why are roman and Greek Gods exactly the same?

Question

why is the only difference between roman and Greek gods the names?

and the same goes for Norse and Germanic Gods!?

Answer 1

I would assume the same reason that the Hebrew bible is filled with Sumerian and Babylonia mythology. Peoples of a certain region tend to share cultures, religions etc.

Answer 2

The Roman and Greek gods are the same gods, and they were originally only Greek. When Rome conquered Greece, they started worshipping theses gods, but for some reason, they decided to give them new names that don't sound anything like the original names (with a few exceptions, for instance, both the Romans and Greeks called Apollo by that name). I don't know about the Norse and Germanic gods, though.

Answer 3

They're not exactly the same, and both pantheons are way different than the Norse gods by the way. There are many gods who share the same functions, like the god(dess) of fertility, or of war, or of the heavens - because these are common factors in human existence which are beyond human control. But go read the Aeneid and then come back and tell me the pastoral, family-oriented deities of Rome are exactly the same as the tempestuous Greek deities. Rome obviously copied some of their myths from Greece - just as all societies are influenced by their neighbors. But the Roman gods have a vastly different personality than the Greek gods, in spite of what they teach you in comparative mythology class.

Peace to you.

Answer 4

Because the Roman Empire had a habit of adopting the Gods of the nations they conquered. That's why there is so much Christianity mixed with Paganism in the Roman Catholic Church -they acted like an amoeba and wrapped themselves around Christianity the same way, adopting their traditions and customs and mixing them with whatever pagan ritual they already had. It was second nature to them, it was their way.

So that's one reason why Christians like me are against what they teach. The Roman Catholics are victim to tradition, and they fall for it until something happens, God usually gets some out of it.

The seated statue of Jupiter, for example, has been named Peter the Apostle. The hat that the Pope wears is Dagon, the fish god. The opening on the hat is the mouth. The rosaries are a pagan practice from ancient ancient times, and is practiced as far away as China, where Buddhist monks use them the their prayers. The mother and child statues are raised throughout the pagan world, and had been for centuries. That also came from ancient times, it is Cemiramis, and the child is Tammuz. The religion of theirs came from a claim that Nimrod who died was conceived through a sunbeam, so the mother and child statues became Mary and Jesus when Rome decided to adopt Christianity.

I also figure that there was a sort of kinship, a bonding between the Greeks and the Romans. The armies of Rome appeared to be fashioned much like the armies of Alexander the Great.

Answer 5

The Greeks were extremely religious and when the Romans conquered them they merged their religious beliefs together in order to make the transition of power easier.

The same thing happened with Catholicism. They took Pagan days of worship and just gave them a new name and meaning since people were already accustomed to celebrating during those times of the year.

Answer 6

The Greek culture was so great when the Romans conquered Greece that they were impressed and copied most things

Answer 7

They are similar because people have similar experiences. But they are NOT identical. Zeus is not Jupiter is not Odin. Haephastus is not Vulcan is not Thor. People make connections based on superficial similarities, especially if they see an advantage in the connection, as the Romans did in imitating their more culturally sophisticated Greek predecessors.

Answer 8

They are not, some were assimilated but the Romans had more gods who have no counterpart in Greek mythology-maybe because of Etruscan influences.

For example Flora, Janus and others.

Answer 9

i'm going to be light lOol

germanic and norse gods are the same
they are germanic pantheon of indo-european family

romans and greek
romans stole a lot from the greek , they belived on greek gods .
and romans and greeks are indo-european so their god and their "seen" of things are very close

like . . . .zeus :)
zeus is the god of the thunder
thor a germanic god , is the god of the thunder
and deus means god in latin
look white:)
thursday means "day of thor"

thurs is very close to zeus
and zeus to deus :)
cause zeus is also the god's king
so the real god
zeus=>deus=>thurs=>thor
it's a link
it's the indo-european origin :)

and what noice thurnder make ?
a great noise , strong , great , the noise of god :)

thunder and god are link :) in indo-european
maybe ancient aryan believed that thunder was the god's wrath or god himself

cause i think greeks and romans influence each other
but if you look at the old real latin gods
they are more close to celts one than greeks one .


in all germanic tribes the names of the gods change
but stay similar
like in english odin is wotan (i think its wotan)
in french it's odin ( odins:frankish language)
some change but alot stay the sames names.




by the way no
romans arent greek ,
romans are more close to celts
by language and ancestors
latin language come from italic who come from celtico-italico languages of indo-european family
greek, are another indo-europeans people

Answer 10

They shared cultures respectively. Ancient Greece and Rome were close knit; same for Norse and Germanic people. Their climates were similar, they traded regularly with each other, they shared ideas of religion with each other.