How Is Greek Mythology Reinterpreted At Rome?

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How is Greek mythology reinterpreted at Rome? For what purposes do Romans reutilise Greek mythology?

The ancient Greek and Roman religion were based on beliefs in God. They followed the similar belief with immeasurable differences. The mythology composed of many God and Goddesses that played a role in everyday’s lifer of Greek and Roman people. Both of them believed in polytheism. Polytheism is the belief in many gods, each having a purpose and a personality. It was subject to many myths and legends that would be told to many generations. The basis of religion was these gods. The Roman mythology comes from Greek mythology. In the paragraphs below an explanation to how these mythology are linked and how the Greek mythology interpreted in Rome is given. The Gods and Goddesses that were worshiped by Roman and Greeks are explained (Bowden & Hughs, 2010). The interlink and how the one god in Greek is the counterpart of the God in Roman is also briefed.

Roman Mythology has 12 to 13 main gods and was taken from beliefs of the Greek gods. As per the Classical mythology Roman consisted of high god Jupiter, his wife, his sons Vulcan, Mercury, Mars, Apollo, his daughters Diana and Venus, his sister Vesta, and his brother Neptune and Janus (Brammer & Horsefall, 1987). To the Greeks Jupiter is known as the Zeus, the ruler of gods. Greek considered Zeus(Juipiter) the ruler of sky, has the power to cause thunder, lightening, and earthquakes. In a different manner Roman called it Jupiter the power holder of Roman Gods. They say he is the one who holds the sky, the weather, daylight, thunder, and lightening. Vesta, another virgin goddess who was the symbol of home and watcher of the household and the family activities in the Roman mythology. The same goddesses was known as Hestia in Greek mythology. In Greek mythology Juno was considered as the goddess of marriage and one who protects the women. Same was considered about Juno in Roman mythology. She married Jupiter because she was raped by him. Another god Apollo, who was represented in the same way in Greek and Roman mythology (Graf, Fritz & Sarah, 2007). In both of the mythologies Apollo was considered the god of music, teacher of medicine, shooter of silver arrows, and the one who carried sun across the sky. Minerva, the other goddesses of wisdom, craft and the art. She was the daughter of Palla, but it was later considered that she sprung from the forhead of Jupiter (Zeus to Greek mythology). The origin of Minerva is same for both the Greek and the Roman mythology but, in Greek mythology she is considered as the goddess of handicrafts, agriculture and city. She was the symbol of wisdom and purity to them. She was the one who invented trumpet, pot, rake, ship, flute and the yoke (Schuddeboom et al., 2009). The god of love was same in both the religions, she was Venus. To Roman’s, she was Venus Felix (one who brings luck), Venus Victrix (one who brings victory), Venus Verticrdia (one who protects females), and Venus Libentina (one who is patron of sensual desires). On the other hand Greek religion she was known as Aphrodite one who is the Goddess of love, desire, and the beauty. The gods and goddesses to both the mythologies were almost same. Most of them were brought from Greek mythology to the Roman mythology. The purpose of the gods and goddesses was same only they were brought up with a different name in both of them like Zeus to Greek and Jupiter to Roman.

The classical mythology suggests The Homeric Hymn to Demeter as a very crucial theory. An important aspect of Greek was to put human at the centre of Universe. The Greek gods were human in physical and emotional form.  The gods of Greek mythology were omniscient, omnipotent, and have human foibles like feasting, drinking, obsessive’s, and jealousy.  As per the Greek Mythology the life of Gods were closely related to the human life that is real and tangible not the imaginative one (Karoglou & Kiki, 2000). Hamilton said the ancient people life were full of hardships, diseases and violence instead of harmony with nature. Hamilton thus argues the myths of Greek. The Greek heroes were born due to bravery and strength rather than supernatural powers. The Hamilton’s theory stands contrary to the beliefs of the Roman and Greek mythology that believed more in courage and considered God as an advanced powerful version of Human.

The roman considered as Mercury as the messenger of the Gods. Mercury was known to be a god of merchant, science, astronomy, cleverness, and thieves. In the Greek mythology Groiler is the messenger of Gods. According to them, he is the one who invented musical scale, astronomy, measurements and gyms. Diana was the goddess of forest and was called d hunter and a women supporter as per the Romans. For Greek the Hunter god was Artemis (Winterbourne & Anthony, 2004). She was the one who protected the young kids, the females, and the goddess of the moon. The classical mythology suggests that there was a god of fire as well. Vulcan according to Romans prevents fires and was too ugly but, was married to beautiful Venus. The goddess Venus was so good that because of his ugliness she married Vulcan (Hugh, 1920). The Greeks says the god of fire used volcanoes as his weapons to prevent fire. They also considered Vulcan as the god of smith and weave. The Greeks god of fire was married to Aphrodite. The god of fire was very kind and peace loving. The Greeks mythology says he was thrown from the mountain as he was on Hera’s side during an argument with Zeus (Papadopoulou & Thalia (2005). Janus was the God who didn’t belong to Greek mythology; he was known to be second to Jupiter to the Romans. The Greek’s considered Poseidon was known second to Zeus.

