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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
-I thought we were having Heraklès.
-Oh, no, I said, “Hercle.” That’s what I call Heraklès.
-You call Heraklès Hercle.
-Yes, it’s a regional dialect.
-Uh-huh. What region?
-Uh, Dodecapolis.
-Really. Well, I’m from Vatluna and I never heard anyone use the phrase, “Hercle”
-Oh, not in Vatluna, no; it’s an Arretium expression.
-I see.
Explanation: The Roman pantheon is often equated to the Greek pantheon, to the point of being accused of stealing their gods wholesale from the Greeks. The reality is more nuanced, but the Roman practice of interpretatio (also stolen from the Greeks), seeing all the pantheons of the world as fundamentally the same forces worshipped under different names, and the practice of Romans literally stealing gods from their enemies, muddies the waters a bit.