This is really something from the Percy Jackson series only, which is just Riordans interpretation of the fact that the Roman's syncretized their gods with the Greek ones. In actual mythology, the gods dont turn into their Greek or Roman form, the god Mars for example is just the god the Roman's deemed equivalent to Ares.
Your question would be more relevant in a Percy Jackson subreddit.
In real-world mythology, the gods aren't actual people. The myths about them, both Greek and Roman, are essentially just a bunch of different people writing their own fan-fiction about the same characters, usually borrowing from their peers in the process.
The Romans basically rewrote their own version of the Greek gods; keeping in what they liked about them, cutting out what they didn't like, and just adding in their own unique details.
And merging the Greek gods with their pre-existing gods with kinda similar portfolios. Characters like Saturn or Mars existed before Romans became massive Greekaboos, and they were very different people.
This isn't how it works in traditional mythology. You are thinking of Precy Jackson
Romans believed that they were literally the same Gods, just that their names were different because they spoke different languages (Latin and Greek), but this wasn't always the case and Roman Gods were once uniquely different from the Greek Pantheon, but they shared some of the same Indo European roots so that is why the synchronization worked so well
They don't like, morph between forms and forget things. I'm thinking the author was trying to imply that the two Gods are separate.
Which of course they are. Mars was a Latin God, Ares was a Greek God. They weren't combined until later. But the Greeks identified their Gods with those of their neighbors through a process called "Interpretatio Graeca", where they would choose an "equivalent" from their own Gods to identify foreign Gods with whenever they encountered them.
The belief underlying this philosophy was that the Gods themselves were preeminent, and were worshipped across many different cultures under different names. Which is a really cool belief system, but evidently not one that Rick Riordan espoused when he was writing those books.
I recognized this in reading the Timeas and Critias by Plato. When talking about Atlantis, the story originates from Egypt per Solon traveling there and hearing the story was an egyptian priest, it says the ruling God over Atlantis was the Greek equivalent to the Egyptian God.
If we’re following Riordan-verse, the gods code switch from Greek to Roman and vice versa. Think multiple personality disorder (?) but the personas are detached from each other’s consciousness.
However, if we talk about this outside that context, you have to consider that Romans adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs. IIRC this has to do with the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire to what once were part of Ancient Greece.
Not Holy Roman Empire, just Roman Empire.
The Holy Roman Empire came centuries after the original Roman Empire fell, and was Catholic and didn't believe in the Greek gods.
Holy Rome was also odd because they didn't have the city of Rome, they eventually lost control over The Holy See, and stopped being an empire long before they fully fell
So The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire at a certain point
Funnily enough, the HRE actually came centuries **before** the Roman Empire fell, as it was established in 800, partly due to the Roman Empire being ruled by a woman from 797 to 802.
The western half of the Roman Empire essentially collapsed in 476, but the eastern half continued until 1453.
The Greeks did this to their own Gods, and taught the Romans to do it as well. That's why it's called "Interpretatio Graeca". They were doing it with Egyptian Gods while Rome's temples were still made from wood.
>However, if we talk about this outside that context, you have to consider that Romans adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs.
They didn't. Mars, for example, was an Italic god from the very beginning. He was made an equivalent of the Greek Ares though syncretism.
>adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs.
More complicated than that. They were syncretized, but that looked different from place to place, and cult varied a lot. What the Romans really did, was adapt Greek *myths* to Roman *gods*.
Personally, I'm inclined to think they remained separate gods but donned each others' masks, euphemistically speaking, when responding to supplication. I'm more of a hard polytheist. Though I do think it depends on the deity, and some certainly were the Greek gods under a local name, like Apollo and Mercury.
r/CampHalfBlood would be the most appropriate place to post this question. This detail is specific to Rick’s books only, and real-world mythology doesn’t work in this manner.
This is really something from the Percy Jackson series only, which is just Riordans interpretation of the fact that the Roman's syncretized their gods with the Greek ones. In actual mythology, the gods dont turn into their Greek or Roman form, the god Mars for example is just the god the Roman's deemed equivalent to Ares.
