Comparative Analysis Between Greek and Hindu Religion & Mythology
- Hindu College Gazette Web Team
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
French writer and philosopher Voltaire once said, “All religions must be tolerated … for every man must get to heaven his own way.” Whenever religion is talked about in society, we see either extreme devotion towards faith and God or extreme criticism of it. Mythology and religion, often interlinked but not the same, become a heated topic whenever we talk about whether they are real or not. People engage in disputes, debates, discussions, arguments and even academics and scholars have written many essays, research papers and dissertations on this. But we always forget one thing, many religions, at the end, are very similar and have parallels to each other. Living in a country like India, which has religions and cultures in abundance such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Jainism, Christianity, and is even home to people who are non-believers, spiritual, agnostic and so much more, we all have at least once compared one religion with another, either for similarities, parallels, connections, truth or for criticism, differences and so much more. Although we have done this beautifully, we have been constrained to religions on our land. There is a whole other world and set of religions left to be discovered and studied about. The one religion that came to my mind was the Ancient Greek religion. While I was writing this article I was fascinated by Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ and even ‘The Odyssey’.
As an English student who also grew up reading Madeline Miller’s ‘The Song of Achilles’, I always had an interest in Ancient Greek Religion and Mythology. Hinduism, for the many positive and negative reasons it has and it being the faith I believe in, is also the one I love to read about. As a kid who grew up watching the ‘Mahabharata’ and even the ‘Ramayana’ while understanding the ideals of the Bhagavad Gita and the four Vedas as well, I was fascinated by Hinduism and later on, not just this, but all religions for that matter. In this article, I will try to compare these two religions and find basic and intricate similarities and parallels, while also finding differences and providing criticisms of both religions and their mythology.
Before actually comparing both the religions, a basic understanding and background of both the religions should be done. Hinduism, which is allegedly known as one of the oldest religions on earth if not the oldest religion, whose roots go back to the Indus Valley Civilisation from around 3300 BCE. Hinduism is a polytheistic religion where the main belief is that everything in the universe is God’s and everything in the Universe is part of God. It is generally considered a way of life not as a set of rules and doesn't have a rigid set of beliefs. Hinduism is the modern name given to this religion by the British scholars but its original name is considered to be the Sanatana Dharma which is translated to eternal righteousness, which was one of the main philosophies and a part of the many rich and imperative ideals and philosophies, such as dharma (righteousness), cosmic order, duty, rebirth & karma, moksha and most importantly Brahman, around which all the ideas of Hinduism were created. Brahman is known to be the ultimate reality, all-encompassing and the ultimate truth, which is often considered to be the source of all existence-both living and non-living. The 5 strands through which Hinduism has had such an impact even after 5000 years are the ‘Doctrine’ it has, the ‘Practice’ they put in, the ‘Society’ it has impacted, the ‘Story’ they told and ‘Devotion’ it had shown, throughout time. Most of the writings in Hinduism were done majorly in Sanskrit and other vernacular languages.
On the other spectrum, when we talk about the Ancient Greek Religion, this ancient religion has its roots from the 8th-9th Century BCE during the time of Homer. The religion, ironically, which was fascinating and intriguing to their own people, never had an actual name for it, and was always considered as the Ancient Greek Religion. The closest name for this religion was called eusebeia and threskeia which means piety and cult respectively. It is believed that the great supreme survivors who were later on hailed as heroes and heroines became saints and these Gods and Goddesses made the new mythology, which was used to propagate ideals which are similar to christianity. It was a sort of cult, the core values of the religion were the same as christianity but this religion doesn't have only one God but instead is a polytheistic religion.
In simpler words, the Ancient Greek Religion is just a religion with Christian ideals but with a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, but the reason it makes it different is the fact that Greek religion was polytheistic. These Gods and Goddesses of the Greek religion are believed to actively intervene in human affairs, from daily small activities and even major events as well. It was considered as a reciprocal relationship of give and take between the Humans and the Supreme Overlords.
After having a basic understanding of both the religions, just from this we can see how both these religions have similarities and differences in both the religions. If we look at the most basic similarities such as the big trio in both religions, Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh in Hindu mythology and Zeus-Poseidon-Hades in Greek Mythology. Zeus and Brahma have similarities such as both the Gods use the thunderbolt as their weapon and have the ability to control the weather. Other similarities among them include how both the Gods have had numerous wives and affairs with other women. The concept of hell and heaven is also very similar, of how living in mortal life your account of sins and good actions eventually lead to the decision of whether you deserve to live in hell or heaven. The similarities continue with how the trio of Hindu Gods, allegedly, live on Mount Kailash, but the Greek counterpart is Mount Olympus.
