Greek Mythology : Comparison between Greek Gods/Heroes and Indian Gods/Heroes.

(History/Mythology lovers might know this)

I was just reading articles about Indian Mythology and I found this interesting article.

1- Eros/Cupid and Kamadeva

In the Greek mythology Eros, commonly known as Cupid occupies the designation of God of love. The Greek God of love is often depicted in the pictures or statues as a young, handsome male with wings. He is commonly shown to be holding a bow in his hands. It is this bow he uses to shoot people with arrows that makes them fall in love.

Similarly, Indian mythology also has a position for a love god taken by Kamadeva. Kamadeva is known by several other names including Manmathudu, Madan, Ratikanta amongst others. Kamadeva, like Eros, is also known to be carrying a bow made of Sugarcane and arrows of flowers. He shoots humans using this bow to intoxicate them with love. The Indian God of love is either shown as a young, handsome male with wings, or flying on the back of a parrot.

2- Zeus and Lord Indra

Zeus is the ruler of Olympian gods, Indra is the king of Indian Gods. Zeus is the god of sky, and has control over weather phenomenon related to sky and air like storms, tempests, darkness, thunders, lightening and rain. Indra is also god of rain, regent of the heavens, guardian of the east, ruler of cloud and skies

Weapons - Zeus had Thunderbolt while Indra had Vajra. Both had same powers.

They both have their dwelling above mountains – Mount Olympus for Lord Zeus and Swarg above Mount Meru for Lord Indra.

3- Hermes and Narada

Hermes and Narada are known as Gods of messengers. They used to play tricks on others for their own entertainment. They both played a big role in their respective Mythology. They both share music interest. Hermes invented string instrument called Lyre while Narada invented Veena.

4- Apollo/Helios and Lord Surya

Apollo and Helios holds the same title in Greek Mythology. Both are known as The God Of Sun, Light. The only difference b/w Apollo and Helios is music. Apollo is associated with music while Helios is not.

Similarly, Lord Surya is called Surya Deva ( God Of Sun, light). Lord Surya is known to ride a flying chariot with seven horses. And Apollo/Helios ride with a flying golden chariot which is driven by steeds.

5- Hades and Yamaraj

In Greek mythology Hades is the king of Underworld (where the dead ones go), the god of death and the dead. While in Indian mythology Yamaraj is the ruler of Naraka (a place comparable to the underworld) and the god of Death.

Elysium and Swarg in Greek and Indian mythology respectively, while the bad ones are sent to Tartarus and Naraka respectively.

Planet Pluto was called as Hades by Romans and Indians called Planet Pluto as Yama.

6- Athena and Goddes Saraswati

Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, skills, war, arts, industry, and justice etc. Saraswati on the other hand is the Indian goddess of knowledge, wisdom, learning, music and arts.

7 - Poseidon and Varuna

Poseidon is the god of rivers, sea, drought, earthquakes, and horses. Varuna is the God of water, oceans and aquatic animals.Poseidon is often shown riding a chariot driven by horses or hippocampi, while Varuna is seen with chariot of Swan or crocodiles. Both of them have their dwelling inside seas.

Parents of Varuna are Kashyapa and Aditi who can actually be compared to the parents of Poseidon – Kronos and Rhea. Kashyapa has given birth to majority of Indian mythological lineages including most of the gods, demons and other races. Similarly, Kronos has also given birth to most of the Greek mythological lineages. Another interesting fact is that Poseidon’s roman name is Neptune, referring to the planet Neptune which is called Varuna in Hindi.

8 - Rhea and Aditi

Let’s look at the names. Rhea means “Flow” and “ease” while Aditi means “boundless”, “limitless” and “freedom”. Although not the exact meaning but both the words seem somewhat related. Rhea is the mother of Gods including prominent gods like Zeus and Poseidon and also the goddess of female fertility, motherhood and generation. Aditi is also considered mother of many gods including Indra (Indian counterpart of Zeus) and Varuna (Indian counterpart of Poseidon). Aditi is the goddess of boundless sky and she is also considered the Universal mother, as all forms of life including Gods and Demons are said to be contained in her womb (which is drastically similar to Rhea). Rhea was married to Kronos while Aditi was married to Kashyapa who can also be compared to draw a parallelism.

9 - Achilles and Bhisma

Both of them were heroes in the biggest wars of their respective mythologies—Achilles in Trojan War and Bhisma in Mahabharata. Both of their mothers were river goddesses while father were kings.

The tale of birth of both of them is quite similar too. Thetis had six sons prior to Achilles, and while in her attempt to make them immortal she burned them in fire. In the case of Achilles, Peleus arrived in time and saved him by holding him from heel. Thus Achilles lived and got invulnerability except for the heel. However, another version of the story says that Thetis dipped Achilles in River Styx to make him immortal. Peleus left Thetis after knowing her doings.

Similarly, Ganga drowned all her children prior to Bhisma. Ganga had forced Shantanu to take a vow that he would never question her actions. When she was about to dip Bhisma, Shantanu stopped her from doing so. She left Shantanu as he had broken the vow and Bhishma survived.
Later in his life Bhisma gained a blessing from his father (for giving up his claim to throne so that his step brothers can take up the throne) that he could only die when he wished to die, thus making him invulnerable like Achilles was.

Despite both of them being nearly invulnerable they died as heroes in the respective wars.