By: Manaswini
“Aphrodite,” Annabeth said.
“Venus?” Hazel asked in amazement.
“Mom,” Piper said with no enthusiasm.
“Girls!” The goddess spread her arms like she wanted a group hug.
~ Rick Riordan
if you were a bookworm like me, then you must have read Percy Jackson or at least tried reading it. Percy Jackson gave me my love for mythology.
By the time I was done reading the second series I also had serious doubts.
One of them was how similar can two mythologies be. So I started researching… contrast to my thoughts Greek and Roman mythology couldn’t be further apart.
In the book, it seemed that the Greeks and Romans shared a lot in common and that the only difference came from how they named their gods. However, it turns out they are miles apart in terms of other things. So here’s what I found….
If there was a Greek god, there was a Roman counterpart. While they shared the same powers and responsibilities, they were different in many other ways. Zeus was known as Jupiter, Poseidon was called Neptune, Aphrodite- as Venus, etc.
The major differences came from how the mortals perceived the gods. The myths of Greek gods revolved around their physical appearance and a lot of emphasis was given in the description during the myths itself whereas Romans neither had a physical appearance nor a gender.
Greek gods predated Roman gods so it was seen that Roman gods were the Greek deities assigned with a Roman object befitting the description of that particular Greek god.
Moreover, Greek mythology emphasized good deeds done by mortal heroes on earth whereas Roman mythology emphasized the afterlife. The Greek culture viewed the deities as unattainable beings. According to them, they could never become one of the gods, rather they could just do good deeds in honour of these gods on earth.
The Romans believed that they should aspire to be gods, to be worshipped. They believed the gods to be an exemplar of how to live life. Their belief in the afterlife also stands as a reason for their view of the Roman gods.
The most important difference is the origin of these myths and the gods. The origin of the Greek gods is unknown while the origin of the Roman gods is said to be myths of Roman creation from the Greeks. In conclusion, Greece and Rome are miles apart and so are their myths, cultures and perceptions. This can be seen in the books of two of the greatest authors of all time – Homer and Virgil. However, it can also be seen that mythologies are nothing but how the gods are perceived by humans. The perception of us humans is what makes mythology. How do you perceive the myths? Well, I will leave that question to you