Mitologias

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Although 

Greek Gods are arguably better known, Greek and Roman mythology


often have the same Gods with different names because many Roman
Gods are borrowed from Greek mythology, often with different traits. For
example, Cupid is the Roman god of love and Eros is the Greek god of
love. Ares is the unpopular and feared Greek god of war and his Roman
counterpart is Marswho is the revered martial fertility god.

Comparison chart
Greek Gods versus Roman Gods comparison chart

Greek Gods Roman Gods

Gods in Greek Gods in


Mythology, i.e. the Roman
collection of stories or mythology, i.e.
myths of the ancient the
Description Greeks about their mythological
gods, heroes and the beliefs about
natural world. gods in the city
of Ancient
Rome.
Iliad distributed 700 Came 1000
years before the years after the
Time period Roman civilization. No Greeks.
exact date for start of
civilization.
Greek myths Roman myths
chronicled in the book chronicled in
Literary source
the Illiad by Homer. the book
Aeneid.
Origin of Not known. Many Roman
mythology gods borrowed
from Greek
mythology and
myths of
Roman
creation from
Greeks.
Gods and goddesses Deities named
based on human after objects
personality traits such rather than
as Love, Honor, human
Hatred, Dignity, as personality
well as their roles in traits.
Nature of gods life determined by
what they were god of,
like:
Zeus:Sky/weather,
Hades: The
underworld, Poseidon:
Sea, Aquatics, etc.
Importance of the Mortals did
physical life on earth good deeds on
rather than eventuality earth to be
of the afterlife. rewarded in
the afterlife.
Afterlife They strove to
gain their
place among
the gods in
heaven in the
afterlife.
Traits As gods were based on Gods and
human traits they each goddesses not
had characteristics gender
that determined their specific so
actions. their
individual
characteristics
were not
central to the
myths.
Deities were important Myths rooted
for the progression of in brave,
life but mortals were heroic deeds
just as important as it of gods not
Role of mortals
was their contribution mortals as
in society that in the mortal life was
end mattered. not important
after death.
Individualistic: actions Not
of the individual were individualistic.
Actions of mortals
and gods of more consequences
than actions of the
group.
Creativity more Focused on
important than actions rather
physical works. They than words.
Revered traits
revered the poet. They revered
the warrior as
sacred.
Greek gods had Gods did not
beautiful bodies where have a
gorgeous muscles, eyes physical
and hair would appearance –
Physical forms
enhance their looks. represented
only in the
imagination of
the people.

Mythology: “The body of myths (sacred stories) of a particular culture; the

study and interpretation of such myths.” A long time ago mythology was
something treated with respect. People respected and believed in it. The two

major mythologies known are Greek and Roman. What are the similarities and

differences between these two famous mythologies?

The Roman mythology has two types of creation. Certain people believe it was

created around the 12th century BC, after the war between Greece and Asia.

The legend says that after the war, Aeneas, a very strong and popular soldier

of the Greek royal army, won the battle against Asia but then decided to leave

for Carthage. There, the Queen Dido fell in love with him but Aeneas left her to

travel to Italy, where he found Rome. From there, Aeneas knowing the gods

from his culture decided to create a new mythology with new gods.

The other type of creation of the Roman mythology consists of two men from

Greece, Romulus and Remus, who were the sons of the God Mars and a mortal

woman named Rhea Silvia. These two brothers lived with their uncle. When

their parents died the uncle decided to kill the two brothers so he could receive

the power of their father, the God Mars. In the conflict, Remus died but

Romulus escaped to a new city named Rome, where he became its first king.

“The date that Romulus founded Rome was 753 BC” (Varro).

There were several more gods in the Roman Mythology. There were 21

considered very important for the people because they represented earth and

the living on earth. They were pictured that way because they were related to

touchable things on earth, sometimes not only to touchable objects, such as

the rain or the water, but also to feelings and beliefs, like peace and prosperity

at home. Jupiter and Minerva were the rulers of the 19 other gods. Each of

them had a specific role in the mythology. Honored by the people, these gods

didn’t have a physical appearance; they were only represented by the

imagination of the people. Or sometimes people used to tell stories about how
a god was beautiful. “Physical appearance wasn’t given to Roman Gods until

the 6th century BC” (Varro).

According to Varro, the Romans worshipped their gods on both individual and

communal levels. Individual would be a family that would pray at home for

more food and the communal level was when a group of people, most of the

time the citizens of a town, would go and meet for a communal celebration.

For instance, the goddess Vesta protected the earth so when people wanted to

honor her, they would throw a small cake into the fire. Or to honor the god of

agriculture, so the harvest could be generous, farmers would offer corn meal

and wine at the graves of their own families.

The Greek Mythology was created long time before the Roman Mythology.

Around the years of 2000 BC, Atlantis rose up, created by Timaus and Critias,

a powerful man and woman, whose origin no one knows. God Timaus and the

Goddess Critias are cited in many stories about the beginning of the Greek

Mythology. Like the Roman Mythology people presume that it was created from

beliefs of ancient population that lived before them. A personal opinion about

the creation of the Greek Mythology would be that it was created from the

Egyptians who lived before them and also believed in different gods. If we

pretend that the Romans took the idea for their mythology from the Greek

Mythology, we can suppose that the Greek Mythology was created from

Egyptian’s beliefs and myths.

Like the Roman Mythology, the Greek one was composed of 21 gods and

goddesses. Compared to the Roman, the Greek gods were represented with

gorgeous bodies, where muscles, eyes, faces an hair would give them the most

beautiful appearance. Greek gods were named according to a place of a living

or non-living thing.
Honoring Greek gods was similar to Roman’s way of worship. People used to bring meals to

either Mount Olympus, where gods lived or to the graves of family members who died. Drawing

a symbol of a god in a hall of the house could represent that the family needed help of a god. In

the family, if a son were sick the father would draw an object representing the Goddess Hygeia,

so she could enter the house and cure the young child.

The Roman and the Greek gods seem to relate to each other. A similarity between the two

mythologies is that the symbols and designations of powers are the same in the two. The

differences are present in the date of creation. Also, for both mythologies we don’t know where

and how were they created because there is more than one story that describes their beginning.

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