Greek Characteristics of Gods:                                               back to Rome page                 

     The Greek culture began before the Roman. The Iliad, one of the earliest of the great written Greek works, appeared roughly 700 years before the Aeneid, an early Roman work. The Iliad in turn was based on a good 300 years of verbal story telling.

    Greek civilization was mostly conducted from small city-states. The Greeks loved life and lived it with zest. They had little interest in the afterlife, which, even for the greatest of men, was believed to be an eternal unpleasantness. In the Odyssey , the dead Achilles says that he would rather be a slave in life than king of the dead. The best that a man could hope to do would be to perform great deeds that would be remembered after his death. Because they highly regarded intellectuals (poets, philosophers and others) in addition to their great warriors, great deeds could be accomplished by all.

    The Greeks believed in individualism and prized differences in personality and character. They were fascinated by the contradiction that it is those very virtues that made a man great that can lead to his undoing. This is very subtle thinking.

    Their myths and religion reflect these traits. Their gods were personalized with individual strengths and flaws; gods made mistakes, got embarrassed and were caught cheating on their spouses. But, also there were gods who were heroic, wise, loving, and developed essential crafts like weaving.  

    Mortal heroes also played an important role in the myths. There were times when the gods needed a mortal hero to win battles for them. But very rarely did a hero become a god. Many of the most heroic tales involve snatching someone back from the underworld. This is in stark contrast to those religions in which getting to the next world the right way is the main goal.

Roman Characteristics

     The Romans were a more disciplined, less imaginative people. They more highly valued feats of engineering than verbal images created by the poet. They built and, more amazingly, maintained a vast empire for centuries. They valued war and the warrior much more than the Greeks did. They were also great borrowers from other cultures; not only from Greece. At times, in Rome, Egyptian religions had huge followings. The Romans hoped for a better life in the next world. A variety of mystery religions (of which Christianity was only one) promised this for the common man. For the powerful, becoming a god was an option; one which many emperors took. Many religions actually coexisted, incorporating the traditional worship of the household gods. The state religion that helped hold the empire together, the many mystery religions promising life after death, and a plethora of foreign imports.

    Traditional Roman religion was practical, if unimaginative. It was tightly woven into everyday life, so that normal activities were connected with their "worship". Gods looked after most important tasks, plowing fields, cutting wood, maintaining hearth fires, and so forth. They had little personality, often not even a sex was determined. There are few written mentions of these gods and no literary tradition. It is not surprising that the colourful Greek Myths won the imagination of the educated elite.

     The Romans adopted the Greek Myths pretty much in their entirety, changing many Greek names to those of pre-existing Roman deities, which continue to cause confusion. The relative importance of a god might shift considerably. The best example is that of the god of war. For the Greeks, Ares was not very bright and a bit on the coarse side. In the most famous Greek myth about him, he is caught in an act of adultery and soundly embarrassed by a cripple; no less. Rather undignified for a god! The Romans transformed him to the mighty god Mars, a prestigious figure.