The Gods of both religions conduct all their works, decisions and philosophical thoughts on those mountains. The similarities keep on going, how every virtue, sin, virtues and characters are giving a particular God or Goddess like wisdom and learning is Athena and Saraswati, wealth such as Lakshmi and Hera, death and kings of underworld such as Yama and Hades. Another major similarity is how both the religions show Gods with human-like figures physically often showing their physical workings similar to what a human has. At the most basic level, the two major epics from both the religions have many major similarities like the purpose of the war and the many different characteristics of major characters in the famous epics, both “Ramayana & Mahabharata” with “The Iliad”.
With respect to these similarities, we also have to consider the numerous dissimilarities both the religions and mythologies show. In Hinduism, the religion has a definite set of beliefs, ideals and philosophies that guide the followers of Hinduism, mythology in Hinduism is used to propagate said ideas to its followers so that they follow them and call it divine and supreme and give it some form of backing that makes its followers be in fear and follow it. On the other hand, Ancient Greek Religion does not have a set of ideals and beliefs but it is based on the most basic idea of give and take between Gods and humans so that as much as the humans serve the Gods, the more the Gods become happier and more satisfied, they don’t give any punishments or consequences to them. In Hinduism and Greek mythology, Gods have anthropomorphic appearances but in Hinduism, Gods don’t have sentiments and feelings like humans and are shown as more supreme, divine and perfect in nature, but in Greek mythology, Gods are repeatedly shown human sentiments and mentality as well, such as jealousy, anger, love, lust and many more.
The ideas of creation and cosmology is also a very different idea shown in both the religions, like in Hinduism, it is cyclical and repeated. It is a repeated idea of karma and perfection, where the universe is created, preserved, destroyed and then reborn from the ashes like a phoenix and attempt again to gain perfection, this idea is not just followed in the universe as a whole but also the people in the universe follow this idea of karma and reincarnation until they receive moksha. In Greek religion it's a more linear and one lined idea of the universe where there was a creation, a past, present and a future. The story of creation in Greek religion continues with the overthrowing of power by younger demi-gods over older conservative gods with old ideas which continues the flow of creation and the universe never dies. One of the most amazing dissimilarities shown in the religions is also the moral framework shown. In Hinduism the moral framework is based on dharma which is righteousness and karma which is actions and consequences, which is a rather simple and guiding principle of the people which also helped us divide both the concepts of good and evil as Devtas representing goodness and Asuras representing evil and wrongdoing. In Greek religion and mythology, the ideal of morality is much more complex and difficult to understand. In stories, myths and legend stories of Gods and Heroes in epics, they do actions which can be considered questionable and not morally upright, but they don’t focus on that and focus on excellence, success, fame and the consequences of hubris as well.
In conclusion, having a critical aspect in understanding both the religions, people who created Hindu religion and mythology attempted and succeeded in propagating the ideas of Hinduism at its core, it has a much more practical understanding of the universe and is also very complete in nature that answers all the questions of the people about mental-physical-spiritual or any other question they might have. They have spiritual and religious texts that are questionable and discriminatory in some perspective, they do have some sense in it if some exceptions to some ideas are made.
While understanding the Ancient Greek Religion, it doesn't have an actual religion or a set of beliefs, but it is just an attempt to scare their followers into believing anything and everything that people say in the name of Greek Gods. It is not very complex and is rather very flexible, simple, very human and basic in nature as they feel, have physical features and all the ideas that are shown in the Ancient Greek religion and mythology is just their connection and relationship with the Gods and Goddesses which show the kiddish mentality of the Greek Gods same as the humans on earth. In the end, the question is, why is it that two of the oldest religions and even the civilisations that made and formed the religions have such major amount of similarities and formations of Gods and ideals, would it be because of the globalisation of thoughts between the two civilisation through trade routes or is it just a plain coincidence in two distant and distinct civilisations that managed to think of the same type of Gods and ideals and even formation of religion so alike to each other.
In the end, we just have to realise, like how G.K Chesterson once said, “One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.” Religion in the end gives us purpose, reason and answers for those that science can’t, that’s why religion although sometimes questionable, is still a very important concept needed in society.
By Yashowardhan Chaudhary
Yashowardhan Chaudhary is a second-year student of B.A Program (English and Economics) at Hindu College, University of Delhi. He is interested in writing about Culture Studies, Politics and Intersecting Identities.
References:
Keerthana. K “Greek and Hindu Mythologies: Are these two sides of the same coin?”16th January, 2021. Medium. Article Link
Lizos, George. “Greek Mythology vs Greek Religion” Blog Link
Sonar, Sujeet M. “Is Indian Mythology older than Greek Mythology” March, 2025. History. Article Link
Kapeleri, A. I. “Cultivating Critical Thinking: The Pedagogical Role of Ancient Greek Religion in Today’s Education” EJEDU 2025. Essay Link
Priyadarshini M C “Greek and Indian Mythology – A Comparative Study” Research Gate. March 2023. Essay Link
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