Why the Roman and Greek Gods were Different

[@PomazeBog1389]

Not knowing Greek mythology has always been my Achilles horse.

[@Mrmidknight-yx9pg]

👏👏👏 bravo sir

[@ethanol1586]

😂😂😂

[@zainmudassir2964]

Achilles heel

[@endurance8910]

😂😂😂😂

[@iivin4233]

I know what you mean. My creative Fury is sure limited by that same gap in my knowledge.

[@edhaworth8151]

Anoia the goddess of things that get stuck in kitchen drawers is a personal favourite.

[@iivin4233]

I keep hearing the voice of her near relation, Par-Anoia.

[@mousefire777]

Me and me family’s been rattling drawers for generations

[@rexarrow4133]

Rattle the drawers in praise! (for those that dont know, Anoia comes from Sir terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which is more than worth looking into)

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

Her emblem is the soup ladle.

[@michaelwhite9513]

The Catholic Church took over the various gods and turned them into saints. There is a saint for any occasion, but I don't think mildew.

[@cringlator]

That shot of Cicero surrounded by the divine was definitely Cicero’s lock screen

[@Michelle-Eden]

Loved the beautiful paintings that illustrated this video.

[@Hedgpig]

5:17 I've hung doors and this sounds right, honestly wouldn't have been surprised if it was a lot more, doors have always been tricky

[@scottabc72]

That must be what Ive been missing, I hate hanging doors

[@DoeSwiftandBond]

This must surely have been based on the antiquities values on the trades that involved these objects that seemingly seem redundant or impossible in current day.

[@TheWildManEnkidu]

Zeus: Hmm, maybe I invited one too many Gods up here. I should-... Anubis: WOOF, WOOF, WOOF WO-... Zeus: I shoul-... I SHOULD-...! Anubis: WOOF, WOOF, WOOF Zeus: SHUT UP!

[@mrurquhart9138]

Zeus: Hera! Fetch me the divine water sprayer! 🔫💧

[@TheWildManEnkidu]

@@mrurquhart9138 Poseidon? 😅

[@MrGksarathy]

​@@TheWildManEnkidu I would assume Triton instead.

[@shastasilverchairsg]

Hera: WHO LET THE DOG OUT?

[@ladywisewolf3942]

Zeus: " And while we're at it..Horus! Will you pipe down! All that squawking over there is getting on my nerves! Where did I put my damn thunderbolts?!".

[@RickLowrance]

"God of Mildew" I played that three times to make sure I heard it correctly.

[@DonariaRegia]

While most of these terms have disappeared from the modern vernacular, the god of manured has endured, known today as a shit lord.

[@neilterry1726]

As St. Arlo noted in song, "shit makes the flowers grow"

[@Diogenes_43]

Mildew still exists. This god walks among us.

[@johnl5316]

Repitio is the God of repetition.

[@robo5013]

Robigus was the god thought responsible for a red mildew that would sometimes infect wheat crops. In his case, like so many other gods, he was worshiped not as a benign deity but as a malicious one that needed to be mollified so as not to inflict his wrath on the people.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

When I was a kid, I mostly thought that the Roman Gods were exactly the same as the Greek Gods, just with (mostly) different names. Probably because of all the charts I've seen presenting them as such.

[@AceMcSch00ly]

They're the same beings just different names, same with Egyptian Gods etc.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@AceMcSch00ly That's only true for some of them.

[@gryaznygreeb]

Even when they represent the same concepts and share many of the same stories, they have some differences. It's more accurate to think of them as different cultural flavors of the same proto indo european religion.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@gryaznygreeb Yeah, that makes sense.

[@clenesuniversaisx5173]

Meanwhile in Rome 20 b.c. "Is Mayo a God?" -No Patrickus, Mayo is not a God

[@iivin4233]

"Mayo is a demon." - St. Paleo-Dietus.

[@2MuchPurple]

Mayo is a condiment.

[@shastasilverchairsg]

"How about Mayo's niece?"

[@Lucius1958]

"Maionesius is a minor spirit; merely a servant of the goddess Condimentia..."

[@ladywisewolf3942]

​@@Lucius1958I prefer Mustardious myself.

