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Rome named its gods after Greek ones and then gave several of them a civic role, a festival, or a myth Greece never had. Each page here sets a Greek figure beside the Roman one and names the actual differences, not just the shared name.

12 pairs published

Aphrodite vs. Venus
Aphrodite is a goddess of love with no political stake in any city, while Venus became the divine ancestor Julius Caesar's own family publicly claimed descent from.
Ares vs. Mars
Ares is a disliked, secondary war god in Greek myth, while Mars ranks second only to Jupiter in Roman state religion and is the mythical father of Rome itself.
Artemis vs. Diana
Artemis and Diana are the same virgin huntress by Roman adoption, but Diana carried two cults of her own - a federal Aventine temple and the violent priest-combat rite at Nemi - that Artemis never had.
Athena vs. Minerva
Athena and Minerva share wisdom and strategic war as domains, but Minerva also became Rome's civic patron of craftsmen and schoolchildren through a specifically Roman festival, the Quinquatrus.
Demeter vs. Ceres
Demeter and Ceres share the same abducted-daughter myth, but Ceres's Roman cult became the plebeian class's own political and legal institution in a way Demeter's never was.
Dionysus vs. Bacchus
Dionysus and Bacchus are the same wine-god by Roman adoption, but Bacchus's cult produced a real historical crisis - a violent state suppression in 186 BCE - that Dionysus's Greek worship never triggered.
Hades vs. Pluto
Hades is a single, clearly defined ruler of the Greek underworld, while the Roman underworld role was split across three overlapping figures - Pluto, Dis Pater, and Orcus - and public cult avoided naming any of them directly.
Hephaestus vs. Vulcan
Hephaestus is honored in Greek myth for his craft; Vulcan is worshipped in Rome mainly to keep his dangerous fire away from a city built of wood.
Hera vs. Juno
Hera is defined mainly by jealousy toward Zeus's affairs, while Juno's Roman cult centered her instead on state protection and, as Juno Moneta, literally housed Rome's mint.
Hermes vs. Mercury
Hermes and Mercury share the same messenger myths, but Mercury's Roman cult grew around a specifically commercial need: a merchant class that built and ran his temple itself.
Poseidon vs. Neptune
Poseidon is the sea god from the start of Greek myth, while Neptune entered Roman religion late and reached the sea mainly through the Greek equation, arriving with a horse-cult role borrowed from an older Italic god.
Zeus vs. Jupiter
Zeus and Jupiter are the same sky-god by Roman adoption, but Jupiter carried a civic role as guarantor of oaths and treaties that Zeus never held in Greek religion.