Interpretatio Graeca

***Interpretatio graeca*** (Latin, "Greek translation" or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]") is a

discourse in which ancient Greek religious concepts and practices, deities, and myths are used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures. It is thus a comparative methodology that looks for equivalencies and shared characteristics. The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as when Herodotus describes Egyptian religion in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or when Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch document Roman cults, temples, and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities. *Interpretatio graeca*
 may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief
systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek models, as when Romans adapt Greek myths and iconography under the names of their own gods.

***Interpretatio romana*** is comparative discourse in reference to ancient Roman religion and myth, as in the formation of a distinctive Gallo-Roman religion. Both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularly Imperial cult.

***Interpretatio Indoeuropaea*** (Latin, "Indo-European translation" or "interpretation by means of Indo-European [models]") is the comparative discourse in reference to ancient Proto-Indo-European religion and myth, in relation to non-Indo-European religion and myth.

Jan Assmann considers the polytheistic approach to internationalizing gods as a form of "intercultural translation":

"The great achievement of polytheism is the articulation of a common
semantic universe. …The meaning of a deity is his or her specific
character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites, and so on. This
character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits.
 The similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. … The
practice of translating the names of the gods created a concept of
similarity and produced the idea or conviction that the gods are
international."[2]

Pliny the Elder expressed the "translatability" of deities as "different names to different peoples" *(nomina alia aliis gentibus).*[3] This capacity made possible the religious syncretism of the Hellenistic era and the pre-Christian Roman Empire.

## Examples

Herodotus
 was one of the earliest authors to engage in this form of
interpretation. In his observations regarding the Egyptians, he
establishes Greco-Egyptian equivalents that endured into the Hellenistic era, including Amon/Zeus, Osiris/Dionysus, and Ptah/Hephaestus.

Some pairs of Greek and Roman gods, such as Zeus and Jupiter, are thought to derive from a common Indo-European archetype (Dyeus
 as the supreme sky god), and thus exhibit shared functions by nature.
Others required more expansive theological and poetic efforts: though
both Ares and Mars
 are war gods, Ares was a relatively minor figure in Greek religious
practice and deprecated by the poets, while Mars was a father of the
Roman people and a central figure of archaic Roman religion.

Some deities dating to Rome's oldest religious stratum, such as Janus and Terminus, had no Greek equivalent. Other Greek divine figures, most notably Apollo, were adopted directly into Roman culture, but underwent a distinctly Roman development, as when Augustus made Apollo one of his patron deities. In the early period, Etruscan culture
 played an intermediary role in transmitting Greek myth and religion to
the Romans, as evidenced in the linguistic transformation of Greek *Heracles* to Etruscan *Her[e]cle* to Roman *Hercules*.

## *Interpretatio romana*

The phrase *interpretatio romana* was first used by the Imperial-era historian Tacitus in the *Germania*.[4] Tacitus reports that in a sacred grove of the Nahanarvali, "a priest adorned as a woman presides, but they commemorate gods who in Roman terms *(interpretatione romana)* are Castor and Pollux."[5] Elsewhere,[6] he identifies the principal god of the Germans as Mercury, perhaps referring to Wotan.[7]

Some information about the deities of the ancient Gauls (the continental Celts),
 who left no written literature other than inscriptions, is preserved by
 Greco-Roman sources under the names of Greek and Latin equivalents. A
large number of Gaulish theonyms or cult titles are preserved, for instance, in association with Mars.
 As with some Greek and Roman divine counterparts, the perceived
similarities between a Gallic and a Roman or Greek deity may reflect a
common Indo-European origin.[8] Lugh was identified with Mercury, Nodens with Mars as healer and protector, Sulis with Minerva. In some cases, however, a Gallic deity is given an *interpretatio romana* by means of more than one god, varying among literary texts or inscriptions. Since the religions of the Greco-Roman world were not dogmatic, and polytheism
 lent itself to multiplicity, the concept of "deity" was often
expansive, permitting multiple and even contradictory functions within a
 single divinity, and overlapping powers and functions among the diverse
 figures of each pantheon. These tendencies extended to cross-cultural
identifications.[9]

In the Eastern empire, the Anatolian storm god with his double-headed axe became Jupiter Dolichenus, a favorite cult figure among soldiers. Roman scholars such as Varro interpreted the monotheistic god of the Jews into Roman terms as Caelus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Some Greco-Roman authors seem to have understood the Jewish invocation of Yahweh Sabaoth as Sabazius.

## *Interpretatio germanica*

*Interpretatio germanica* is the practice by the Germanic peoples of identifying Roman gods with the names of Germanic deities. According to Rudolf Simek, this occurred around the 1st century of the common era, when both cultures came into closer contact. Some evidence for *interpretatio germanica* exists in the Germanic translations of the Roman names for the days of the week:

* Sunday, the day of Sunnǭ (Old Norse: Sunna, *Sól*; Old English: *Sunne*; Old High German: Sunna), the sun (as female), was earlier the day of Sol Invictus, the sun (as male)
* Monday, the day of Mēnô (Máni; Mōna; Māno), the moon (as male), was earlier the day of Luna, the moon (as female)
* Tuesday, the day of Tīwaz (Týr; Tīw; Ziu), was earlier the day of Mars, god of war
* Wednesday, the day of Wōdanaz (Óðinn; Wōden; Wuotan), was earlier the day of Mercury, god of travelers and eloquence
* Thursday, the day of Þūraz/Þunraz (Þórr; Þunor; Donar), was earlier the day of Jupiter, god of thunder; in other contexts, Þūraz, the mighty and popular son of Wōdanaz, the supreme god, was identified by means of *interpretatio romana* with Hercules, the mighty and popular son of Jupiter, the supreme god
* Friday, the day of Frijjō (Frigg; Frīg; Frīja), was earlier the day of Venus, goddess of love

In most of the Romance languages,
 which derive from Latin, days of the week still preserve the names of
the original Roman deities, such as the Italian for Tuesday, *martedì* (from the Latin *Martis dies*). This is also the case with Saturn in some West Germanic languages; such as the English "Saturday", the West Frisian *Saterdei*, the Low German *Saterdag* and the Dutch *zaterdag* all meaning Saturn's day.[1]

Simek emphasizes the paucity of evidence and notes that comparison
with Roman gods is insufficient to reconstruct ancient Germanic gods and
 equate them definitively with those of later Norse mythology.[10]

## *Interpretatio Indoeuropaea*

*Interpretatio Indoeuropaea* is the practice of identifying foreign gods or descendant Indo-European gods with the names of Proto-Indo-European deities. The PIE names of the days of the week take after it's descendant equivalents:

* *dyēus Swéns*, the day of Sāwḷ, the sun (as female)
* *dyēus Mḗnōts*, the day of Mḗnōts, the moon (as male)
* *dyēus Perqū́nosyo*, the day of Perqū́nos, the god of war
* *dyēus Diwós Sūnewom*, the day of the Diwós Sūnéwes, the twin horse gods of travelers and eloquence
* *dyēus Diwós Pətrós*, the day of Dyēus Pətḗr, the supreme god
* *dyēus Priyās*, the day of Priyā, the goddess of love