Are there any influences from ancient Greece on the Elder Scrolls lore?

Morihaus boning St. Alessia, while in his bull form

Well there are alot creatures from ancient greece in various games like the minotaur and the centaur....
and the one stated above i guess....

Divine bulls and cosmic cows aren't exclusive to ancient Greek mythos; you find them all over the world.


As for centaurs and minotaurs, I'm more inclined the think the devs thought "DnD Beastiary" before scouring ancient mythology for peculiar and fantastical creatures (or, even better, making up their own creatures, ala Morrowind).

Eh, still. It is in ancient Greek mythology, so it's not like I am wrong or anything.

Looking closely, the closest thing I've seen to ancient Greek influences in TES would be on the Ayleids. Aside from the fact that their civilization consisted of various city-states, their architecture does seem to remind me of Greek architecture.

Also, the Ayleids were conquered (or defeated) by a roman-esque civilization that based it's religion on theirs.

Yeah, I know, it's still not much.

Also, the polytheism of TES is similar to the gods of Olympus in portraying gods and demigods who have all the human weaknesses, including jealousy, spite, pride, lust, and so on.

The Daedra and the Tribunal, definitely. The Nine Divines, on the other hand, seem more like Norse Gods; mortal, less irresponsible with their powers, and generally much less involved with non-gods.

But they don't have awesome beards

I think it's safe to say that the Elder Scrolls borrows many elements from Greek Mythology, some of which may have been directly copied, while others may be less direct, with Bethesda being influenced by other fantasy works which took elements from Greek mythology (the centaurs and minotaurs, for example, could have been the result of Bethesda copying other fantasy RPGs, such as the D&D already mentioned, rather than a conscious attempt to use elements from Greek Mythology.) at the same time, the Elder Scrolls has also been influenced by other myths and legends, as well as previous fantasy works.

Essentially, like most high fantasy, the Elder Scrolls world is a huge mash-up of mythology and various fantasy tropes that may well have originated in mythology with some of Bethesda's own original material throne in to the mix and then some world building to tie it all together.

The Tribunal appear more like the Irish Triple Goddesses to me. They're apparently the same thing, remember, rather than three different things, although they have different appearances and personalities?

Most things in Greek mythology are also present (or were taken from) the mythology of other cultures. Yes, that includes things such as gods with human weaknesses (again, the Norse, Gaelic, the Gaelic-Hindu gods, and most gods and goddesses of the few thousand pagan religions in the world). It includes animals that somehow talk, which are present across the world.



No, it's impossible to be wrong. If the OP was asking for ancient Basque references in the TES series, you'd not have been wrong. He could even have asked for Ket mythology, as far as I know

Well divine bulls may be common, but I have never heard of another religion with a story about a god in bull-form doing mortal women

I also thought the same thing... although I'd leave out the Tribunal since they are more god heroes, just worshipped as gods.....

And Crinsom Paladin said about the ayleids.... I never thought about it but it surely has a very good point.....

Most Altmer have Greek names, and their culture is similar to that of Greece (a sea-faring civilization based on many separate island city-states who are regarded as the continent's leaders in metaphysics, magic and generally considered the most intelligent).

As for lore influences, the Breten and Altmer structure of hero-gods isn't necessarily Greek, but it is still similar to the Greek practices.

The Titans who preceded the Olympian gods remind me of the Et'ada preceding the Aedra and Daedra.

There are more Roman influences in the Elder Scrolls lore than Greek influences.

At this point in time, if we want to continue to lie to ourselves about the validity of Oblivion, I'd say the Imperials are more Byzantine-inspired than anything now. :nope:

I know this isn't greek, but it's close. The Imperials and their empire are clearly based on the Romans and their empire.

To a small superficial degree. One reason why I say that is because Romans didn't have a titanic automaton that was created by underground elves.

The Daedra are based of greek gods

Azura= Athena (personality, not what she represents)
Hircine= Hercules
Mephala= Hades
Sanguine= Dionysis
Jyggalag= Posiden (actions ad personality)
Sheogorath= Zeus (actions and personality)
I'm sure the other 7 main greek gods have daedric counterparts, but my brain is currently mush.

Sorry, but I can't see the connection. I find they're almost nothing like the Greek gods personality and spherewise, of which I did study in school. The closest you can get in that list is Sanguine and Dionysus, and even then that's not really all there.

I like the byzantine empire. :stare:

Not to mention that the Byzantine Empire was originally the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

And what about Chaos, alias Sithis? Chronos, alias Akatosh?
I think the ehlnofey are some kind of titans, the ancestors of all mortal races.
Also, the daedra fit in the greek mythology, where gods like to interfere with mortals.
Not to forget about the old greek philosophers.
Does ayone know parmenides (is/is not); heracletus (he called himself some kind of prophet and spoke of the world in riddles, about conflicting counterparts who bring change ("in mundus, conflict and disparity are what bring change, and change is the most sacred of the eleven forces: it is the force without focus or origin"), just translate this to greek: panta rhei.
And what about plato's belief in the world of ideas? The possibility to transcend all 'doxa', illusion, of the world? This may make some sense.

Some of the Nine Divines and Daedra are somewhat anologous to the Roman/Greek pantheon (unsurprisingly).

Aedra:
Akatosh; Chronos.
Mara; Hera/Juno. Also aspects of Hestia/Vesta.
Dibella; Aphrodite/Venus.
Talos (yes, I know he's not technically an Aedra); Enyo/Bellona, aspects of the Roman Quirinus and Ares/Mars. Also shares with Julianos aspects of Athena/Minerva.
Zenithar; Aspects of Hephaestus/Vulcan.
Kynareth; Apects of Gaia/Terra, more obvious aspects of Faunus/Pan.
Arkay; Some aspects of Clotho.
Lorkhan; Some slight aspects of Cronus?

Daedra:
Sanguine is pretty close to Bacchus.
Hircine; Artemis/Diana.
Namira; Morpheus and the Oneiroi.
Boethia; Apate.
Mehrunes Dagon/Mephala both have aspects of Eris, and possibly Moros.
Azura; Eos.
Hermaeus Mora; aspects of the Moirae.
Sheogorath, aspects of Lyssa.