I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but anyways I've noticed how some of the Nine Divines and Daedric Princes share traits of some of the Gods and Goddesses in Greek Mythology. I just thought I'd type up who I think some of the Gods are similar to, hope that's OK.


Arkay and Hades: Like Hades, Arkay is also the God of Life and Death.

Azura and Hera: Both are Vain Goddesses that are loving when respected, and vengeful when angered. They both give the most horrible and bizarr punishments to mortals who offend them.

Dibella and Aphrodite: Both are Goddesses of six and Beauty. They are both known for being very beautiful and inspiring artists, and I think I read somewhere that people celebrate Dibella by having six with her priestesses, just like Aphrodite.

Mara and Hestia: Both are Goddesses that protect the family. Hestia was the protector of the Home and made it a safe place for families to live.

Kynareth and Demeter: Both are Goddesses of plants, and created plants so that mortals can use them to survive. Demeter is the Goddess of argiculture, while Kynareth is the Goddess of all of nature.

Talos and Aries: Both are Gods of War and Battle, only Talos isn't quite as bloody as Aries is. He believes in war to achive justice.

Nocturnal and Hermes: Both are Gods of Thieves, as well as other things (Nocturnal is the Goddess of Secrets and the Night).

Mephala and The Fates: Mephala had a similar theme to the fates. They would spin a cloth where each thread represented a life, and when they cut a thread a mortal would die. Mephala does it with a giant web, and she plucks strings from the web aswell.

Hircine and Artemis: Both were Hunting Gods who liked to hunt all sorts of wild animals, and were associated with the animals of nature like wolves.

Anyways those are the ones I can think of, I'm sure there's more.

http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Lyssa.html and Sheogorath- Lyssa represents mindless rage, madness and the madness that comes with rabies.

Oh I just thought of another: Sanguine and Dionysus. Both are Gods of Wine and Parties.

Akatosh and Chronos

this isnt as much a similarity to greek mythology as it is a use of archetypes or of basic natural forces. nearly all religions have a deity of beauty or of nature, for example.

I agree with this statement. The similarities are going to be found because gods in both Greek mythology and TES lore represent concepts, as do many gods in real religions. Since the concepts represented are those that play a major role in the world, many religions are bound to have some god represent those concepts. Bethesda probably took some inspiration from Greek gods, but I doubt it played too significant of a role in the creation of TES Aedra/Daedra. Many similarities seem to be coincidences.

Right. I'm with the Lady.

I don't think TES Gods are based on Greek Gods so much as both TES Gods and Greek Gods are based on the same concepts. Does that make sense?

I think you guys are taking this the wrong way, just saying which greek gods are similar to the aedra/daedra. Not which ones are based off of which.

Yeah, I'm not trying to prove they're based on the Greek Gods, just pointing out some similarities.

I always saw Azura as Athena. Athena was the "sponsor" of Odysseus and supported him throughout his quests just as Azura did with the Nerevarine. Plus they're both awesome.

Yeah, and Athena was pretty vindictive too. She turned Medusa into an ugly gorgon because she and Poseidon had six in her temple, and had Medusa beheaded by that hero who's name I forget and placed her head on her shield.

That would be Percius, the half-human son of Zeus. The only reason I know this is because I saw the old version of Clash of the Titans the other day. (Yes, the old one with the stop-frame animation. Old special effects are more interesting than new ones. )

I can see Pelinal resembling Achilles, which I'm sure is pretty obvious.

I don't see Molag Bal having simalarities to any Gods or Goddesses, but he reminds me of the Devil. He even kind of looks similar, and he tries to bring mortal souls into his realm by spreading discord and evil.

And Meridia reminds me of Hygeia. It may not be much of a simarlity, but Hygeia was the Goddess of Health and Cleanliness, and Meridia is the Goddess of Life and the Energy of the Living. Like Meridia has a hatred for the undead, I can picture Hygeia having a hatred for all things dirty and unclean.

plenty of elder scrolls icons and stuff take 'inspiration' from outside influences so this doesnt surprise me at all heck in Morrowind the Imperial Legion was "very heavily" influenced by the Roman Legions (read: copy)

Like people have been saying, there's certain archetypes found in religion, so it's no wonder TES has gods with similar themes.