[@LuxAlibi]

Mars and Ares were very different: as far as I know, while Ares was the god of war, Mars was more properly the god of Strength. So, for instance, Romans were used to consecrating peace treaties to Mars, because you need to be strong and powerful to negotiate a good peace treaty. For Greeks people, consecrating a peace treaty to Ares the god of war, would have been a nonsense and an ill omen.

[@blacksage2375]

Much of our perception of Greece is filtered through Athens who of course favored their local OG Mary Sue war goddess so it is hardly surprising Ares gets left with only the worst traits of war in our accounts. Also wasn't he strongly revered in Sparta who were iconically laconic? A war god making peace is not some inherently alien idea. Norse myth has at least four different war god and marks the peace between Asgard and Vanir with exchanges of marriages.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

Mars is even more than strength. He seems to have been associated with a broad range of things from agriculture and fertility to justice to law and order to war of course and to the very ancient concept of the Curios. An ambitious man would almost prefer equating Mars with Wotan, especially given the god's fondness for wolves and birds.

[@MasterPoucksBestMan]

Mars was a god of boundaries, and his wife Venus was a goddess of gardens. Over time, the maintenance of boundaries was recognized as necessary to be both successful in war as well as keeping the peace, rather than just defining the boundaries of the garden, his wife. The fertility of the garden was recognized as necessary for the fertility of the marriage, and hence life and love.

[@andreipop5805]

My professor taught us this: Mars' equivalent was not Ares but Athena. For the Greeks, Athena was also a god of war, but of a strategic intelligent war, as was Mars. Ares was not. Ares was the distructive side of war

[@hyacinthlynch843]

Mars started out as the god of agriculture.

[@toriwilson6961]

Could you recommend a book on the "highly specific" deities please? When I attempt to do Internet research, I only get the basics. I am open to community answers as well. Thank you.

[@msrougie]

do you use Theoi?

[@toriwilson6961]

@msrougie I am not aware of it. Is it a "book finding tool"? Thank you for your help.

[@msrougie]

It has pages dedicated to each god, beast, hero, etc from ancient greece with the sources 👍 ​@@toriwilson6961

[@msrougie]

@@toriwilson6961 its an online "library" which has not only the gods, but also daimones, creatures, plants & heroes of ancient greece! you're very welcome :)

[@Freyja102]

Pick up Walter Bukerts "Greek Religon" has individual chapters on the gods, can be a bit too jargony, but still worth reading about the Greek Gods

[@SleepyPotterFan]

“Assign Gods to specific functions and objects” The refusal by other historians to simply label Roman polytheism “animism” astounds me. That nearly all polytheist traditions exist in a murky spectrum between ‘animism’ and ‘hard polytheism’ usually explains most of the “minor” deities early Christians complained about and modern people misunderstand.

[@Bucephalus84]

The answer is simple. Animism doesn't correlate to astrology. The trademark of Aryan religion was in the stars.

[@V3lv3n]

​@@Bucephalus84the fuck are you talking about. Most cultures worldwide had some form of analyzing the stars above them considering its what theyd see every fucking night. The 'aryan religion' doesnt exist unless youre talking about soecifically the aryan ethnic group. Which is not white europeans. Go back to your thousandth hyperborea tiktok edit compilation.

[@pansepot1490]

“Animism” yup. And the video doesn’t mention that every river, mountain, forest, etc. had their own god.

[@ChrisShortyAllen]

It is not a simple subject. Applying a label to cover all is academically weak.

[@SleepyPotterFan]

@@ChrisShortyAllen Well, I WAS going to rent a billboard in Times Square that said “The Romans Were Animist. Fight me.” But, I suppose we could simply explain animism and the ways in which Roman polytheism was more animist than the hard polytheism two millennia of idealization and misinformation has created?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Saying that there was Greek influence on the Roman Gods "since the beginning" isn't wrong, but it's only one side of the coin. It's highly likely that both the Italiote and Greek Gods were descended from older pantheons - going all the way back to the early Bronze Age and the invasion of the Indo-European speaking Yamnaya peoples. And in the thousands of years between that happening and the start of Greek / Roman classical (or even archaic) civilization, it's inevitable that there was further contact and cultural exchange along trade routes. It's a messy picture, but I see it more as two parallel pantheons that emerged from the same initial source, and then both evolved in their own way, but without ever losing touch.

