“Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness,” Livy once wrote. What beginnings was he speaking of, and how might they have been warped or changed through myth? Greek and Roman culture span centuries, continents, figures, languages, and more relevantly, mythologies. Even centuries apart, the Greek and Roman cultures took religious inspirations from the indigenous practices preceding them, and crafted wide stories that heavily influenced each other’s cultures. Understanding the contrast between these stories requires a delicate understanding of their shared origins. The Proto-Indo-European religion is a hypothesized belief system orally passed by the Indo-European population, and flowed into several cultures. Of these, the Hellenistic religion of Greece, and later the Roman religion formed by the Italic people are some of the most impactful. The Greek influence on Roman society is notable, and the reverence displayed towards the Greek culture and religion will display itself throughout. To quote The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, “The prestige of Latin, however, was overshadowed by that of Greek as even the Romans acknowledged the antiquity and superior position of ancient Greek” (Mallory and Adams 2). Even still, the stark contrast in belief is indicative of not merely linguistic evolution, but of cultural evolution through natural human migration and Roman imperial expansion. Through only archeological evidence and reconstructed linguistic evidence, we can trace these archaic myths to their even older common origins. The Greek religion was the first to evolve of Proto-Indo-European religion, and solidified names, characters, and stories from the loose practices of Indo-European religious culture. Discussing linguistic parallels, Dietrich writes “The name Zeus is an Indo-European word whose etymology probably means ‘Sky-God’, like the Latin ‘deus’” (Dietrich). The Greek creation myth had many contributors, namely Homer and Hesiod, but was primarily passed through oral means, and is said to have derived from Mycenaean tellings. As Murtagh has collected, the creation myth is as follows: In the beginning there was an empty darkness. The only thing in this void was Nyx, a bird with black wings. With the wind she laid a golden egg and for ages she sat upon this egg. Finally life began to stir in the egg and out of it rose Eros, the god of love. One half of the shell rose into the air and became the sky and the other became the Earth. Eros named the sky Uranus and the Earth he named Gaia. Then Eros made them fall in love. Uranus and Gaia had many children together and eventually they had grandchildren. Some of their children become [sic] afraid of the power of their children. Kronus, in an effort to protect himself, swallowed his children when they were still infants. However, his wife Rhea hid their youngest child. She gave him a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed, thinking it was his son. Once the child, Zeus, had reached manhood his mother instructed him on how to trick his father to give up his brothers and sisters. Once this was accomplished the children fought a mighty war against their father. After much fighting the younger generation won. With Zeus as their leader, they began to furnish Gaia with life and Uranus with stars. Soon the Earth lacked only two things: man and animals. Zeus summoned his sons Prometheus (fore-thought) and Epimetheus (after-thought). He told them to go to Earth and create men and animals and give them each a gift. Prometheus set to work forming men in the image of the gods and Epimetheus worked on the animals. As Epimetheus worked he gave each animal he created one of the gifts. After Epimetheus had completed his work Prometheus finally finished making men. However when he went to see what gift to give man Epimetheus shamefacedly informed him that he had foolishly used all the gifts. Distressed, Prometheus decided he had to give man fire, even though gods were the only ones meant to have access to it. As the sun god rode out into the world the next morning Prometheus took some of the fire and brought it back to man. He taught his creation how to take care of it and then left them. When Zeus discovered Prometheus' deed he became furious. He ordered his son to be chained to a mountain and for a vulture to peck out his liver every day till eternity. Then he began to devise a punishment for mankind. Another of his sons created a woman of great beauty, Pandora. Each of the gods gave her a gift. Zeus' present was curiosity and a box which he ordered her never to open. Then he presented her to Epimetheus as a wife. Pandora's life with Epimetheus was happy except for her intense longing to open the box. She was convinced that because the gods and goddesses had showered so many glorious gifts upon her that this one would also be wonderful. One day when Epimetheus was gone she opened the box. Out of the box flew all of the horrors which plague the world today - pain, sickness, envy, greed. Upon hearing Pandora's screams Epimetheus rushed home and fastened the lid shut, but all of the evils had already escaped. Later that night they heard a voice coming from the box saying, ‘Let me out. I am hope.’ Pandora and Epimetheus released her and she flew out into the world to give hope to humankind. (Murtagh) As seen, the inferred connections to various cultures and religions are wide. For instance, the connection between the Greek Pandora and Eve of Christianity at the root of humanity’s issues are apparent; both were often used in early societies to justify patriarchy. Another common symbol seen is the birth of humanity from an egg, which societies would use as a simple way to relate creation to their agrarian lifestyles. Also, the god of love, Eros, is the first thing born of the egg, highlighting the Greek’s high regard for love. In linguistic connections, the Indo-European word “Dyēus” translates to the word “god” or “deity”, and can be seen in the name “Zeus”. Now, how might the Romans have taken from these stories roughly eight centuries later? Although the Roman religion took inspiration from Greek mythology, the creation of many other stories is significant in understanding the importance of religion in their culture. The cultural impact is difficult to be understated, as it is noted by many researchers how the traditions and