Greco-Roman Gods And Those Who Worship Them

Parallelisms between Greek and Roman Mythology have many similarities between them. Each type has there own set of Gods and Goddesses, although they were worshiped for similar reasons. The following will explain each God or Goddess and explain how they compare to each other. The King of Gods in Greek Mythology is known as Zeus. Zeus was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. He was the child of Cronus and Rhea.
As the story goes he was their sixth child, and the father to protect him from being overthrown had eaten the five previous children. Zeus was taken to a city called Crete and hidden from his father. As Zeus grew older and learned of what happened he found a potion to make his father regurgitate the other children. Once this happened they all teamed up and killed their father. Zeus then became the ruler of Mount Olympus, and head of the new line of Gods. Jupiter was the predominant power holder of Roman Gods. He was ruler of the sky, the daylight, all the weather, and even the thunder and lightening. Jupiter helped drive back the Sabines. His temple was built in the Capitol, and newly elected counsels offered their first prayers to him.
Hera was the wife and sister of Zeus, and the High Goddess of the Greeks. She was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband was having and often tormented or harmed the mistresses he was fooling around with. Although, when she went too far, or tried to cause death, Zeus would intervene and stop her. Hera tried to ship wreak Hercules on his return from Troy, and with that Zeus had her hung by the wrists from top of the mountain with an anvil tied to each ankle. The two had four children together. Juno,
Hera’s counterpart, was the wife of Jupiter. Juno was the protector of women, especially
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2 those who are married. Women often gave offerings to Juno to help with their childbirth. The God of the Underworld, Hades, was the brother of Zeus. He gained Hell, as his share in conquering their father. He is most known for kidnapping his wife, Persephone, while she was picking flowers in a field. As the story goes, Hades had her eat a piece of food in the Underworld, therefore she could not live on the Earth again. Her father, Zeus, ma...

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...y other cultures was by force. Between the years 2000-1400 B.C. Greece was ruled by several different cultures. These outside forces influenced their culture and religion. One thing that remained a constant was their language. The Greeks maintained to keep their native language and this established great internal uniformity. This became a factor in later years helping them rise to such a sophisticated civilization. The origins of Greek mythology as we know it today are impossible to trace because there was no structured
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church or written codes, but the main influence is thought to come from the Aegean civilization. The Aegeans lived on the island of Crete and are thought to be one of the first modern civilizations about 3000 B.C. Aegeans believed that all natural objects had spirits. Over time these beliefs developed into a set of legends involving natural objects, animals, and gods with human form. Some of these legends survived as part of classic Greek mythology. The Greek mythographer, Euhemerus, who lived around 300 B.C. had a contributing theory. He thought myths were distortions of history and the gods were actually heroes that were glorified over time.

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