A common mistake for mythology?

Question

I am wondering that why when they mention the roman goddess venus, they always said that it is equivalent to the greek goddess Aphrodite, so whats the link between them?? Because it is just like the christian god Jesus cant be the indian god Shiva as they are two seperate god. Is it because that Rome was founded after Greek so actually goddess Venus was a goddess of Greek too?

Answer 1

Rome adopted the Greek gods and renamed them for their own use.

Answer 2

Venus and Aphrodite were in charge of similar things, love, beauty etc. But they are not the same Goddess by any means. The Romans adopted a lot of things into their culture that they had gained when they invaded and conquered other people. However, as far as Gods and Goddesses go, they already had some of their own, and would sometimes use the Greek's to fill in a blank, but they were never considered the same entity. Most Romans felt Greeks to be barbarians and would never admit to worshiping their Gods.

Answer 3

I think they were both considered the 'Goddess of Love'. They probably had other similar attributes. I think the Romans liked Greek mythology when they took over that area but gave the gods/goddesses different names to make them Roman. Even though everything a certain Roman god/goddess was associated with or did was exactly the same as a Greek one.
That's my impression but I haven't actually looked into it a whole lot.

Answer 4

Umm, the spellchecker isn't working right now, so sorry about any and all misspellings. They are generally refereed to as Greco/Roman gods because when Rome conquered Greece they adopted the Greek gods. There is actually a story in the Roman mythos-history that explains this.
After Zeus killed or imprisoned the Titans or Elder gods. Cronos escaped and made his way to the Italian panincula. To hide His nature from His Children He changed His name to Jupiter. When Romulus and Remus where born, it was Jupiter who commanded the she-wolf the raise them.
Of corse this is just a story to explain to Roman children why the Greek and Roman gods were so identical.
Also Venus and Aphrodite had the same jobs, goddess of love and beauty. If you study Comparitive religions or poly and pantheistic religions you will see that gods and goddesses are grouped by function. There are Creator god/desses who govern over birth, plants, seasons, etc and are in a way still celebrated today in the scecular traditions of Easter. There are youthful god/desses who govern over love, beauty, the arts, etc. There are old god/desses who govern over death, dieing, war, carnage, chaos, etc. If you really what to know about deity architypes, sepically the female, pick up a copy of D.J. Conway's "Mother, Maiden, Crone" (as a referance book if nothing else)
As for your Jesus/Shiva question...
In several religions, older than Christianity, there are stories and myths about a child or childern born, attended by holymen and commoners, gifed with gold, frankensence and myur, growing up in hiding, being killed for the betterment of their people, and living again to teach the mistories of the after life. Most of these stories have the child in question born around the Winter Solctice and dieing around the Spring Solctice (Dec 20-23 and March 20-23) Shiva birth was, actually, attended much the same as Christ's. Please, this takes nothing away from the specialness of Jesus Christ, but He was not the first.
I have gotten wildly off track. My point was that there are no new mythos, just new names and faces for the main players, be they man, beast or god.

Answer 5

Something called an oral tradition, like the telephone game, Aphrodite was of course the greek godess, when the romans took over they told the same stories but gave her a different name.

as for the Jesus thing, im sorry but that can be true, if you told people on one side of a river that someone preformed a miricle, and said the same thing to people on the other side, and both sides didnt talk to each other then it becomes different as time goes on, like the telephone game.... so if someone told people about Jesus and his miracles and other people heard it too, eventually the story would change, and over a thousand years it can change into jesus and shiva= or in your case, Venus and Aphrodite

Answer 6

Exactly the same goddess. In greek it's Αφροδίτη and in latin it's Venus. It's just a translation from the one language to the other.

Answer 7

It's because when the Romans conquered the Mediterranean area nations and cities, they ABSORBED the cultures, including myths, as well. (Just as Alexander had previously aborbed many cultures into the Hellenistic culture). So they merely changed the names of the gods and goddesses to suit their language.

But Christianity never did that with other countries or religions. Even when Europe colonized the world, it did not accept nor take in any of the other religions. Quite the opposite--Christendom attempted to displace local cultures and religions, with christianity.

Answer 8

The Roman Goddess, Venus, is different to Aphrodite in many ways, and they are two different concepts. While they are both extensions of the angel of love, Haniel, one is considered more with lust and spark, the other is more concerned with sex, marriage, and loving. Jesus wasn't a God, although he is part of God. And Shiva is the destroyer- obviously not quite the same as Jesus. Anyone who compares the two is very uninformed. Venus and Aphrodite may be one and the same, but they both came after the concept of Haniel, the Angel of love and compassion. I think they may be one and the same, but just written as differently because of the societies which they were worshipped.

They cannot be confused though as they are from entirely different civilisations ^_^

Answer 9

The twelve gods of ancient Greece were in the course of time taken by the Romans as their gods too, and they (the Romans) gave them Roman names equivalent to the Greek ones.

Answer 10

The christian god and shiva are very different. Venus and Aphrodite are not. Both are represented by the same planet in the sky, and both have similar, although not identical, attributes. These similar cultures, which speak different languages, have different names for related, though not identical, gods.

Answer 11

I know u've gotten this answer many times but I state it again. Roman's took the same Gods and changed the names so Aphrodite is Venis. Zeus is Jupertor but now that I've seen that story of Chronas being Jupiter it really makes me think my 8th grade jerk english teach was wrong.