[@kirkvoelcker5272]

PIE Dyḗus ph₂tḗr ("Daylight-sky Father")

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@dffndjdjd Perhaps. But it's also clear that the Roman, Gallic, Norse, Greek, and Punic pantheons are all *much* more closely related than any of those to the Mesoamerican pantheons. How much of that is due to common origin rather than cross-talk before we have written sources is harder to judge though.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

@@QuantumHistorian Well, it helps that the "Mesoamerican pantheons" are from an entirely different side of the planet.

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@dffndjdjd That's simply not remotely true.

[@Bob62798]

@@dffndjdjdI’m not a historian but saying that the rituals and the roles that gods served in Greek and Roman society was the same sounds like a reach.

[@danukil7703]

Thank you, Dr. Ryan, for all your wonderful videos :)

[@enriquesanchez2001]

FABULOUS content, GARRETT! Love the illustrations!

[@borealis.in.georgia]

Love settling in with a glass of wine and a new ToldInStone vid on a Friday night!

[@christopherkeil]

Thanks for this video. This is a subject I've wondered about for a long time.

[@JohnMinehan-lx9ts]

Not to mention Janus, the god of coming and goings, whose name became gives us te name fo rthe first month of the year.

[@skraddypoo]

And from whom we have his great servant of the entrances, exits and hallways - the Janitor. (This is true, from the Latin "ianitor" or doorkeeper, where "Ianus" is the morpheme for "doorway, archway")

[@ribkan4759]

2:16 Greeks influenced Roman religion virtually from the beginning 2:46 The greeks generally accepted that the Romans worshipped their gods under different names 3:14 lesser deities who authority was limited to a certain place or particularly activity. 3:44 evocatio 4:44 Nike Tyche 5:21 st augustine 3 roman gods responsible for protecting doorways 6:38 ancient authors differences greek&roman religions 6:51 Dionysus of Halicarnassus

[@tierfreund780]

Cicero doesn't make that complaint about the multiple Zeuses, he has a character in "On the Nature of the Gods" express it, but he doesn't claim to agree with them.

[@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski]

@@tierfreund780 if this is the level of pedantry we're at then, likewise, cicero never said he didn't agree with them.

[@thehoov6672]

​@@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowskiand likewise, with no record of an agreement disagreement.. Then no statement should be made at all.

[@gabrielboi3465]

@@thehoov6672 I think that it should, because it clearly show that as a possible valid point of view that people might have had back then or, if anything, that there was a reason for them to have it, it shows how fragmented the religious system was, which is the point of the video.

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@gabrielboi3465 Exactly. Whether Cicero agreed with the sentiment would be important if this video was a biography of Cicero. But it's irrelevant when talking about the nature of Roman religions and the views that the Romans had about it.

[@KaiColloquoun-gt7kw]

There was only the one "zeus". "Jupiter" is a contraction of "zeus pater" ie "Father Zeus"

[@question_asker_93]

Awesome video, thank you!

[@OvoidAxhead]

Greek and Indo-European ties are obviously present from early on, but the native Italic and pre-Indo-European contributions can't be overstated. In fact, arguably, a lot of those unfamiliar elements was just paved over with increasing Hellenization over time, and the plausibly ancient ties with Greek practices may be overstated. For example, Roman practices of fortunetelling and augury were similar to Etruscan ones. Many of the gods who were most important early on, like Mars and Saturn and Quirinus, are either probably Etruscan or distinctly Italic; Mars and Quirinus were part of an older triad with Jupiter before Juno and Minerva; Saturn was a patron god of agriculture and wealth and farming, Rome's most important pursuits, and his temple was claimed the oldest in the city. Practices like the rituals of the Salian priests were maintained even when they were so archaic that their original meaning could not be understood, and they did not have a clear place anywhere among the later Hellenized practices. But these are only remote glimpses into a prehistoric period in Italy at the start of the first millennium BC when Rome was founded. At that time, Mycenaean Greek religion was itself in an archaic form, with gods like Poseidon, Demeter and Dionysus holding more prominence than in later periods.

