Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

SyllabubLopsided4724 t1_ir32t10 wrote

Is no one else focused on the headline? Roman statue of Greek hero Hercules found in greece... It's either a Roman statue of Hercules or a Greek statue of Heracles.

19

nimama3233 t1_ir36wci wrote

I think it’s fine.

The age of the statue for that region would indicate it would have been made by “Romans”. The Roman’s depicted the Greek hero “Hercules”. Remember that even though they bastardized the gods Hercules was still considered a Greek Hero.. even though as a Greek his name was Heracles

5

Remon_Kewl t1_ir4ay8x wrote

Greeks continued to exist and create art during the roman era.

3

Jordan_the_Hutt t1_ir533zz wrote

A Greek living under Roman occupation might very well have identified as a Roman. They would've been a "Greek Roman" and held both things as significant labels of identity.

In the same way Peurto Ricans are also Americans. One identity does not drive out the other nor does one necessarily come first for many people.

3

Ypnos666 t1_ir553wp wrote

In pre-Roman and early-Roman years, they called themselves Hellenes ("Greeks" is a complicated name, never used by Gre...Hellenes themselves, even today).

Later they called themselves Rhomaioi, which essentially meant "We're actually Hellenes, but the church calls us pagans, so we're Rhomaioi *wink*"

The term "Hellenes" was revived in the 15th century in an attempt to rouse rebellion against Ottoman occupiers and to re-assert Orthodox Christianity.

5

MarcusScythiae t1_ir4x2y5 wrote

>Remember that even though they bastardized the gods

Romans didn't bastardise anyone. Their Gods are native to the region and were later syncretized with the Greek ones.

2

black_brook t1_ir3muyt wrote

The Eastern Roman Empire spoke Greek. This was Heracles.

1

Jordan_the_Hutt t1_ir53heg wrote

This would've been 200 years before dioclecian so lowercase eastern. The aristocracy of the area would likely have spoke Latin and both languages would've been present.

1

TorchedBlack t1_ir3d1x7 wrote

Not really, they mentioned the byzantines. The byzantine empire was the breakaway empire of the eastern Roman empire. It controlled Greece for a while as well. The line at which you say when byzantines were byzantines vs Romans is pretty murky.

2

Remon_Kewl t1_ir4b0xx wrote

It controlled Greece and was controlled by greeks for most of the East Roman empire's history.

5

Anthemius_Augustus t1_ir4uy78 wrote

>The byzantine empire was the breakaway empire of the eastern Roman empire.

It wasn't a "breakaway empire" of the Eastern Roman Empire, it was the Eastern Roman Empire. Strange wording. It's not like the "Byzantines" 'broke away' from the Eastern Empire, they were the same thing.

4