ivyfic: (Default)
ivyfic ([personal profile] ivyfic) wrote2010-12-21 08:15 pm

Your aha moment of the day

The Romans incorporated the pantheons of cultures they encountered into their own--particularly the Greeks, whose pantheon they eventually declared was the same as their own.

Jupiter? Is a corruption of Zeus Pater.

Ohhhhhh.

[identity profile] moonlightalice.livejournal.com 2010-12-22 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Sort of? I was taught that both Zeus and Jupiter had the same Proto Indo-European etymology (de-wous), meaning sky-father and god-father. So it's not that Jupiter is Zeus Pater, it's that they're both ious-pater.

[identity profile] ecmyers.livejournal.com 2010-12-22 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Ohhhhh...

[identity profile] ivy03.livejournal.com 2010-12-22 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it depends what academic you ask... This was from an Ancient Greek historian.

For me it's more that there's a relation at all, particularly that "pater" is part of the name.

[identity profile] slothshaman.livejournal.com 2010-12-22 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome to my (former) life.

[identity profile] ivy03.livejournal.com 2010-12-22 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
You were a classical scholar/linguist in a former life?

[identity profile] slothshaman.livejournal.com 2010-12-27 07:31 am (UTC)(link)
Classical Scholar, check! 2 absolutely useless degrees in that, remember?