The purpose of this research is to compare Greek and Roman views of a hero. Zeus is the Greek name for the leader of the gods, and Jupiter is the corresponding leader of the Roman gods. The Greek gods of Olympus were well represented in Greek art and literature, and the influence of these works was so great in Rome that ancient Roman deities were changed to resemble the corresponding Greek gods and were considered to be the same. Because the Romans did not have personified gods of their own, they easily adopted the Greek gods. The Romans had great religious feeling, but they also had little imagination and could never have created the Olympians, each a distinct, vivid personality, on their own. Before they adopted these personalities from the Greeks, the Roman gods were vague entities, called the Numina, which means the Powers of the Wills.
The humanity with which the gods were conceived by the Greeks is apparent in their literature, and the major deities of the Iliad and the Odyssey, for instance, are in many ways the most human characters in the story. Zeus, known as the father of humans and gods, can be considered superior to all other beings, as a kind of first principle. While he did not, in fact, father all the gods, he is in an ethical sense the father of the members of the pantheon, and Homer describes him often in the emotional role of parent. These very human qualities are also clear in the Greek concept of a hero, who was usually able to trace his genealogy back three or four generations and then find a god.
An excellent example is the Homeric poems and the heroes they celebrate. First, they all deal with the upper class, and indeed Homer wrote only of kings and princes, for the ordinary soldier plays no part in these works: "Moreover, these kings and princes are portrayed sharply with all the limitations of their class and time; they are proud, fierce, vengeful, glorying in war though at the time hating...