[@umwha]

I think it can basically be summarized like this - all the earth mother figures are probably native - all the sky father figures are indo european .

[@cyruspowers7355]

I like this video format Garrett

[@heretictom]

Great video!!

[@10glocks40]

I bought your books. The toughest thing about them is reading them and not imaginging your voice coming from the pages.

[@llyando]

Super interesting. Thank you for making this video.

[@toriwilson6961]

Thank you for this comparative topic! Thank you, earnestly, for educating me on the god of mildew. I will be researching this evening. 😊

[@m.e.345]

..in the shower, no doubt. 😄

[@tdawg30]

My new favorite channel. Niche history videos before bed ftw!

[@RizzstrainingOrder66]

Your videos never fail to amaze me ! 😄

[@christophervanasse9911]

Got your book recently and it’s awesome. Informative and funny. My three year old nephew enjoyed reading it with me even though he fell asleep.

[@artawhirler]

Excellent video! Thanks! As a child I was taught that the Greek and Roman Olympians were the same characters, just with different names. But when I grew up and began to study the matter for myself, I realized they weren't the same at all.

[@G.A.-ov4yf]

Some reading recomendations on this topic would be a great addition to the video.

[@marcodaddario3965]

The "we can make a religion out of this" meme seems to have been in full swing during the roman era.

[@quinmastrangelo5699]

Great video! I would be interested to see a similar one comparing the influence of the Etruscan gods on early Roman religion as well.

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

02:21. The Greek name of Apollo was also Phoebus. It appears the names are written in English, because if they were written in Latin, they could be Iupiter/Iovis, Neptunus, Mercurius, etc.

[@vistasinconnection9678]

Had to look up "moiled in the mortal world," love this though. Great engaging work. Thank you.

[@allangardiner2515]

Excellent essay! I like "moiled".

[@Anamericanhomestead]

Surprised you didnt mention the work of Apuleius (The Golden Ass) where it basically is stated that all these goddesses are the same and can be traced back to Isus.

[@blacksage2375]

@@dffndjdjd You say that but at the same time Aphrodite is absolutely Ishtar/Inanna/Astarte whose foreignness to the Olympian pantheon is not terribly controversial. Deities could absolutely transverse settings which makes take the common motifs as being some singular origin rather understandable.

[@damoose663]

It's a minor point but the statue in the thumbnail (and at 1:17) is a status of Moses, located at Santa Maria del Monte Italy, not exactly a Roman god.

[@nineteenfortyeight]

You sure?

[@aidanwotherspoon905]

I wonder if there was any kind Judeo-Roman worship where Yaweh was incorporated into the pagan Roman pantheon…

[@kittyprydekissme]

The things protruding from his head make it obvious. Those are meant to be beams of light. Moses was usually shown this way in the Renaissance, although sometimes he had horns instead, due to a mistranslation in the Vulgate.

[@Bucephalus84]

​@aidanwotherspoon905 nice joke 😅😮😢

[@damoose663]

@@nineteenfortyeight Look up "Fontana del Mosè" at Santa Maria del Monte. My Itallian might not be good but I'm fairly sure it translates to "The Fountain of Moses" 😉

[@CaracalKeithrafferty]

This is so good I watched it twice!

[@brianphillips1864]

Quite aside from content or production value (both excellent) I would like to observe that your tone of voice and delivery/elocution are a really superb balance of educated and correct but *never* drifting into pretension. I suspect that your delivery is something chosen and honed and if so..kudos.

[@DJBassBoomBottom]

Would love to see a reconstruction of the early Roman religion, especially with its animist elements.

[@Mike-yz6oo]

Are you able to post the artwork used in these videos? Specifically at 0:51?

[@luctuose]

sources would be awesome, but guess we need to image search

[@svon1]

i was always explaining it like ....""they are more like cousins rather than copies"

[@acepedro12]

I read somewhere that Jupiter, Minerva and Juno started completely unrelated to their Greek counterparts, but came to be seen as the same gods through synchretism. I suppose the same is probably true of other gods. That would explain Saturn.

[@faithlesshound5621]

The Greek Gods were originally unrelated to each other, before religious entrepreneurs proclaimed that each God's mother had been raped by Zeus, so they became half-siblings. Nymphs and the like suffered a similar fate.