The Greek’s super god was married to Hera. Hera was jealous of the affairs of his husband. Hera tried to harm Heracles when he was returning from Troy. To this, Zeus ordered to hang her from top of mountain. They had four children. Juno, the counterpart of Hera in Roman mythology was married to Jupiter. Brother of Zeus, Hades kidnapped his wife Persephone when she was picking flowers. Hades was known as the god of underworld made her wife eat a piece of food so as to abandon her from earth. Her father, Zeus did arrangements to allow her on Earth for two thirds every year and rest of the time in underworld. Thus, the mythology believes spring and winter arose when Persephone came to earth she brings spring and when she goes underworld she brings winter (Cosmopoulos & Michael, 2003). The Roman has the same concept of underworld god, Pluto.  He is rich and has Horn of Plenty. Romans say he was a bad luck to the Gods and that’s why he was not mentioned in the myths. Both the mythology didn’t consider the god of underworld good. Mars, was the Roman God of agriculture and war and was considered as the second most important God. The Romans named the month March under his name and was also the first month of their calendar. It was considered as the month when agriculture and war will start. Aphrodite, was the Goddess of love and beauty as per Greeks. She was very aggressive and left her husband for the God of War (George). Aphrodite was the counterpart of Venus in mythology. Venus, was the Goddess of love for Romans. The month of April was recognized as Venus. Venus’s son was Cupid who was the Roman God of love. Diana was similar to the Greek Goddess Artemis. She was the Goddess of Hunting. She owned two shrines. One was the Diana of the woods and second was the Diana Tifatina. Diana’s cult was human sacrifice (Kelly & Douglas, 2003).

During the , mythology took a new place and class.  A Greek mythographer created a tradition to seek the mythological beliefs and events. myth became popular in Roman empire. Stoics represented Gods and heroes as physical phenomena whereas Euhemerists considered them as historical figures (Burkert & Walter, 1987). At the same time, the Stoics and  promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies. The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The Roman declared that the myths do not hold place in philosophy. But like Greeks they believe that religion and traditions. Both of them followed a religion and culture to worship the different Gods and Goddesses.

Conclusion

The sequence and the similarity exist in all the Gods and Goddess of Roman and Greek mythology (AlbalaKen, Johnson, & Johnson, 2000). There is a variety and a god or goddess for everything. The Roman’s reutilized the mythology of Greeks as they too had the same belief that God’s are made due to strength and power. They didn’t believe supernatural powers as much like the Greeks. The God’s and Goddess who were not kind are least interpreted in their mythologies and are considered to be bad luck like the God of underworld for both the mythologies. Summing it can be seen, the Roman mythology is more of interpreted version of the Greek mythology.

References

AlbalaKen, G, Johnson C.D. & Johnson V. E. (2000). “Origin of Mythology”. Understanding the Odyssey. Courier Dover Publications.

Bremmer, J.N. & Horsfall, N.M. (1987), Roman Myth and Mythography, University of London Institute of Classical Studies, pp. 49–62.

Bowden & Hugh. (2010). Mystery Cults of the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Burkert & Walter. (1987). Ancient Mystery Cults. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Cosmopoulos & Michael B. (2003). Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology of Ancient Greek Secret Cults. London: Routledge.

Graf, Fritz & Sarah I. (2007). Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. London: Routledge

Gregory, N. Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. 

Hugh, G.E.W. Hesiod, Works and Days. Translated in to english

Karoglou & Kiki. (2000). “Mystery Cults in the Greek and Roman World.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kelly & Douglas (2003). “Sources of Greek Myth”. An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology. Douglas Kelly.

Papadopoulou & Thalia (2005). “Introduction”. Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy. Cambridge University Press.

Schuddeboom, Feyo, Cornelis Zijderveld, & Nicolaas M. H. B. (2009). Greek Religious Terminology: Telete & Orgia: A Revised and Expanded English Edition of the Studies by Zijderveld and Van Der Burg. Leiden: Brill.

Winterbourne & Anthony (2004). “Spinning and Weaving Fate”. When the Norns Have Spoken.