Editing Interpretatio graeca (section)

{{Short description|Methodology for cultural comparison}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Pompeii - Temple of Isis - Io and Isis - MAN.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A Roman wall painting showing the Egyptian goddess [[Isis]] ''(seated right)'' welcoming the Greek heroine [[Io (mythology)|Io]] to Egypt]]

{{langnf|la|'''Interpretatio graeca'''|Greek translation}}, or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]", refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreign deities with their own gods.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Tomasz|first1=Giaro|last2=Graf|first2=Fritz|title=''Interpretatio''|encyclopedia=Brill's New Pauly|volume=5 (Equ-Has)|editor-last1=Cancik|editor-first1=Hubert|editor-last2=Schneider|editor-first2=Helmuth|location=Leiden|publisher=Brill|year=2004|isbn=978-90-04-12268-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Gordon|first=Richard L.|title=syncretism|encyclopedia=Oxford Classical Dictionary|editor-last1=Hornblower|editor-first1=Simon|editor-last2=Spawforth|editor-first2=Antony|edition=revised 3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-19-860641-9}}</ref> It is a [[discourse]]<ref>Characterized as "discourse" by Mark S. Smith, ''God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World'' (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008, 2010), p. 246.</ref> used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a [[Comparative religion|comparative]] methodology using [[Religion in ancient Greece|ancient Greek religious concepts and practices]], [[List of Greek deities|deities]], and [[Greek mythology|myths]], [[Comparative mythology|equivalencies, and shared characteristics]].

The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as when [[Herodotus]] describes [[ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religion]] in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or when [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] and [[Plutarch]] document [[Cult (religious practice)|Roman cults]], [[Roman temple|temples]], and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities. {{Lang|la|Interpretatio graeca}} may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek models, as when [[ancient Romans|Romans]] adapt Greek myths and iconography under the names of their own gods.

'''{{lang|la|Interpretatio romana}}''' is comparative discourse in reference to [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]] and [[Roman mythology|myth]], as in the formation of a distinctive [[Gallo-Roman religion]]. Both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularly [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|Imperial cult]].

[[Jan Assmann]] considers the [[polytheism|polytheistic]] approach to internationalizing gods as a form of "intercultural translation":

<blockquote>The great achievement of polytheism is the articulation of a common semantic universe.&nbsp;... The meaning of a deity is his or her specific character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites, and so on. This character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits. The similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. ... The practice of translating the names of the gods created a concept of similarity and produced the idea or conviction that the gods are international.<ref>''Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism'' (Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 44–54 (quotation p. 45), as cited by Smith, ''God in Translation,'' p. 39.</ref></blockquote>

[[Pliny the Elder]] expressed the "translatability" of deities as "different names to different peoples" ''(nomina alia aliis gentibus).''<ref>[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''Natural History'' 2.5.15.</ref> This capacity made possible the [[religious syncretism]] of the [[Hellenistic religion|Hellenistic era]] and the pre-Christian [[Roman Empire]].