[@umwha]

@@faithlesshound5621where’s the evidnece that the Greek gods were originally unrelated? I know that some foreign or local deities were likely folded into the Greek mythology via being a lesser deity or nymph and local heroes can be cast as more Zeus seeds. But you overstated it.

[@michaelpeeler7030]

The statue at 1:21 when discussing Zeus is Moses, no? With horns of light radiating from meeting God on Saini?

[@edwardolson8996]

It was a custom that many Roman Emperors, upon their death, would be deified ( declared to be gods ). At least one of them had a great sense of humor, and at a difficult time, too. The Emperor Vespasian, on his deathbed, quipped, "Oh dear, I think I'm becoming a god".

[@reporeport]

my favorite video of yours

[@HowlingNinjaWolfGaming]

Romans did have a god associated with bodily functions and health called Crepitus. Though not widely worshipped or revered like other major gods, Crepitus was sometimes invoked humorously as a minor deity connected with flatulence and bodily noises.

[@themetroidprime]

These guys didn't have a pantheon. They had a divine religious universe.

[@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski]

greeks and romans had some cool gods. the mysterious janus, cthonic zeus of the underworld, sol invictus, i would join all these cults. "sol invictus" is literally "unconquered/unconquerable sun" what other deity can stand undiminished next to that appellation?

[@jayuno3009]

Roman religion is endlessly fascinating. The idea of gods taking on epithets just shows how flexible their functions were culturally. For example, Jupiter Dolichenus - it’s so weird and interesting, I wish we could know more about it.

[@TyroneTyler-eq9fk]

Love it Thanks bro

[@robinharwood5044]

I think it’s a good idea to invoke Gods who are specialists in the matter you are concerned with, rather than some generalist who has a lot of completely different problems to handle. Of course, the God in question will suck his teeth, shake his head, and tell you the at the whole lot will have to be taken out and replaced, and it will cost you a fortune in sacrifices, but at least the job will be done properly.

[@hans7856]

The Roman, Greek, Germanic, Indian panthea descend from the Proto-Indo-European pantheon. They share many gods, even their names and myths. _Iuppiter_ for instance is a doublet of Rigvedic Sanskrit _Dyauṣ-pitṛ_ meaning sky-father, and the first element of the word became Greek _Zeus_ . Lesser gods may also be related, such as the Vedic goddess _Pṛthivī_ and the Greek nymph _Plataia_ . Or take the dawn goddess Eos, Aurora, Uṣás, who in Old English was called Ēostre, from which the modern word _Easter_ descends.All panthea also adopted pre-Indo-European gods such as Juno and Athena. The Greeks therefore did the same as the Romans did later on, and this had been a habit for millennia by then. Conclusion: the Greeks and Romans may have borrowed from each other, but the similarities are mainly due to their common origin in the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.

[@SleepyPotterFan]

Moses thumbnail. The only other thing I’ll add is it’s a generalization to say the elite “thought of the Gods as lofty and benevolent” only because theology and philosophy and religion all mixed and varied and changed from person to person. Some certainly came to discuss the Gods that way, but there were so many theologies and beliefs all coexisting mostly harmoniously. It was only the later religions that got all orthodox and burny.

[@kaarlimakela3413]

Very helpful. Very.

[@maceain]

Enjoyed your post. I think there is a continuum that stretches back to Indo-European origins that explains much of this. Yamnaya, to Corded Ware, to Bell Beaker... etc.. Greek, Latin, Celt, German, Slav, etc., all have the same origin. Again, enjoyed the post.

[@kerryrwalton7791]

Thank you for another great video! Early on I think a statue of Moses is shown in the wrong context. Perhaps a video discussing the differences between Greek and Roman marble statues or bronzes may be interesting.

[@TheFeralFerret]

Numinous is a word I love the sound of. That one is going right into the lexicon.

[@kowalityjesus]

Great content as always, you could maybe even say Classic

[@dingjo5027]

I'm going to need to watch this video a few times to fully appreciate it - I love all of these beautiful paintings. Really amazing content Ryan, it's really well done and rich with information. I really admire polytheistic cultures (India comes to mind) because they're interesting but wow, it seems like there's a lot of spiritual instability and people can be easily mislead by some preacher or another. How did the citizens have time to worship all these different gods? I suspect that they'd feel like they were leaving some gods out and making them jealous/angry - just sounds exhausting.