holidays of their religion were more important to the Romans than the myths themselves. In fact, the Romans focused more on their own civilization in myth than their Greek counterparts, and this is reflected in myth. As Carlos summarizes in the myth of the founding of Rome: According to tradition, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus in 753 BC. They were twin brothers, sons of a human mother [Rea Silvia] and the god of war, Mars. After their birth, the king ordered them killed [, but their mother put them in a basket in a river to float away to safety]… But their basket washed up on the river bank where they were found by a female wolf. The wolf nursed the hungry babies and cared for them until they were found by a shepherd. The shepherd and his wife raised the babies as their own. Romulus and Remus grew up and helped overthrow the king who had ordered their death. They wanted to build their own city along the Tiber River where their basket had washed ashore. They disagreed about where it should be, and Romulus killed Remus during their quarrels. Romulus built the city of Rome on one of the seven hills along the Tiber - the Palatine hill - and lived a long life as king of Rome. Although shorter than the Greek creation myth, the founding myth of Rome was highly regarded in Roman culture, and, akin to the justification of male dominance through Pandora, is used to demonstrate the supposed power of Rome through mythological origins. Despite the mythos already containing the Greek story of humanity’s creation wearing the skin of Roman deities, the founding of Rome was significantly more recorded, and was more revered than many other stories synthesized in Roman culture. Through the perspective of Proto-Indo-European myth, connections can even be made from the archetypal creation myth involving a set of twins, indicating this story evolved as a creation myth into a story dedicated to Rome. Although lacking many common symbols, the link of man and nature is relevant, and is framed as dominance over the wolf, an animal known for it’s fierce, steady tendencies. Clear contrasts between the preceding myths are evident. The most obvious between the two is length; the Romans valued concise stoicism more than the Greeks, who often wrote of their gods in lavish, well-described settings, while the Romans wrote of their gods as wise and strong creatures with strong words. Dionysus, for example, was the Greek god of wine, fertility, and pleasure, but was near completely omitted from Roman mythology, only being present under the name of “Bacchus” and used to exemplify foolish drunkenness. The contrast in treatment of animals is notable also, as the Greeks often displayed themselves as equal or below animals, shown in Prometheus’ punishment and Epimetheus’ care of animals; the Roman myth, as previously discussed, shows the twins as being below their wolf caretaker, before rising above her. Another symbol with social implications is the treatment of women in these stories; the Romans show respect and graceful demeanor towards the women in their stories, while the Greek Pandora is quite literally the cause of all of humanity’s problems. Rhea Silvia, the mother of the twins, is shown mercifully drifting her boys away under threat of death, while Pandora is a greedy and careless woman who, in some tellings of the Greek myth, is made as a punishment for Epimetheus. Finally, understanding the reflections of these symbols is the final step in understanding these stories. The recordings of these stories, even from similar origins, have been shifted and changed over time to display the representative culture’s values. For example, The Greek myth shows an emphasis of love, something the Romans thought foolish. Often, the “overall conception of acts of affection was negative; for a man to display it was to demonstrate weakness and ‘softness’ and for a woman to display it was to be [promiscuous]” (Babin and McGrail). Parallel to this, the Romans displayed their founders as strong, independent warriors, who even descended directly from the god of war, Mars. Regarding familial structure, the family dynamics relied on in the Greek pantheon were prevalent in daily life as well, and it can be understood that the Roman family dynamic was heavily derived from this lifestyle. These stories demonstrate the cultural, historical, and geographical evolution between the populations these myths are shared in. As shown, these two cultures have grown and shifted from their roots independent of each other. Roman and Greek mythology are so intertwined, yet so independent in their cultures and religions. It is fascinating to understand how they distinctly functioned in what our contemporary culture often understands as equal. Even centuries apart, the Greek and Roman cultures took religious inspirations from the indigenous practices preceding them, and crafted wide stories that heavily influenced each other’s cultures. To close, a quote of Homer’s written in The Odyssey: “Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves- in their depravity- design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.” Works Cited Babin, Luc, and Jake McGrail. “Love and Affection – UnRoman Romans.” BCcampus Pressbooks, https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/unromantest/chapter/love-and-affection/. Accessed 29 September 2024. Carlos, Michael C. “The Legend of Romulus and Remus.” Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester and Dallas Museum of Art, https://carlos.emory.edu/htdocs/ODYSSEY/ROME/romulus.html. Accessed 29 September 2024. Dietrich, Bernard C. “The Origins of Greek Religion.” EBSCOhost, 2016, https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.wwu.idm.oclc.org/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzE4ODI1MjdfX0FO0?sid=fc199702-f3a9-4282-9867-68ac324cada6@redis&vid=4&format=EB&rid=5. Accessed 29 September 2024. Homer. “Quotes by Homer (Author of The Odyssey).” Goodreads, 800-700 BCE, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/903.Homer. Accessed 30 September 2024. Mallory, J. P., and D. Q. Adams. The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. OUP Oxford, 2006. Accessed 24 September 2024. Murtagh, Lindsey. “Greek Creation Myth.” Creation Myths -- Greek Creation Myth, 1999, https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_16.html. Accessed 29 September 2024.