Roman Mythology Vs Greek Mythology

Despite all their similarities, The Greeks and Romans engaged in substantive culture differences. Their religions derived from a complex set of gods and goddesses, called deities, who were seen as regulating human life. Since the Romans embraced culture from the Greeks, many traditions were the same. However, the Greek and Roman culture, although similar, are very different and appealing. For instance, the Greeks did not acknowledge an all-powerful god; they believe that deities controlled everything that transpired on earth. In other words, the Greeks sought religious cults to explain the forces that shape the world (Bentley et al, 2008 p.143).

“Mythos”- a Greek word meaning “tale” and the origin of the word mythology; according to the dictionary mythology means, a traditional story aiming to explain the meaning of things concerning deities and demigods.

Mythology serves to create an explanation for why the world is the way it is. All religions have mythology in them and myths help people understand history. Myth can mean so many different things to different people. Some myths are total fiction, while others may have a hint of truth in them. But most myths are more of a symbolic and metaphoric truth, rather than a literal truth, because most of the time myths cannot be proven and people are not trying to prove that they are true. Myths become true to the people who believe in them and they use them as a sort of lens through which they see the world. They use myths to create explanations for themselves as to why the world is the way it is and they use them to help cope with the difficulties of life. Myths are a natural outgrowth of our imagination and our passions.

In both Greek and Roman civilizations, mythology played an important part in their empire’s success. Both of these civilizations were polytheistic religions. Likewise, they had major and minor gods and goddesses as part of their religion as well. However, since the Roman Empire conquered many cultures including the Greeks, their gods blended with many similarities with the gods that the Ancient Greeks worshipped.

The Greek and Roman religions were the two major religions that were established in the ancient world. Greek religion was the first to be recognized and instituted, followed by the Roman religion. Many people believed that the Romans mimicked the Greek religion; however this was a common misconception, even though they appeared to be the same there are many distinctions between the Romans and the Greeks. Even the similarities between the two religions had slight distinctions, like their gods, they had similar functions but some of their gods were completely unique to one culture (Ferguson 154). Roman religion also had different concepts like religio, ideas about afterlife and gods that emphasis on household religion. The Romans integrated certain aspects of Greek religion into their own practices, they also maintained their own ideas which made it unique and separated the Romans from the Greeks.

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 Romans borrowed almost all of its mythology from Greece. The only thing the Romans changed was the names of the Greek gods. And the Greek gods lasted much longer Greece. That is another reason Greece was better than Rome.

Greek and Roman mythology is well know. The people of that time period were passionate about the gods and did everything in their power to please them. Like most religions the goal is be like one of the gods in order to achieve good fortune or to gain everlasting life. One of the most interesting characteristics about the Greek and Roman Gods is how the gods are not perfect in that they make the same mistakes that the average human would make. These characteristics were put into place to allow ancient Greeks and Romans to effectively relate to the gods making them more believable. This is unlike other religions where the god(s) are shown as the all perfect character making no mistakes. These characteristics relate back to the family and

Greek mythology was an original belief that was not based on any other belief or religion whereas, Roman mythology was developed based on Greek mythology. Greek mythology were the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks who were the first western civilization which was created around 2000 B.C.E. and the mythology was fully developed by about 700 B.C.E. and was widely accepted by the ancient Greeks. On the

In Greco-Roman Culture, humans imagine the deities of mythology to be and act certain ways, due to the needs they must fill. People invented certain deities for reasons that align with what they needed from them. To examine how a deity has a certain purpose, one must first examine what they are like. Athena and Ares are examples of deities invented for very specific purposes. One must first look at Athena and Ares’ similarities and differences in relation to their characteristics, their sexuality and physical appearances, as well as their different powers and how they are worshipped, to discover why they were created.

The culture of mythology is originated as the means of documenting what the culture thinks to be real and have many facts about the beginning of the universe around them. For example, over time and documentation the word of religion took up other meaning for different cultures. When a brand new religion dominates over the previous religion the old book or documents become myths and legends so then beings regarded past recordings as false or fantasy but with no real historical value. That’s when the word myth comes in to play.

Greek Mythology is strongly based on Roman Mythology. Most of the stories are the same, but the gods have different names. For example, Zeus in Roman Mythology is Jupiter.

“In the modern mind (at least in the modern American mind) Greek and Roman culture and mythology are classed together. An indication of this is that the academic study of the Ancient Greeks and Romans are general put into the same Classics department.”(http://www.hol.gr/greece/mythology/gvrIntro.html) Greek mythology had more individual gods, gods that would have unique characteristics and flaws. There were gods for just

The Greek gods and goddess carry many attributes, most human. They are very much like humans in the way that they have weaknesses and strengths. Even though the gods display their characteristics much more drastically than humans do, the similarities are obvious. In Rosenberg and Baker’s book, the Greek gods have many human characteristics such as vengeance, jealously, and love.

The Romans were polytheistic. The Roman religion believed in many gods. They had similar beliefs to the Greek gods, but also big differences. The Roman mythology was to consist of twelve to thirteen main gods. Each of the gods has a function in the life of an everyday Roman that would require some sort of worshipping. The