[@JohnMinehan-lx9ts]

The Romans also had the mani, the household gods of families.

[@BonanzaRoad]

Thanks for a very informative and interesting discussion about the similarities and differences between the Greek and Roman pantheons

[@IanZainea1990]

I attend regularly the lectures of the Cleveland Archaeological society. There was a good one last week about fountains in Pompeii

[@bonto117]

Thanks!

[@JackOutLoud]

Garrett you should read and watch Michael heizers academic discourses on the origins of the gods from the biblical perspective

[@heck3143]

So synchretism wasn't just an element of Roman culture, but a core component of indo-european mythology in the Mediterranean? That's very cool and makes way more sense than the almost mechanical logic of the Roman synchronism I always learned about.

[@sawahtb]

Terry Pratchett explained how it was important for mankind to imagine the world of gods because it was all part of believing in something like kindness, honesty and law, because the Universe would be empty without belief in something greater than yourself.

[@ronanonymous6017]

Thanks!

[@BriarRouge]

I like that there are gods for extremely specific things. Maybe I NEED three gods making sure I get through a doorway safely and prosperously!

[@ladywisewolf3942]

I just love the whole idea of "kitchen gods" that were a common practice in many cultures and I believe even in today's Hindu religion.

[@larsmunch4536]

It could be interesting to hear you extend this topic to Nordic religion: Odin = Jupiter = Zeus, Aegir = Neptune = Poseidon, Freia = Venus = Aphrodite, etc.

[@ahorsewithnoname773]

The Romans themselves sort of did that. When Tacitus was writing about the Germans and referring to some of their religious practices, he'd pen things like, "Regarding the gods, they worship Mercury the most." He also mentions Mars & Hercules. The Germans of course worshipped gods with different names and traditions some of whom would still be around in the Norse pantheon, but they were interpreted as being the same gods by the Romans.

[@johnnyboyvan]

As a kid I studied ancient mythology. Many are very similar. Their stories are very similar. Probably all come from one Creator source. God of Manuring...lol 😮

[@TimeWaster_Elite]

That was REALLY interesting to me that the Romans interpreted the gods via abstractions. That seems like such a subtle viewpoint until you realize that it seems to be more immersive.

[@EpohLyum]

It's fascinating how diverse the roman pantheon was

[@alexl4710]

Are there videos uploaded exclusively to your patreon?

[@hollyingraham3980]

The Ionian Greeks might ignore Ares, but the Dorians had temples to Enyalios.

[@23bcx]

What is your opinion on Rohl's theory that the Greek's original based their gods personality's on individual members of the Egyptian court (possibly conflating different individuals who held the same position). Reading the Iliad with that assumption plays the whole thing in a different light.

[@TwoSheds-fu5tl]

Damn last time I was this early to a video the Roman Empire still existed.

[@Sietched]

LMAO

[@livrowland171]

Did Janus not also have responsibility for doorways - making four?

[@GordonJones88]

Thanks.

[@mikkicarr5717]

If you are going to cover movies about Rome, can you do Agora? I really like this movie, although there are definitely a few inaccuracies.

[@Wyattinous]

Toldinstone talking about the Gods? My house chores can wait ❤⚡️🏛🏺

[@brianthomassen2209]

What is the painting used for the introduction of this topic (showing individuals looking out at a sunrise?). I don't recognize it. Thanks

[@faithlesshound5621]

One God who has lasted at least 4400 years by jumping from Egypt to Rome and then much of Europe and the Americas is Ma'at, daughter of Ra, who presided over law and justice, and weighed your heart against a feather after your death. Augustus brought her into the Roman Pantheon as Iustitia, and she stands over courts blindfolded carrying a sword and a balance under the name of Lady Justice. She has become part of the American Civil Religion. There's case for saying that the Goddess of Ephesus was originally Cybele, before becoming Artemis (the Mother of Gods), then Diana (the virgin huntress) and eventually the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was proclaimed Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus. Her image in Western art may be based on the idol of Ephesus. Artemis had a twin brother, Apollo, whose image may be the origin of traditional depictions of Mary's son, Jesus Christ.

