Comparison of Egyptian and Greek Mythology

The ancient Greeks created the most popular mythology in the world. The many stories surrounding mythological figures of ancient Greece shaped the lives of the people living there and else where in the world. Even when philosophical ideas began to take hold, separating these imaginative fictions from obvious fact.
Most of the Egyptian mythological culture is based off of nature, and animals and life. Many of the gods and goddesses physically take after animals.
Egyptians believed that the world was a flat disc, and that egypt was right in the middle of disc, providing them with heavenly skies and deep waters leading the underworld.
Common Greek Gods
* Zeus
Known as the ‘Father of gods and men’. He is the god of sky, lightening, thunder, order, and justice. His most well known symbol is the thunderbolt. He rules all gods from Mount Olympus.
* Poseidon
Know as the ‘God of the sea’, he is brother to Zeus. His symbol is the trident; he is the god of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses.
* Apollo
God of music, poetry, plague, oracles, sun., medicine, light and knowledge. Common known symbols are the wreath and the lyre.
* Ares
Ares is the god of war, his symbol is the spear, helmet, and chariot. His father is Zeus. Often humiliated by Hephaestus due to his affair with Hephaestus’s wife Aphrodite.
* Hephaestus
God of fire, metalwork, stone masonry, and art sculpture. His common symbols are the anvil or the hammer. His father, like Ares, is Zeus himself.
* Hades
King of the underworld, God of the dead and of riches. His symbol is the drinking horn, or scepter, as well as the Cerberus. He is brother to Zeus and Poseidon. Zeus banished him to the underworld.
Common Greek Goddesses
* Athena
Goddess of wisdom, warfare, divine intelligence, and architecture. Her common symbol is the owl, or the olive tree, she is also the daughter of Zeus. She is the virgin patron of Athens, thus where how she received her name. She is the protector of the city, and the people there within it.
* Aphrodite
Goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality, her common symbol is the rose, or dove. She is another daughter of Zeus, she was often seen as a threat by the other gods/goddesses because of her beauty.
* Artemis
Goddess of hunt, forests and hills, and the moon. Her most common symbol is the bow and arrow, as well as the stag. She is the daughter of Zeus, and protector of young women. She can bring and cure disease of women. The deer, also, is sacred to her.
* Hera
Hera is queen of the gods, as well as goddess of marriage, women, and childbirth. She is the wife of Zeus, and mother to many, but not all his children. Her common symbol is the pomegranate, or peacock feather. She was known for her love of revenge and easy slip into jealousy, usually involving Zeus’s many other lovers.
* Hestia
Goddess of hearth and fireside, her common symbol being the hearth and it’s fire, sister to Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hades. Her name itself means ‘hearth and fire’ she watched over the domestic happens of a family, and it’s hearth.
* Demeter
Goddess of crops, and fertility of the earth, her common symbol being the seeds crops. She watches over the growth of the crops throughout the seasons.
Common Egyptian Gods
* Amun
Amun is the king of the gods, his common symbol is two vertical plumes, and the ram-headed Sphinx. Fused with the sun god Ra after overthrowing the rulers of the old kingdom.
* Anubis
Protector of the dead and embalming, his symbol is the fetish, a headless, stuffed animal skin. Anubis is guarder of the weighing scale, in which a heart of someone who has past is weighed to see how pure/good they have been in they’re past life, determining if they can proceed to the afterlife.
* Hapi
God of the annual flooding of the Nile, the greatness of the flooding determines the fertility of the soil at the next growing season. He is normally depicted with blue skin representing the water that he brings.

* Ra
The sun god, his symbol is the sun disk. Throughout the times, Ra has merged with many other gods to accomplish things affecting his control and authority.

* Osiris
God of the after life, his symbol is the hook and flail. His green skin represents, re-birth. He was brother and husband to Isis.
* Horus
Son of Isis and Osiris, Horus is the god of war and protection. Horus is well known for cutting Osiris in pieces and throwing him into the Nile. His symbol is the wedjat eye.
Common Egyptian Goddesses
* Bastet
Goddess of music, dance, health and healing, her symbol is the cat.
* Hathor
Underworld, motherhood, pregnancy, and drunkenness, her symbol is the usually a sistrum and ankh.
* Isis
Goddess of motherhood, magic, and fertility, her common symbol is the throne, or a sun disk with cow horns. She married her bother Osiris, and they had a son named Horus. She resurrected Osiris after Horus killed him. She is the first daughter of the Geb, god of the earth.
* Ma’at
Goddess of truth and Justice, her symbol is a ostrich feather.
* Nekhbet
Goddess of motherhood, death and rebirth, and creator of life. Her symbol is a white crown, recognized as the crown of upper Egypt.
* Nephthys
Goddess of immortality and the underworld. Her symbol is a basket in which she carries on her head.
Similarities
* Zeus and Amun
Both are the king of the gods.
* Hathor and Aphrodite
sexuality, motherhood, pregnancy, love both share these aspects.
* Poseidon and Hapi
Both control the major waters of their territory.
* Horus and Ares
Both are the gods of war and battle.
* Hades and Nephthys
Both control the underworld.
* Nekhbet and Hestia
creators of life, family, hearth, both share this.
* Hapi and Demeter
Both control the success of the crops at next growing season.

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