However, from a design point of view, it's probably no surprise Mehrunes Dagon, as a god of destruction bears certain superficial similarities to say, Kali or Shiva.
Just like how Sanguine looks like a satyr (well, kinda. Coulda sworn he had hooves), and Mephala is pretty clearly based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolth (just like how her Spider Daedra are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drider).

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos. Hermaeus Mora is obviously some kind of Cthulu Mythos insanity god.

Yeah, Hermaeus Mora does look a lot like the Cthulu Gods. Also has anyone noticed how Nocturnal looks like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Ravenacolor.jpg from Teen Titans?

I have thought that before, But nocturnal definatley pre-dates Raven. Also, the "Hooded assasin" idea is VERY old.

Then there's http://www.freewebs.com/steppingstones333/Raven/Trigon.jpg.
He looks familiar...

You sure? Raven has been around since the 80's

Yeah, Trigun vaguely look likes Mehrunes Dagon without the four arms. And like someone said Raven has been in the Teen Titan Comics since before The Elder Scrolls. Also not only does she look like Raven, but they're very similar. Both are mysterious and Raven is always feeling pain just like Nocturnal. Plus both use crows as their symbols.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. :shakehead: I'm going to rip apart the erroneous comparisons with all the indignation a hobbyist scholar such as myself can muster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hades is god of the underworld and the afterlife. He not the god of death nor the god of life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hera is the goddess of women and marriage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty and sixuality, not the god of six (that's Eros). Dibella's cults:"some are devoted to women, some to artists and aesthetics, and others to erotic instruction. She also attracts individuals who live and/or espouse an http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epicurean lifestyle."

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Mara. She is "Goddess of Love, patron of the bountiful earth, and source of mortal compassion and understanding"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, grains, and fertility of the earth. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Kynareth is the Aedra of sailors, the heavens, and wind.

Talos is a hero-god, a man-god, of the Cyrodiils. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares in general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes is a messenger, and he guides spirits to the underworld.
http://www.imperial-library.info/book_daedra/index1.shtml#nocturnal sphere is that of night and darkness. Mortal thieves adopt her as their patron, but I would argue that she cares little about this.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moirae's function and purposes have no similarity to anything that Mephala does. Mephala is a plotter, she http://www.imperial-library.info/book_daedra/index1.shtml#mephala. Contrast this to the duty of the Moirae as they toil over the care of each thread of life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis:
Contrast this with http://www.imperial-library.info/book_daedra/index.shtml#hircine, Daedric Prince of the sport of hunting mortals.

TL;DR: You cannot compare any real-world religion closely with the fictional Daedra and Aedra . Unlike the fictional "gods" of TES, human-made deities have complex and multifaceted roles.

I could just as easily pluck out what aspects I want and compare the Daedra to the Egyptian gods, or the gods of mesoamerica or the Polynesian islands.

Doubtless there are influences from all the world mythologies that went into considering what the Aedra and Daedra should be "patrons" of. But there is no exact match between one of these TES 'gods' and something from real-world religion/mythology.

Ah, monomyth! HIDE!

Badically this on a grand scale. The gods in TES, like in Greek or Norse mythology, are living representations of natural forces given some sort of anthropomorphic qualities. So of course there will be some simillarities between any two polytheistic pantheons, even well-thought-out made up ones like TES. Sometimes it is even more vague than simply "These are both nature-goddesses," like so:

Loki, Norse god of trickery. He fits the "trickster" archetype and is both benign and malicious depending on the story and it's teller.

Hermes, The Guide of Souls to the underworld, as well as the god of thieves and borders. also a trickster-god.

Shezzar, creates the world. Also a trickster archetype, good or bad depending on story and teller.

Alternatively:

Zeus, hero-king of the gods. Overthrew father to seize the throne. God of thunder.

Odin, hero-king of the gods. Sacrificed eye for wisdom, hung himself from Yggdrasiil for three days to learn rune-magic. God of Darkness, war (along with half the pantheon) and magic.

Shezzar, hero-king of the gods, creates world by manipulation of others and is injured because of it. God of human undertaking.


There are likenesses and differences because of how the archetypes mix in each pantheon.

It's very obvious that Lorkhan is based off of Loki. I got that connection just by looking at the name.

OK, well I'm not an expert on the Gods and Goddesses of different myths. The only ones I know a little about are the ones in Greek Mythology, and I thought I could point out similarities to them and the Aedra/Daedra. Clearly I was wrong to do that. :mellow: