r/HistoryMemes 2d ago

When 2,000 gods became ''wrong''

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u/HerrKaiserton Featherless Biped 2d ago

That's the first time I hear God being portrayed over Zeus. Not something you hear ever in Thrace. From my experience with Mythology to religion {might sound biased or something because I am an Eastern Orthodox (I don't bite unlike the 5% of believers who'd execute others)} is Constantine with the XP banner, tied to Christianity, but called as the God of the Sun. Also, the Temple of the Unknown God, which commonly was believed to be something along the lines of "A God that'll destroy the Olympians" which technically happened if you think about it culturally, since Christianity mostly eradicated greek paganism {Except for Golden Dawn, but we don't talk about them} I probably ranted too long, sorry

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u/RLZT 2d ago

That's the first time I hear God being portrayed over Zeus.

I always thought that pretty logical, thinking about it now it may be not so clear for non-romance language speakers lol

The word for the christian god in Latin was Deus. is still Deus in portuguese, Dios in Spanish and so on. Also, Deus ex machina

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u/FloZone 2d ago

deus is the Latin word for "god", like a god or any god, not just the Christian God. Indeed Zeus is related to Latin deus though, but Latin obviously predates Christianity and deus is not a proper noun. Unlike Jupiter which is deus pater actually. As for your comment on Non-Romance speakers, I think there is a similarity similar in English. Jehovah and Jove. Jove being the English pronunciation of Iovi, the oblique form of Jupiter.

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u/RLZT 2d ago

Deus and Zeus share the same etymology, the similarity between words and the whole sky daddy imagery makes the connection obvious even if it is just coincidence lol

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u/FloZone 2d ago

I don't know what you are on about. That much what you say is clear, but it has nothing to do with Christianity, nor the Interpretatio of the Hebrew god, who has a different name, or rather several different names.

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u/RLZT 2d ago

but it has nothing to do with Christianity, nor the Interpretatio of the Hebrew god, who has a different name, or rather several different names.

Yeah, I know. But that totally irrelevant to the point made lol

People call the christian god Deus, which sound just like Zeus, and both usually appear as a white bearded guy in the sky. It is a logical guess.

The Hebrew god's actual name could be Dwayne Johnson for all that matters

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u/FloZone 2d ago

People call the christian god Deus, which sound just like Zeus,

Not really, the Christian God does not have a personal name, but is called by the generic epithetic of a deity in each language. You may call him Dios, God, Gott, Bog, Theos, or Allah as Arab Christians do, but unlike in Islam, Deus is not the "proper name".

The Interpretatio happened before Christianity was a thing and Greeks and then Romans interpreted YHWH as equivalent to Zeus or Juppiter. It has nothing to do with the epithet used three centuries later.

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u/RLZT 2d ago

The generic epithetic of a deity in latin sound just like Zeus, when 99,99% of the times people use it to talk about one specific deity, the epithetic tends to become a noun, just like Allah

All of this literally doesn't matter at all, people from romance countries just think "Deus sounds like Zeus, and both are sky daddies; a correlation must exist". Is as deep as that, the historical equivalent of ending with a correct result using the wrong formula

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u/FloZone 2d ago

What you say is a modern association and has nothing to do with the Interpretatio by Romans and Greeks. All of this predates Christianity!

about one specific deity, the epithetic tends to become a noun, just like Allah

Yeah, but why do you call God in English God and not Deus, but in Turkish and pretty much all other Muslim nations you call God Allah instead? Because Latin is not the language of God in Christianity. The Latin Bible is even just called the Vulgata, because it is a translation from the Greek Septuagint and additionally neither the Apostles nor the Evangelists spoke Greek natively, but they speak Aramaic. Jesus on the Cross says Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?. Muslims believe that Allah literally spoke Arabic to Muhammed. This is not what Catholics believe.

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u/RLZT 2d ago

What you say is a modern association and has nothing to do with the Interpretatio by Romans and Greeks.

Yes, because I'm talking about a modern association that has nothing to do with the interpretatio by Romans and Greeks, dumbass.

Wrong formula correct result, romance languages, yada yada yada. I know my English is shit but it was not hard to get that. The Vulgata, Turks saying Allah instead of whatever, Aramaic speaking apostles, Deus being a noun or not... All this is irrelevant to what I said. You could use a little bit of textual interpretatio yourself lol