10 Inspiring Similarities between Hindu Gods and Greece Gods.
Updated: May 27
#1 Same Foretelling
Who doesn't know Kansa? Kansa was a very cruel and powerful ruler who tortured people. But, according to a future prediction, it was said that he will die because of his own sister, Devaki's 8th child. Kansa became so scared because of this that he imprisoned his sister Devaki and her husband Vasudev and killed their 7 children. But, as it said, nothing can beat fate. Just like that future prediction had said, that 8th child, whom we know by the name Lord Sri Krishna today, killed Kansa. This is a story that we all have been listening to since childhood. And there's only one moral to this. Do whatever you want, at the end of the day, the good will always win over the bad.
But if I tell you that a similar story is also believed in Greek culture, then will you believe it? Titan's leader, Cronus, had gotten to know a similar future prediction that the cause of his death will be his own child. And to avoid that from happening, he started swallowing his own babies as soon as they were born. But, his wife Rhea, being a mother, couldn't bear this thing, and she tricked him into eating a stone instead of her baby. By doing this Rhea saved her child Zeus from his own father and going forward, Zeus killed his father Cronus and defeated the whole of the Titans.
#2 Goddess Usha and Goddess Eos
Goddess Usha is a very prominent Goddess from the Vedic period. And the word Usha means 'dawn'. Rigveda's 40 hymns describe Goddess Usha in which she is described as a young radiant woman who rides in her golden chariot and travels through the whole sky and takes light with her and destroys the darkness and evil energy from the whole world.
Just like this, in Greek culture dawn is represented by the Greek Goddess Eos Just like how Goddess Usha is described in Rigveda, Goddess Eos is described in Orphic Hymns. Even she rides a chariot in the sky and marks the arrival of her brother sun-god Helios. The origin of the names of both these Goddesses, their meaning, and their description according to their respective cultures is very similar.
#3 Indra Dev and Thunder God Zeus
Both of them are Gods. There are a lot of similarities between Lord Indra and Zeus. First thing is, both of them are considered the king of Gods. It has been observed that both of the Gods were on bad terms with their father. Just like how the Greek God Zeus had defeated his father Cronus and became a powerful leader, just like that Lord Indra was in a conflict with his father Tvashta, and after winning that, he became the king of all Gods. In fact, even the weapons of Zeus and Lord Indra are very similar. Both have a thunderbolt or vajra as their main weapon.
According to Rigveda, Lord Indra had fought a dragon-like demon named Vritra and he had killed Vritra with his thunderbolt-like weapon Vajra.
And similar to this is the story of Zeus and Typhoon. Typhoon is considered to be the most dangerous Titan of Greek culture and Zeus had won a war against him with his thunderbolt and put him in Tartarus i.e. hell.
And that is how he became the ruler of the Gods. Apart from this, both Indra and Zeus could change their forms. i.e, both of them could impersonate someone. Zeus had two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, just like that, Indra had two brothers, Agni and Vayu. It is believed that Zeus used to stay on Mount Olympus and we believe that Lord Indra stays on Mount Meru. Olympian God Zeus' drink Ambrosia makes him and the other Gods immortal. And do you know this is similar to what? This is similar to Amrit which makes Lord Indra and the other Gods immortal.
#4 Yamraj and Hades
Yama i.e. Yamraj who we believe is the ruler of hell. According to Hinduism, he is the son of the sun-god Surya and Vishwakarma’s daughter Sanjana. According to Vedas, Yamraj was the first individual who died and after his death, he was made the God of Death. who decides after death, who will go to heaven, and who will go to hell. According to the scriptures, Chitragupta always stays with him and keeps a record of people's deeds according to which Yamraj decides who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.
And in Greek culture, he's represented by Zeus' brother Hades. Hades is also known as the God of Death or 'The king of the underworld.
Yamraj has two dogs who guard hell Sharvara and Syama Just like this, in Greek culture, Hades has his multi-headed dog Cerberus who guards the gate of the underworld. And if you listen closely, this Sharvara and Cerberus sound the same phonetically.
When the Romans conquered Greece, they absorbed their culture. Hades is known as Pluto by the Romans. And Pluto is a dwarf planet in our solar system which is called 'Yama-Graha' in Hindi. Why am I mentioning all this? Read this statement again, and apply this analogy that in mathematics, when A=B and B=C then that means A=C. Read it again, you'll understand what I just mentioned.
