First causes: the powers that existed before there were gods to name them.
Earth, Fertility, & the Primordial Mother
Gaia is a cosmic and vengeful mother-force; Roman Tellus is a practical farmland deity whose rites concerned crops and property lines, not cosmogony. Rome kept the fertility and discarded the rebellion.
Read the comparisonSky, Heavens, & Cosmic Order
Greek Uranus is a violent dynastic character; Roman Caelus is a decorative emblem of cosmic order, appearing on coins far more often than in cult. Rome preferred the heaven that could be stamped on currency.
Read the comparisonNight, Darkness, & Fate
Nyx is a terrifying cosmic matriarch who commands divine respect; Nox survives in Rome chiefly as a poetic and magical figure. The same darkness, demoted from sovereign to atmosphere.
Read the comparisonPrimordial Darkness & the Deep
Both traditions treat Erebus as a place more than a person — one of the rare figures Rome borrowed without refashioning for the state, because there was nothing political to extract from him.
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