Roman And Greek Gods

Roman and Greek Gods

It has been known that the Romans and the Greeks have had many interactions with each other, whether it would be due to trading or just plain traveling, the stories of their myths have crossed each other in one way or another. This is may be the reason why there are many similarities between Greek and Roman Mythology. Even though a Greek god or goddess may have a different name in Roman Mythology they still performed similar tasks and were worshiped for similar reasons. I will compare and contrast Greek gods with their Roman equivalences to see how similar they truly are to each other. Probably the most famous Greek god, Zeus, was the god of all gods. Born to Cronus and Rhea, he was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. As the story goes he overthrew his father, Cronus, and became the ruler of Mount Olympus to head the new line of Gods. Jupiter, also known as Jove, was very much like Zeus. He was the predominant power holder among the Roman Gods. According to Tripp, Jupiter is a “contraction of two words meaning ‘Heavenly Father.’”(Pg. 332) He ruled the sky, controlled all of the weather, and had thunderbolts as a weapon. Tripp also wrote “Jupiter’s cult and his general character were, however, well established in Italy before the Greek religion became influential there.” (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband had and she often tormented or harmed Zeus’s mistresses. Juno, the feminine version of Jupiter’s name, is Hera’s counterpart. Juno had many names that served for different purposes. As Juno Pronuba, she was goddess of marriage, as Juno Lucina, she was the goddess of childbirth, and as Juno Regina, she was the special counselor and protector of the Roman state. (Roman Mythological Characters, Juno) In Tripp, there was also a Juno Moneta that was governed finances. (Pg. 332) It seem...

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...t Greek gods and Roman gods have many similarities. In the cases of Hermes, Mercury, Athena, and Minerva, they are so similar that they might as well be called the same name. With the comparisons of Hera, Ares, and their Roman counterparts, we can see that everything is the same except for their attitudes. Hera seems to be more of a mean goddess than Juno because humans actually offer praises to Juno and actually expect Juno to help her. Hera was too busy causing harm towards Zeus’ mistress. Ares was just the meaner and more aggressive version of Mars. Venus may as well have been Aphrodite because it was believed that her myths were borrowed from Aphrodite. Zeus and Jupiter were similar, but were written in different times, suggesting a heavy coincidence that the Greeks and the Romans were on the same page. Overall, Greek gods and Roman gods are indeed very similar. If they do have differences, they are always fairly petty and do not affect their general purpose within mythology. The interactions between the Greeks and Romans have definitely tied each other’s myths together so close that a story from Greek mythology can easily be interchangeable with a story from Roman Mythology.