[@jcb5782]

I’m not a professional historian in the slightest, but I think the social power that comes with the “Romans worship all gods” is not to be underestimated. Being both inclusive and tolerant towards foreign religions, not fearing replacement of ones own due to the very nature of a polytheistic concept, must have been a major contributor to Rome’s expansion. Not just open to foreigners mind you, open to foreign religion. There’s an important distinction to be made there. In extention of this, I sincerely believe the largest error we as humans have made, is attributing divinity to a single being; in other words, believing that there is only one god. It automatically shuts down all discussion because the monotheist, purely because he is so, will not only believe in just one god, he will denounce all others. But all the polytheist has to do when he encounters another god is…well, nothing really. I mean, there must be social gain here, even in today’s world. “I believe in my God and he in his” sounds a lot better than “I believe in God and he is a heretic.”

[@silverado9104]

What mattered was that the subjugated rendered unto Caesar what was Caesar's

[@Dorgpoop]

In fairness polytheism doesn't guarantee religious tolerance, there's still regularly plenty of tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India.

[@jhfdhgvnbjm75]

@@Dorgpoop Muslims are monotheistic, Hindus are complex as they are not exactly on or the other, they are polytheists as they have many gods, but believe (to my understanding) that they are all part of one great god.

[@Dahras1]

I think you might be misunderstanding Roman "tolerance", though. Romans indeed could worship all gods, but only as long as those gods functioned in a way that was compatible with their conception of religion. If your religious customs fell outside the norm, the Romans could and would be brutally intolerant. They, for instance were completely intolerant to monotheism, as they believed that not worshiping public gods would bring evil to the state. They also thought that worshiping animals or plants was barbaric. They had very violent reactions to ritual cannibalism and human sacrifice (understandable, but still). Also, the Romans weren't just passive collectors of gods. They would take your gods but they would impose their own as well. You could continue your worship as long as you bowed in supplication to Rome's state deities as well. In my opinion, the violence of one religion's reaction to another has very little to do with the structure of that religion and very much to do with the nature of the society that follows it.

[@ladywisewolf3942]

​@@Dahras1Very well said but I disagree with one point. Shortly after Rome's conquer of Egypt in Cleopatra's time, the Romans especially the upper class wholeheartedly embraced the Egyptian pantheon which included of course many animal gods. All things Egyptian were quite the fad among Roman society at that time and you can see the influence in art, furnishings, clothing and even burial practices. The Romans thought the Egyptians were exotic and mysterious especially in the Egyptian's practice of magic which was forbidden in Rome. Frankly said, even though the Egyptians were a conquered nation, the Romans thought of them as the "cool kids".

[@user-rl3iv2jk9q]

Friday 13 September 2024 AD Thank you foryour presentation . It is enlightening and provides historical perspective for modern folks of current western civilization . Maybe you should try to compose text books for two semesters of U.S. high school seniors upon the topic of our roots , our civilization .

[@nicolasclermont893]

Hey. Im not seeing any link for your new channel. Called Roman Review? Theres no link on screen or in the description for this.

[@TheArthkm]

It is curious how this all-encompassing of minor gods manifested after Rome became Christian in the form of countless saints and demons.

[@aiocafea]

where i live, in romania there are tons of 'totally-not-myth' stories about 'totally-not-gods' saints also i was once told not to pray to saints like some people do ok i can see how this is a blasphemy, but i couldn't see how the practice would even appear now, i see not even that these practices had always 'appeared' but also it could have just not disappeared with the introduction of christianity

[@lettuceman9439]

