Greek and Egyptian Mythology, strange connections...?

Question

The Egyptian goddess Isis was formally known as Io in Greek mythology, whom Zeus had a crush on. Hera was naturally jealous and pursued her so that Zeus could not settle down with her. After a very long commotion, Hera had mercy on her on behalf of Zeus, and left Io in Egypt where she was worshipped as the goddess Isis. She even bore Zeus a son called Epaphus, identified as the bull-deity Apis. Now... one side speaks Greek while the other speaks Egyptian, and they aren't considered next-door-neighbours either. So why is Greek and Egyptian mythology inter-connected?

Answer 1

Both greeks , egyptians, and celts was indo-european nations .
the greeks had many relations with the egyptians.
many of greek pholosophers had connections with egyptian priests.

http://www.hellasmag.tk

Answer 2

All mythological pantheons are connected in unusual ways. This connection could well be anecdotal evidence to the Jungian idea of the Collective Unconscious. The fact that peoples who had no physical connection to one and other somehow managed to come up with deities who looked the same and had similar aspects, goes beyond coincidence. Examples?

Apollo - Greek/Roman god of the sun. He's depicted as blond with curly hair and very handsome.

Lugh - The Celtic sun god. He looks exactly the same as Apollo.

Other similarities can be found in mythological literature. An example of that would be Hans Christian Anderson's story of the Ugly Duckling. The very same story is told by our Native peoples about a duck that went to visit with Great Mystery and returned as a swan.

To the best of my knowledge, Hans Christian Anderson never traveled to North America and never spoke with our Native peoples. That being the case, how did he come up with the same story?

Fascinating stuff.

Answer 3

They were connected by the Minoan Civilization, based primarily on Crete and other islands now part of Greece. Their primary symbol is also the bull, and they were terrific seafarers trading all over the Mediterranean. Some people think the volcanic destruction of Minoan Santorini was the basis of the Atlantis legend.

They had a very high level of civilization when Greece was just a bunch of individual city-states. The Minoans conquered and then tried to civilize the Greeks by demanding 10 male and 10 female "hostages" from each city. The hostages were educated and lived at Minos's palace for a year. This was the most complex building they had ever seen. That whole thing was the basis of the Minotaur and the Maze Greek legend.

Answer 4

Hello there, I always had a fasination with mythology but never really took it in, or studied but when my work started revealing mythology I begun learning from what my own work was showing me. I then go on a little research mission and my conclusions are that all mythology works as individual cultures yet realistically interconnected to many things especially our planetary system...i.e. Mother of Nature the turtle with the tree of life on her back and the snake wrapping it's coils around the tree=kinetic energy

Egypt and all will find relevances with each other because all are describing one thing-life and how life begun, many showing future events too, but encrypted in scripture and images and pottery and calendars waiting for us to see what is concealed within them.

Answer 5

The mythologies of different cultures: hindu, egyptian, greek or maya, all ressemble, there is a theory that puts forward the idea that the gods in mythologies are actually creatures from other worlds who visited the Earth long ago, and who maybe are still visiting.

Answer 6

Trade my friend...it's all about the money.

When two simular cultures traded with one another, they often shared information out of curiosity. If the info translated well enough they got incorporated. Just look at Greece and Rome.

Isis was a popular divinity in Egypt,probably the most popular there, it was only natural that she spread to Greece....if you were a refugee from a war or a transplanted national moved to another country because your owner/master/lord decided he wanted you to oversee his money matters at a new acquistion, wouldn't you attempt to mix and match to still feel like you are from the motherland, but can fit in to the culture of the new adventure?

Answer 7

There is more than mere coincidence in the mythologies of the great cultures of the past. There is definite evidence of common origin and dispersal of myth since the time of the world-flood.

Observe this correspondence:

Ptah = Iapetus = Japheth = Zeus = Jupiter

Ptah [yaPeTaH] (my interpretation of the vowels): According to Egyptian lore, a god of the octad (or ogdoad), that is the eight gods of Hermopolis.

Yafet (or Japheth): According to Genesis, ancestor of the Europeans, including the Hellens. He was one of the octad, that is one of the eight people including Noah (Nachah) who survived the world-flood.


Iapetos (Iapetus): According to Hesiod, ancestor of the Hellenic people after the world-flood.

Zeus: According to Hellenic lore, father of the Gods, son of Cronos.

Jupiter: According to Roman lore, father of the Gods, son of Saturn.


There other connections to German, Celtic, and Vedic myth that I have not listed her.

Answer 8

Many religions have stories similiar to each other. I have never heard that Io and Isis are indeed the same. I'm pretty sure that Isis is older than Io.

Isis' husband Osiris died and then was born again as his son Horus, which is very similiar to the Christian God and his son Jesus Christ.

Answer 9

besides trading look up the history of alexander the great

and you will find the answer to why the egyptians had a city named Alexandria

Answer 10

They certainly traded. That's only the Mediterranean separating them.