The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I've been doing reading on various undo-European cultures (and beliefs) for ADF and wondering the following which the Hellenic folks:

Do you use both Roman/Greek names or just stick to one? I do realize that this will vary from view to view and recon to neo, etc. And this is an imperfect question. I'm asking I guess, are they the same for you ie. (Mars and Ares, Venus and Aphrodite) or individual gods.  

I know that both the Romans and Greeks did a lot of deity sharing with any culture they interacted with.

Anyways thought and opinions please

As I'm a Hellenic polytheist, I use the Greek names. If, however, I were calling on the Roman gods for some reason, I would certainly use the Roman names -- this is especially true for deities which are quite different in their Roman "incarnations" (for example, Mars is very different from Ares).

 
Pardon my ignorance. I thought Roman and Greek gods both fell under Hellenic paganism. What would those who follow Roman gods be called? The two being separate would actually explain both names being used as they would be two different paths.

Modern Roman polytheists generally call their religion "Religio Romana or "cultus deorum Romanorum".

 
Ahh. Thank you so much for that.

I've been doing reading on various undo-European cultures (and beliefs) for ADF and wondering the following which the Hellenic folks:

Do you use both Roman/Greek names or just stick to one? I do realize that this will vary from view to view and recon to neo, etc. And this is an imperfect question. I'm asking I guess, are they the same for you ie. (Mars and Ares, Venus and Aphrodite) or individual gods.  

I know that both the Romans and Greeks did a lot of deity sharing with any culture they interacted with.

Anyways thought and opinions please

Distinguishing Greek and Roman gods can be pretty confusing. There were Greeks in Italy when Rome was forming as its own culture, so there was Hellenic influence from the begnning, though Roman religion did have its differences from Greek. Roman divinity was more animistic, with many numina or spirits with very specific powers and areas of influence, and weren't originally anthropomorphic. Some gods, like Jupiter and Zeus, come from the same Indo-European root, so there is really no difference between them. Then you have Venus, originally a minor male fertility spirit without much of an identity, who was completely Hellenized to be identical with Aphrodite. Roman culture comes from Latin, Etruscan, and Greek influences, so you can see the how various different sources shaped how they viewed religion.
 
Hellenic culture continued to have a significant influence on Rome, as Roman culture developed and they had regular contact with Greece. The Olympian gods became completely absorbed into the major Roman numina, and Roman gods were worshiped in Greek form.

Hermes is the only one, so far, who doesn't really mind whether I call Him Hermes or Mercurius. Which name I use for Hermes generally depends on the context, and what role I want; I generally call on Mercurius if it's travel-related, rather than Hermes, because He's better at that.

 
That's interesting, Mercury is supposed to be one of the gods that is just a Greek deity renamed by the Romans without a Roman precursor. Apollo is another one, though he kept the same name.