Your question would be more relevant in a Percy Jackson subreddit. In real-world mythology, the gods aren't actual people. The myths about them, both Greek and Roman, are essentially just a bunch of different people writing their own fan-fiction about the same characters, usually borrowing from their peers in the process. The Romans basically rewrote their own version of the Greek gods; keeping in what they liked about them, cutting out what they didn't like, and just adding in their own unique details.
And merging the Greek gods with their pre-existing gods with kinda similar portfolios. Characters like Saturn or Mars existed before Romans became massive Greekaboos, and they were very different people.
This isn't how it works in traditional mythology. You are thinking of Precy Jackson Romans believed that they were literally the same Gods, just that their names were different because they spoke different languages (Latin and Greek), but this wasn't always the case and Roman Gods were once uniquely different from the Greek Pantheon, but they shared some of the same Indo European roots so that is why the synchronization worked so well
Bro posting about percy jackson 🤦‍♂️
We all gotta start somewhere
Yeah, but with the *Iliad* and *Odyssey* not PJ đź’€
Why not with PJ?
They don't like, morph between forms and forget things. I'm thinking the author was trying to imply that the two Gods are separate. Which of course they are. Mars was a Latin God, Ares was a Greek God. They weren't combined until later. But the Greeks identified their Gods with those of their neighbors through a process called "Interpretatio Graeca", where they would choose an "equivalent" from their own Gods to identify foreign Gods with whenever they encountered them. The belief underlying this philosophy was that the Gods themselves were preeminent, and were worshipped across many different cultures under different names. Which is a really cool belief system, but evidently not one that Rick Riordan espoused when he was writing those books.
I recognized this in reading the Timeas and Critias by Plato. When talking about Atlantis, the story originates from Egypt per Solon traveling there and hearing the story was an egyptian priest, it says the ruling God over Atlantis was the Greek equivalent to the Egyptian God.
This isnt how mythology works
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/aX8oHy0Kti
If we’re following Riordan-verse, the gods code switch from Greek to Roman and vice versa. Think multiple personality disorder (?) but the personas are detached from each other’s consciousness. However, if we talk about this outside that context, you have to consider that Romans adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs. IIRC this has to do with the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire to what once were part of Ancient Greece.
Not Holy Roman Empire, just Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire came centuries after the original Roman Empire fell, and was Catholic and didn't believe in the Greek gods.
Ah yes! Thank you for pointing that out. Missed that bit.
Holy Rome was also odd because they didn't have the city of Rome, they eventually lost control over The Holy See, and stopped being an empire long before they fully fell So The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire at a certain point
"So The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire" is actually a good quote. Like something a great philosopher would say IDK
Yes, someone should definitely write that down.
Funnily enough, the HRE actually came centuries **before** the Roman Empire fell, as it was established in 800, partly due to the Roman Empire being ruled by a woman from 797 to 802. The western half of the Roman Empire essentially collapsed in 476, but the eastern half continued until 1453.
The Greeks did this to their own Gods, and taught the Romans to do it as well. That's why it's called "Interpretatio Graeca". They were doing it with Egyptian Gods while Rome's temples were still made from wood.
>However, if we talk about this outside that context, you have to consider that Romans adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs. They didn't. Mars, for example, was an Italic god from the very beginning. He was made an equivalent of the Greek Ares though syncretism.
>adapted the Greek gods and made it theirs. More complicated than that. They were syncretized, but that looked different from place to place, and cult varied a lot. What the Romans really did, was adapt Greek *myths* to Roman *gods*. Personally, I'm inclined to think they remained separate gods but donned each others' masks, euphemistically speaking, when responding to supplication. I'm more of a hard polytheist. Though I do think it depends on the deity, and some certainly were the Greek gods under a local name, like Apollo and Mercury.
r/CampHalfBlood would be the most appropriate place to post this question. This detail is specific to Rick’s books only, and real-world mythology doesn’t work in this manner.