Interpretatio graeca (Latin for 'Greek translation'), or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]", refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreigndeities with their own gods.[1][2] It is adiscourse[3] used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; acomparative methodology usingancient Greek religious concepts and practices,deities, andmyths,equivalencies, and shared characteristics.
The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as whenHerodotus describesEgyptian religion in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or whenDionysius of Halicarnassus andPlutarch documentRoman cults,temples, and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities.Interpretatio graeca may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek models, as whenRomans adapt Greek myths andiconography under the names of their own gods.
Interpretatio romana is comparative discourse in reference toancient Roman religion andmyth, as in the formation of a distinctiveGallo-Roman religion. Both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularlyImperial cult.
Jan Assmann considers thepolytheistic approach tointernationalizing gods as a form of "intercultural translation":
The great achievement of polytheism is the articulation of a common semantic universe. ... The meaning of a deity is his or her specific character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites, and so on. This character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits. The similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. ... The practice of translating the names of the gods created a concept of similarity and produced the idea or conviction that the gods are international.[4]
Pliny the Elder expressed the "translatability" of deities as "different names to different peoples"(nomina alia aliis gentibus).[5] This capacity made possible thereligious syncretism of theHellenistic era and the pre-ChristianRoman Empire.
Herodotus was one of the earliest authors to engage in this form of interpretation. In his observations regarding the Egyptians, he establishes Greco-Egyptian equivalents that endured into theHellenistic era, includingAmon/Zeus,Osiris/Dionysus, andPtah/Hephaestus. In his observations regarding theScythians, he equates their queen of the gods,Tabiti, toHestia,Papaios andApi toZeus andGaia respectively, andArgimpasa toAphrodite Urania, while also claiming that the Scythians worshipped equivalents toHerakles andAres, but which he does not name.
Some pairs of Greek and Roman gods, such as Zeus andJupiter, are thought to derive from a commonIndo-European archetype (Dyeus as the supreme sky god), and thus exhibit shared functions by nature. Others required more expansive theological and poetic efforts: though bothAres andMars are war gods, Ares was a relatively minor figure in Greek religious practice and deprecated by the poets, while Mars was a father of the Roman people and a central figure of archaic Roman religion.
Some deities dating to Rome's oldest religious stratum, such asJanus andTerminus, had no Greek equivalent. Other Greek divine figures, most notablyApollo, were adopted directly into Roman culture, but underwent a distinctly Roman development, as whenAugustus made Apollo one of hispatron deities. In the early period,Etruscan culture played an intermediary role in transmitting Greek myth and religion to the Romans, as evidenced in the linguistic transformation of GreekHeracles to EtruscanHer[e]cle to RomanHercules.
The phraseinterpretatio romana was first used by theImperial-erahistorianTacitus in theGermania.[6] Tacitus reports that in asacred grove of theNahanarvali, "a priest adorned as a woman presides, but they commemorate gods who in Roman terms(interpretatione romana) areCastor and Pollux" when identifying the divineAlcis.[7] Elsewhere,[8] he identifies the principal god of the Germans asMercury, perhaps referring toWotan.[9]
Some information about the deities of the ancientGauls (thecontinental Celts), who left no written literature other than inscriptions, is preserved by Greco-Roman sources under the names of Greek and Latin equivalents. A large number ofGaulishtheonyms or cult titles are preserved, for instance,in association with Mars. As with some Greek and Roman divine counterparts, the perceived similarities between a Gallic and a Roman or Greek deity may reflect a common Indo-European origin.[10]Lugus was identified withMercury,Nodens with Mars as healer and protector, andSulis withMinerva. In some cases, however, a Gallic deity is given aninterpretatio romana by means of more than one god, varying among literary texts or inscriptions. Since the religions of theGreco-Roman world were not dogmatic, andpolytheism lent itself to multiplicity, the concept of "deity" was often expansive, permitting multiple and even contradictory functions within a single divinity, and overlapping powers and functions among the diverse figures of each pantheon. These tendencies extended to cross-cultural identifications.[11]
In the Eastern empire, theAnatolian storm god with hisdouble-headed axe becameJupiter Dolichenus, a favorite cult figure among soldiers.
Roman scholars such asVarro[citation needed] interpreted the monotheistic god of the Jews into Roman terms asCaelus orJupiter Optimus Maximus. Some Greco-Roman authors seem to have understood the Jewish invocation ofYahwehSabaoth asSabazius.[12]In a similar vein,Plutarch gave an example of a symposium question "Who is the god of the Jews?", by which he meant: "What is his Greek name?" as we can deduce from the first speaker at the symposium, who maintained that the Jews worshipedDionysus, and that the day ofSabbath was a festival of Sabazius.Lacunae prevent modern scholars from knowing the other speakers' thoughts.[13]Tacitus, on the topic of theSabbath, claims that "others say that it is an observance in honour ofSaturn, either from the primitive elements of their faith having been transmitted from theIdæi, who are said to have shared the flight of that God, and to have founded the race",[14] implying Saturn was the god of the Jews.
From the Roman point of view, it was natural to apply the above principle to theJewish God. However, the Jews, unlike other peoples living under Roman rule, rejected any such attempt out of hand, regarding such an identification as the worst ofsacrilege. This complete divergence of views was one of the factors contributing to the frequent friction between the Jews and the Roman Empire; for example, the EmperorHadrian's decision to rebuildJerusalem under the name ofAelia Capitolina, a city dedicated to Jupiter, precipitated the bloodbath of theBar Kokhba revolt.
EmperorJulian, the 4th century pagan emperor, remarked that "these Jews are in part god-fearing, seeing that they revere a god who is truly most powerful and most good and governs this world of sense, and, as I well know, is worshipped by us also under other names".[15]
In late-antique mysticism, the sun godHelios is sometimes equated to the Judeo-Christian God.[16]
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The following table is a list ofGreek deities andRoman,Etruscan,Egyptian,Phoenician,Zoroastrian, andCeltic ones which the Greeks identified with their own, either explicitly in surviving works, or as supported by the analyses of modern scholars. These are not necessarily gods who share similar traits, and rarely do they share a common origin (for that, seecomparative Indo-European pantheons).
Examples of deities depicted in syncretic compositions by means ofinterpretatio graeca orromana:
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