Let's talk about Greco-Roman myth.

Cafe Society
21

Without looking at other answers, as always:

  1. Only mostly Greek. I have to admit that I tend to more often think of Mercury than Hermes, for example.
    1a) I definitely prefer Hercules, as Herakles just doesn’t sound like a male name to me. Plus I don’t have to explain to anyone else who I’m talking about.

  2. I have to admit that I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned, other than names and a few origin tales. I can remember Persephone, as it speaks to me about how difficult it is to avoid doing wrong even when you know exactly what you should do.

  3. Very little, really. Yes, they both were born of human mothers. But all this does is make Hercules strong. And the main thread of Hercules’s life is running away from his jealous step-mom. And it ends horribly. Jesus, on the other hand, is God himself. I definitely did not see any stories they have in common.

3a) I don’t remember a lot about Dionysus, but, from what I just looked up, I see that resurrection is better with him. But his story is more about God having mercy on him, not mercy on us. And while Demeter is one of the closer gods, and you can have his happiness in your heart, the way you do that is so completely different than with Jesus. Honestly, when I hear of someone who worships Demeter (in fiction, of course), I assume they are an alcoholic.

3b) While I have no problem with previews of the divine, I really don’t see it here. There may be some Hellenistic thought in Christianity, but I don’t think any of the myths really transferred over, just the concepts. And neither of those stories have more claim to the concept of a separate soul or separate* afterlife than any other Greek myth.

(I specifically remember thinking about this in Greek mythology class, so even if I can’t remember specifics, I do know that I never really found a Christ analog.)

*In the sense of Heaven and Hell, not in the sense of separate from the living.

And on reading the thread, I want to point out that I did know that that the Roman Gods are not exactly the same, but I rarely care when discussing the mythology as a whole. I just gloss over the personality changes, for example.

22

Oh, wait. I forgot of Hercules’s resurection. Was that really always a part of the myth? It always felt like a tacked on ending so people didn’t feel bad.

Still, it’s not like Jesus’s for the same reason it’s not like Dionysis’s. It wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t sacrificial, and Zeus only had mercy on his biological son, not humanity.

BTW, I have a possible addendum question: How do you tend to pronounce the gods names? In particular, I know that some people say DIE oh NYE sus, but I’ve always said dee un EYE sis.