isn't Hercules Zeus' son?

[Tyty]

It confuses me that he isn't greek, or maybe im going by Disney and not the lore....

[Desphael]

Heracles is Zeus' son. That's the greek counterpart of Hercules.

[Roamyn]

Woo! Mythology! Alright, so Hercules is ROMAN, making him Jupiter's son (Zeus' Roman Counterpart). Heracles is a Hercules, except Greek. Basically what had happened is that the romans knew how much Heracles haded Hera (his mother, who made him do the infamous 12 labours) that they knew he didn't wan't part of her in his own name, so they romanized it into Hercules.

Not really though xD Thats just how it came out whenever they take a language through Latin. Ex; Zeus -> Jupiter/Jove/Optimas Maximus

[Sevrojin]

Roman religion is a hogpog of stolen ideas. the original pantheon are all carbon copy greek gods with alternet names

[EmethSAS]

Originally posted by Sevrojin:

Roman religion is a hogpog of stolen ideas. the original pantheon are all carbon copy greek gods with alternet names

Not entirely true, there are several unique Roman deities that don't have direct counter-parts in the Greek pantheon and that pre-date the Romans' interactions with the Greeks. But yes, after conquering the Greek empire(s), the Romans made an active effort to pair up most of their existing gods with similar-ish Greek ones or come up with slight variations on Greek gods that they didn't have such that in the end the pantheon of the Roman empire was intentionally very similar to the Greek pantheon, though still not identical.

But for the purposes of Smite, most of the Olympian gods are so similar in their Greek and Roman forms that it isn't worthwhile to duplicate counterpart gods for the pantheons (at least until they've run out of more distinct ideas ).

[Sevrojin]

ya not all but most Roman Empires assmilated the ideas of the concured in order maintain controll easyer still noticable today because this idea of assmilation made roman chatholosism what it is today riddled with pagan ideas and holidays

[EmethSAS]

Originally posted by Sevrojin:

ya not all but most Roman Empires assmilated the ideas of the concured in order maintain controll easyer still noticable today because this idea of assmilation made roman chatholosism what it is today riddled with pagan ideas and holidays

Yes, this same idea was also used later on by the Roman Catholic Church in identifying saints with mythologies of groups they were trying to convert, which did lead to the odd blendings of ancient holidays with Christian/Catholic symbolism. In a similar, but inverse pattern, this is also why modern Voodoo (and some other beliefs) has so much Christian symbolism in it while having a lot more to do with African mythology/religions than traditional Christian belief.

These same types of syncretism and infusions can be seen all over the world.

[Sevrojin]

kinda why i think religion is stupid IMO. just another controll mechanism.

[EmethSAS]

Originally posted by Sevrojin:

kinda why i think religion is stupid IMO. just another controll mechanism.

Lots of things, in fact most things, are used for control. This doesn't necessarily negate their worth in other ways, but I understand your perspective and I don't want to (further?) derail this thread too.