#5 Krittika and Pleiades
If you observe the night sky then you will easily recognize this. The kite-like formation is the 'Big Dipper Constellation' or according to Vedas, Saptarshi. In Indian astrology, these seven stars in the constellation are related to seven rishis. According to Mahabharata, Saptarishis were married to seven sisters called. Saptarishis abandoned 6 out of 7 Krittikas, stating that they were not loyal to them. In the Big Dipper Constellation, we can see only 1 out of those 7 stars Alcor which is resembled by Arundhati, the one who was most loyal to her husband, Rishi Vashistha. The other 6 Krittikas are seen in another constellation, namely Krittika Nakshatra.
In Greek culture, there's a similar story of the Pleiades sisters. Orion, the hunter, fell in love with the 7 sisters and chased them to win their hearts. But Zeus changed them to doves to save them from Orion and they flew far away and settled in the sky as a constellation called 'Pleiades'.
#6 Warriors of Mahabharata and Achilles
Achilles is considered to be the hero of the Iliad i.e. very disastrous events. And when I describe his personality, I'm sure that after reading that, you'll like that his personality is very similar to many characters of Mahabharata.
To begin with, Achilles was born to a king and a sea nymph. And this fact coincides with Mahabharata's great warrior Pitamaha Bhishma who was born to King Shantanu and River Goddess Ganga.
Achilles can also be related to Arjuna because both of the warriors were very confused before the war and they feared that the war would have very bad outcomes.
Apart from this, when Arjuna got to know that Abhimanyu has died by the hands of Jayadhrata he vowed to kill Jayadhrata to avenge his son. In the Trojan war, a similar incident is found when Hector killed Achilles' childhood friend Patroclus.
In fact, even Achilles and Karna were similar in some contexts because both of them had armor due to which they didn't have any impact of any attack.
#7 Narad Muni and Hermes
Narad Muni, everyone knows him! He is a musician and storyteller and before that, a messenger. It is said that Narad Muni is the first journalist of India who used to travel in different worlds and triggered different events. As wise as he was considered, he was also considered just as mischievous.
Just like this, in Greek culture, Hermes is considered the 'God of Messenger'. It is believed that to trigger big events, for himself, he used to play many tricks just like Narad Muni.
Hermes had invented a string instrument just like how Narad Muni had invented Veena. And both of these Gods are considered very big traveler musicians in both cultures who travel in different worlds.
#8 The Great Flood
There is an event recorded in Puranas, in which to make Manu aware of an unavoidable flood and to save him, Lord Vishnu went down to Earth in the form of a fish. He advised Manu, the first man, to build a huge boat to carry all the significant species during the flood.
Similarly in Greek culture, Titan Prometheus had warned Deucalion that Zeus is going to renew humanity in an age-ending flood. To protect himself and his life, Deucalion builds a small boat.
#9 Lord Varun and Poseidon
Varuna is the brother of Lord Indra and the son of Rishi Kashyapa and Aditi He is considered as a very important God of the Vedic period who is associated with the sea and sky. Varuna's vehicle is a crocodile which is an aquatic animal denoting his hold over aquatic life.
And parallelly, there's a Greek God, Zeus' brother, Poseidon. Even Poseidon is associated with rivers and seas and he rides in a chariot which is shown by Hippocampi driving it.
Poseidon is known by the name Neptune in Roman and Neptune is known as Varuna in Sanskrit. Once again, apply the same mathematics, that if a=b and b=c then a=c.
#10 Sampati and Icarus
Sampati who was Jatayu's brother, Jatayu who had helped Lord Rama in finding Sita. While flying, Jatayu and Sampati used to compete with each other that who can fly higher. One day, while competing, Jatayu became so engrossed in it that he went very close to the Sun. He could have many problems due to the Sun's heat and that is why Sampati went to save him. Sampati saved him from the Sun's heat, but during this, he lost his wings.
Now there's a Greek story running parallel to this incident of Icarus and Daedalus. Daedalus was a craftsman who made wings with wax and feathers. He and his son tried those pairs of wings. and before the flight, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun nor too close to the sea, But, after taking flight, Icarus didn't keep that in mind and he started flying close to the sun which melted the wax in the wings and Icarus died after falling to the ground.