Myth: Roman Gods are the Same as Greek Gods

Quite often if you go to the bookstore looking for some work on Roman mythology or Roman religion, you will find either nothing, or a book on Greek mythology that has a small section in the end which briefly explains a couple of things about how things worked in Rome. Usually in a pretty simplified form. Basically we've been told since early childhood that Roman mythology is just an offshoot of Greek mythology, more of the same but with different names, don’t bother. There is a kernel of truth in that. Roman culture - and Latin culture in general - was unbelievably hellenized. But that doesn’t mean that their culture was identical. And obviously religion wasn’t identical either.