped for agriculture, Apollo for his oracular shrine, Artemis for the wilderness and young women, Ares for war. Poseidon as sea god is apart from the polis, but he sires the fearsome Triton (931). Likewise, Ares’ children Phobos and Deimos, two aspects of fear, delineate realms beyond the proper bounds of the polis. Maia bears for Zeus Hermes (938-9), who as herald of the gods moves between realms, between one polis and another.
*Hercules was strong man and married Megara(daughter of the King of Thebes). They had children together. Hercules never was able to settle down with his family because his stepmother Hera cause a fit to overtake him and Hercules killed his wife and children.
Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, later rose from the sea where Uranus's body had been thrown. Now Cronus became king of the universe. Cronos married his sister, Rhea, and they had six children. At the time of Cronos's marriage to Rhea, Gaea prophesied that one of his children would overthrow Cronos, as he had overthrown Uranus. To protect himself, Cronos swallowed each of his first five children -- Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon -- immediatly after birth.
Cupid, missing Psyche, rescued her. Cupid then approached Jupiter to address the issues with Venus so that he could live happily ever after with his wife, Psyche. Jupiter obliged him by making her immortal so that the two would be together forever. Venus, in the end, accepted Psyche.
Hermes is also known for his many love affairs with numerous mortals, goddesses, and nymphs. In the Odyssey he serves as a messenger and is sent to Kalypso to tell her that she must let Odysseus off her island. The next person, Helios, is actually not a god, but rather a titan. He is the son of Hyperion and Thea and represents the sun, and his sisters Serena and Eos represent the night and the dawn. An easy way to remember him is that “Helios” is a root word from Greek for sun.
Many people would blatantly state that the importance of the gods in Greek society derives from the fact that Gods in any society are usually used to explain phenomenon that people cannot logically comprehend, but in ancient Greece gods were actually entities that took part in the workings of society itself. Even simple aspects of day-to-day life such as sex and disputes between mortals were supposedly influenced by godly workings. Unlike modern religions such as Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, where an omnipotent force supposedly controls the workings of the world, a hierarchy of Gods characterized religion in ancient Greece. Working as one big family, which they actually were, each one of the Greek gods governed a certain aspect of the world in a way that usually reflected their own humanlike personalities. These unique personalities also contained many human flaws such as envy and greed, and were where the Greek God’s importance lay. Greek religion was more concentrated on the way an individual dealt with situations that popped up in the world around him than on understanding the world itself. In other words the Greeks were more interested in the workings of the mind than in the workings of the environment around them.
The First Phase (753 BC to 500 BC) - The first phase of Roman religion dated from the founding of the city to the early republic. This phase occurred before the Roman civilization had really adopted the Greek ways and so the religious practices of this time consisted of only three gods and these gods were known as the Archaic Triad. The gods of the archaic Triad were Jupiter (Jove) ,Mars and Quirinus. These gods had their Greek counterparts and would later be identified with them. Jupiter was the supreme master god and so he was associated with Zeus of Greek mythology. Ares was the god of power and war and so he was associated with his Greek counterpart, Ares and Quirinus was the god of the Roman people in general and he had no Greek counterpart. Mars was valued and worshipped more by the conquering and warlike Romans than Ares was to the Greeks and ,as a result, he had The Fields of Mars named after him. The Fields of Mars was located outside of Rome and it is where the soldiers would train.
Eros/Cupid is the god of love, passion, and sexual desire. He is the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Aries, the god of war. He got married to Psyche and had children Volupta and Nyx. Eros/Cupid has many power. The power of the world.
This myth also parallels with the story of Narcissus and Echo. Both Narcissus and Adonis are troubled with sexuality, therefore illustrating Dorian’s relationship with Sibyl. Adonis avoids Venus and the myth suggests that such behaviour leads to death.
Hermes, known to the Romans as Mercury, was originally a fertility god, and then became the god of roads and travel (Forty 286,288). He was also known as Hermes Psychopompos, because he escorted souls to Hades(Carlyon 172, Hermes...). Eventually, many other fields fell under his wide jurisdiction. He became responsible for increase in the animal world, as well as being the god of commerce, manual skill, oratory and eloquence, thieves and the wind. He was even the patron of athletes, especially wrestlers, basically all activities that required skill and dexterity (Zimmerman 124, Bullfinch 29). He had many children by various godesses and mortals, including Pan, his son by Dryope, Cephalus, by Herse, and Ceryx, by Pandrosus. He had many children with the goddess Aphrodite, including Hermaphroditus, also known as Atlantius, Eunomia, Peitho, Rhodos, and Tyche (Carlyon 174, Hermes...). He also fathered the infamous thief Autolycus, by Chione (Zimmerman 124).
Cupid was the son of Venus and Mars. Venus didn’t like the fact that Cupid stayed a baby, therefore, she went to Themis. She said, “Love cannot grow without passion,” (Baker 81). Cupid stayed a baby until his brother, Anteros, was born. Once his brother was born Cupid felt the passion and grew into a young boy. Except when his brother left he went back to his normal state.
Mars, which is the Greek name for the god of War, probably got this name due to
I chose the story of Orpheus and Eurydice as the myth I will be analyzing. It is one of the earliest tales of a relationship ending tragically, and countless of modern stories have undoubtedly been inspired at least in part by it. There have been many artistic interpretations of the myth, and each lends its own unique perspective.