Research paper

Amina Radoncic
Prof Isellin
HUM2210
28 Feb 2014

Greek Influence on the Romans.

You probably recognize the picture above from Wikipedia because it is a portrait of the twelve Olympians of the most famous and influential civilization, the Greeks. Yet, the Greeks also have a famous counterpart, the Romans. Both have left their marks on present day culture and have respectfully done so. It is silly, though, to believe that they did not "borrow" some of each others ideas. The Greeks, in fact, were so far ahead that many cultures emulated their findings; the most popular and similar were the Romans. The Romans obtained many of their mythological views, art, and architecture from the Greeks in order to expand their empire. Indeed, the Romans were influenced greatly by the Greece within their religion. They based their religion on polytheism, they belief of many Gods. The Romans also based their Gods on Greek counterparts. For they have the same stories behind them just different names. For example, "Roman mythology includes many of the same figures, but uses different names: calling Zeus by the name of Jupiter, and Aphrodite by the name of Venus, for example. The Roman names are often better known to English-speaking people than the Greek names (Wikipedia)." For the Greeks brought along all of the mythology and created the stories that beliefs are built on and so the Romans took those stories and put their own twist on them with the same morals and changed the names to correlate with the names of Roman origin. "The Roman version of Aphrodite was Venus. The Roman version of Ares is Mars. The Roman version of Artemis is Diana. The Roman version of Athena is Minerva. The Roman version of Demeter is Ceres. The Roman version of Hera is Juno. The Roman version of Hermes was Mercury. "(Wikipedia) As you will realize in the list above, the Romans have a more recent time period (there empire fell in 478 AD) , therefore, some of their names such as Diana, Venus and Juno are still used to named children in the present day. Whereas, the Greek mythological names are unheard of other than when actually studying the subject.

Eventually, once the mythology was borrowed, the art followed. The earliest known sculpturing in Greek came from Alexander a prophet whose main purpose was to wow and show magical powers to the audiences. He came with ideas of creating pots and bowls, which were then considered art. The canvases would be extravagant and quite elegant. “Alexander’s methods were basic: either he would melt the wax beneath the seal with a warm needle and then reseal it.(Platt)" But with the simplicity of it all came the most treasured pieces of Greek art.
The replication of art is most popular when it comes to the Romans consistently borrowing the ideals of Greek religious sentiment. I say this because Greeks manifested these symbolic statues of their many Gods. So, the Romans also borrowed the idea of architecting pillars.
"Single works of sculpture, from a variety of Roman contexts, purport to be rather careful Roman adaptations of well-known Greek statues, and numer- ous Roman sculptures mirror estab- lished Greek statuary types such as the ‘Doryphoros’ of Polykleitos, confirming both the popularity and resonance of these compositions for Roman audiences.( Varner)".

The picture above is the sculpture of Varners discussion above. Like noticed above, many of the Roman sculptures are certainly of their own creation, yet many are only of the Greek ideas and therefore, it is questionable if the intentions were their own or simply learned.

Certainly, literature was an exquisite aspect of both cultures and so it was only normal for the Romans to emulate the best know literature from the most popular and powerful Greeks. I t is safe to say we know so little of the history of literature without the Greeks. The Sanskrit language was revealed the ancient literature on mystical religious poetry and has been used throughout the medieval time period . "In epic poetry the Romans accomplished more, though even here they are still inferior to the Greeks. The Aeneid of Virgil has certainly survived the material glories of Rome. (Literary Genius)". Although, the Iliad, which is the Greek epic poem equivalent, has certainly outdone the Virgil, the Virgil still has its importance and dominance in the ancient world. In lyrical poetry the Romans certainly set themselves up for success." The Odes of Horace have never been transcended, and will probably remain through all ages the delight of scholars. (Literary Genius)." It is the only equally successful Roman literary piece that does something the Greeks did not, which is include religious sentiment.

Therefore, it is complicated to reconcile whether the Romans necessarily copied the Greeks or whether the Greeks were simply a mothering civilization that transcended into what is today. Like a mother that teaches her children her way and then that child transcends the traditions into the modern world. Like the Romans learning of Greek mythology and then replicating it into their time and names, which transcended into ours. Respectfully, the Romans did what most other would. For the Egyptians and Chinese have similarities as well, yet the Romans and Greeks basically go hand in hand.