Dominic Prentice

Differences and Similarities Between Greek and Roman Mythology

There are many gods in the Roman and Greek history although the Greek ones are
arguably better known, the Roman gods are just Greek gods with different names and traits.
There are a lot of similarities and differences between Roman gods and their Greek counterparts,
including what they are the god of and their names.
Here are some similarities between the Greek and Roman gods. Jupiter who is the king of
all the gods still has the same role in Greek mythology as he does in Roman mythology. The
Roman god Neptune and Poseidon the Greek counterpart are both the god of the sea. Then Hades
and Pluto are both the god of the underworld, Pluto being the Roman version and Hades being its
Greek counterpart. As you can see the biggest three gods all have the same role just different
names. In both Greek and Roman mythology, these three gods were the big three and were all
brothers who split up the world giving Jupiter the sky, Neptune the sea, and Pluto the
underworld.
Just like how there are many similarities between Roman and Greek gods there are also a
lot of differences. One difference is how important the afterlife was to them. To the Greeks the
afterlife was not important and they did not really try much at all to secure any place in the
afterlife. To the Romans it was important and securing a place in heaven was very important to
their people. It says that they could even be placed among the gods and their lives strove towards
that goal. Greek gods have more of a beautiful physical appearance while Roman gods were not
given any appearance and only could be imagined. The Greek gods were more based on human
personality traits like love and hate but the Roman gods were based on objects or actions rather

than personality traits.

As you can see there are many similarities and differences between the Greek and Roman
gods. Many of the Roman gods were originally Greek and the Romans just renamed them and
gave them different traits. It is important that even though they are so similar, they are also very
different on why they have those traits and what each god was based on.
Neptune
The roman god Neptune said to be the god of the seas and water. Neptune which is a
counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon with not much differences between the two gods. The god
Neptune is said to be carried around in a clam shell chariot and always carrying a trident with
him. He is also said to be the bringer of all life on earth giving us rainwater.
Neptune is the roman god of the seas and water but he also had three brothers. One names
Jupiter and the other named Pluto. After the three of them defeated their father Saturn they split
divided the world in to three sections. Jupiter took the sky, Pluto took the underworld, and
Neptune had control over the sea. Neptune was said to be a god that had serious anger and was
not to be provoked in any way or you would receive consequences. Neptune would start tempests
and earthquakes to reflect his anger. One day when Neptune was going about in the sea he saw a
water nymph Amphitrite. She was dancing on the island of Naxos and he fell in love with her.
Neptune had asked her to marry him but Amphitrite refused and would not marry Neptune.
Neptune was not discouraged, by her refusal to marry him and sent a dolphin to find her. Once
the dolphin found her it pleaded Neptunes case so persuasively that it convinced her to marry
Neptune. Neptune then immortalized the dolphin by placing it in the heavens as the constellation
Dolphinus.

Neptune was one of three major gods in Roman times. In Rome Neptune only had one
temple. His temple stood near the Circus Flaminius, which was a Roman racetrack, which was in
the south part of the Campus Martius. Neptune was one of the three Roman gods whom it was
appropriate to sacrifice bulls, the other two gods being Apollo and Mars. The wrong offering
would require a piaculum, if due to inadvertency or necessity.
Early Christians View on Pagan Gods
Even though these two religions have completely different views on religion. It turns out
that Pagans had quite a bit of influence on early Christians and our society today. We may not do
all the sacrifices that the Pagans do but many events and festivals performed came from their
religion and were adopted by the early Christians and many of us still participate in these events
or festivals today.
In the early stages of Christianity when people started to convert from paganism over to
the catholic church they brought over many of their celebrations with them. The Druids in
ancient France and Britain staged a 12-day festival at the time of the winter solstice. They
believed it was the high point of an annual battle between an ice giant, representing death, and
the sun god, representing life. They used to make large bonfires to cheer on and assist the sun
god. What is today thought to be a celebration of the birth of Christ began as the pagan
midwinter festival. One unbiblical tradition of this holiday is the use of greens. Decorating with
green plants in late December through the beginning of January was one of the ways Druids
honored and encouraged the sun god at the time of the winter solstice. Families commonly cut
down an evergreen tree to bring into their home, where they decorated and displayed it in a
prominent place. In the Middle Ages, this ritual of paganism persisted and was eventually

adapted and given a Christian label, as Roman Catholic missionaries worked to convince people
to worship the Son of God rather than the sun god.
This is only one way that paganism influenced Christianity in old times and how these
events and festivals even still occur in our society today. Most of us do not even realize how
much paganism influenced our culture. Even though many people think that it had nothing to do
with anything in the Christian church or our society today, just a little bit of research and it
showed me just how much it influenced us today.
Work Cited

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/paganism.html
http://www.windows2universe.org/mythology/Definitions_gods/Neptune_def.html
http://www.talesbeyondbelief.com/roman-gods/neptune.htm
https://www.reference.com/art-literature/difference-between-greek-roman-mythology-

35898bf6486f1aac
http://www.kean.edu/~eslprog/accents/2003/page2003_7.html
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/userstory20442-greek-mythology-vs-roman-

mythology.html
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Greek_Gods_vs_Roman_Gods