The elder dynasty — overthrown, but never fully erased.
Time, Harvest, & the Golden Age
Cronus is a devouring tyrant; Saturn is a nostalgic golden-age king. Rome turned the most feared Titan into the patron of its happiest festival — and parked the treasury in his temple.
Read the comparisonMotherhood, Fertility, & the Great Mother
Rhea is a narrative hero of myth; Ops is an abstract goddess of plenty. Rome kept the mother and discarded the plot — abundance mattered more than the story of how it was won.
Read the comparisonThe World-Encircling River
Oceanus barely changed, because there was never a personality to adapt — Rome inherited him as geography. He is the clearest case of pure literary, rather than religious, transmission.
Read the comparisonFresh Water & Nursing
One of the clearest cases of pure literary inheritance: Tethys passed into Rome with no cult, no festival and no political purpose — a name kept for the sake of the poem.
Read the comparisonLight, the Sun, & Heavenly Fire
Hyperion's light was inherited, but his identity was not. Rome preferred the tidy, calendar-friendly sun-god Sol — a deity you could schedule a festival around.
Read the comparisonDivine Law, Justice, & Prophecy
Themis is an oracular cosmic law-giver; Iustitia is a civic emblem carved above a courthouse. Rome converted prophecy into jurisprudence — and jurisprudence into empire.
Read the comparisonMemory, Language, & the Muses
Greek Mnemosyne is a mystical source of poetry; Roman Moneta is a mint and an archive. Rome monetised memory itself — and the English language still carries the receipt.
Read the comparisonForesight, Fire, & Mankind
Greece gave Prometheus a festival; Rome gave him a metaphor. The fire-thief became a philosophical talking point about the price of progress — a very Roman accounting.
Read the comparisonEndurance, Astronomy, & the West
Both traditions use Atlas as a picture rather than a god, but Rome made him cartographic — an ornament marking the far edge of the known world. Greece made him a warning; Rome made him a map.
Read the comparisonMotherhood & the Twin Lights
Leto and Latona are nearly identical. Rome accepted her wholesale because she arrived as the mother of two gods the state already wanted — a package deal, not a conversion.
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