Christianity syncretism is a weird case of adoption and Cultural Impact, Christianity in it's many iteration is a self-desire to deviant from dogma which is descended from even the more structured form of Christianity that is Roman Catholicism have a large catalog of providing structure to pagan or Syncretic Religions, Vodoo for example cannot be discerned without acknowledging it's Roman Catholic influence, Neo-paganism have incentives to borrow from the Structures of Christianity being that it's current form is a Christianized perspective not the varied local beliefs which existed in Medieval Europe and Americas even Hinduism in part of nationalistic sentiment to codify it's many decentralized aspect have slowly been absorbing Christian components within it. I explain this due to remind that Christianity and paganism didn't syncretized in a vacuum it isn't a one sided relationship of Christianity stole "x" but a cultural exchange which gradually or through conquest and suppression dissolved to survive in its current state (for both sides, Norse Gods turning into Saints or Syriac and Thomasine Christians adopting Hindu teachings). A good example would be Slavic Mythology is one of those fields which is a mistranslation leading to a already established Historic saint becoming a pagan god because orthodox priest looks likes warlocks to Medieval Catholics then add nationalism and the Soviet Union trying to russify a region then the flow of culture and development both Christian and pagan will be a mess

[@danfsteeple]

@@aiocafeathe saints are not worshipped

[@livrowland171]

​​​@@danfsteeple not officially but some people do treat them like minor gods though.. also archangels, plus many people also believe they have a guardian angel

[@danielnigel6920]

In roman-catholic churches many light a candle to a certain saint and pray to them, asking favours or protection. Clearly a worship.

[@josephturner7569]

What puzzles me is why the Middle Eastern Deity is so popular in Europe.

[@danfsteeple]

Ἐν Ἰορδάνῃ βαπτιζομένου σου Κύριε, ἡ τῆς Τριάδος ἐφανερώθη προσκύνησις· τοῦ L γὰρ Γεννήτορος ἡ φωνὴ προσεμαρτύρει σοι, ἀγαπητόν σε Υἱὸν ὀνομάζουσα· καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα w ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς, ἐβεβαίου τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἀσφαλές. Ὁ ἐπιφανεὶς Χριστὲ ὁ Θεός, καὶ τὸν th κόσμον φωτίσας δόξα σοι.

[@adizmal]

In my opinion, the syncretism displayed by the Romans in particular towards Etruscan, Greek, Egyptian, Semitic gods etc... is one of the most classical and insightful examples of how (powerful) cultures truly work at the proper scale/time. Cultures are layercakes of pragmatism between the micro and the macro; between the part and the whole, between persons and peoples. Like beaches pounded by waves over and over, cultures and societies are reshaped and formed by the passage of time and the evolution and spread of ideas and human endeavor. Cultures are like webs which are woven, and then broken down, and inevitably rewoven into new shapes over time. I would even go so far as to assert that Christianity itself was probably some sort of endgame result of those complex, long-term processes of cultural erosion, cultural memory, and cultural competition. In the end, "one god" essentially won that cultural battle - and in doing so - completely subsumed into itself many Gnostic and Greek mystery cults at the cost of a pantheon of "other" gods.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

I've always wondered.

[@kevindoran9389]

Dr Ryan, is there any chancd you could do a video on "vulger Latin" . Are there any examples besides graffiti? Maybe some quotes by other writers. I read in another book that by the time of Constantine everyday latin had mostly lost it's case endings and was slightly recognisable as Italian. That makes me wonder if during the golden age was ordinary spoken Latin changing. I think the early development and gradual change of Latin be greatly interesting topic.

[@rippingmyheartwassoeasy]

@toldinstone what is the painting you used as your thumbnail? Its amazing.

[@DistantTower]

Fantastic

[@traildoggy]

What a bummer to be a God, you're feeling pretty good about that, but then you realize that all you get to do is take care of all of the stairs in the world or make sure the world's manure is well spread.

[@KaiColloquoun-gt7kw]

The big difference is that the indo-europeans who brought the male gods to Greece "married" them to already "existing" native goddesses while the Roman pantheon includes introduced goddesses.

[@gertoise]

THANKS RYAN! true roman bread for true romans

[@albertpuig6273]

Janus, one of the most important (and perhaps THE most important in early History) of the Roman gods does not have a Greek equivalent. The month January is named after him. Sancus, god who presided over oaths and contracts also has no Greek equivalent. The word "sanction" derives from the name of this deity.

[@belonginghouse]

Just for the record, the image in the thumbnail is Moses.

[@belonginghouse]

Not to be cheeky. You are generally always accurate and I love your channel. And thanks for giving information that made my recent trip to Rome unforgettable.