Syncretism is the process by which different mythological traditions merge and assimilate as cultures interact, like when stories of Mercury and stories of Hermes started sounding like stories of the same person. (Write that down, it’ll be important later!) Welcome to Ten Things: Ten Mythical God Pairs!
Whooshman-Bicarbonate Films, in conjunction with An Amateur Comics Historian and Thor: Love and Thunder, Presents:

TEN THINGS: TEN MYTHICAL GOD PAIRS!

10) GAIA <> TERRA

One of the primordial deities of Greek mythology, Gaia is the literal embodiment of the Earth, who gave birth to all the Titans, Giants, and Cyclopes, whose father was her son, Uranus. Roman mythology called her both Terra and Tellus, where she was worshipped as an agricultural deity and one of the di selecti, the principal gods of Rome, alongside the likes of Orcus, Vesta, and Genius.

A mysterious mutant, likely of alien origin, Gaia was reputedly created to keep a cosmic monster called The Amalgamator in check, but was freed from that role by the kids of Generation X. She wasn’t exactly a member of the group, but she associated with them for some time before suddenly disappearing in a puff of logic. (Out-of-universe, the culprit was a sudden change of creative team.)

The illegitimate daughter of the European monarchy of Markovia, Tara “Terra” Markov grew up in squalor, eventually falling in with Deathstroke, The Terminator. At his behest, she joined the Teen Titans as a spy, nearly destroying the team before falling prey to her own madness and geokinetic powers. Terra’s story is a tragedy, to be sure, but a tragedy of her own making, which somehow makes it worse.

9) EROS <> CUPID

Described at various points in history as both one of the primordial gods and as the son of Aphrodite and Ares, Eros is all about love, ex, friendship, and liberty. His Roman counterpart is likewise the son of love and war (in this case, Venus and Mars), but is usually portrayed as a chubby young boy, rather than the traditional depiction of Eros as a virile young man.

Eros of Titan, sometimes known as Starfox, is the twin brother of Thanos, the Mad Titan and is as dedicated to love and romance as his purple brother is to death and destruction. A one-time Avenger, he is the perfect example of how a single story can wreck a character who might have had potential, as Marvel editorial found his power to manipulate others’ pleasure centers creepy, then created a story that just illuminated how creepy they were without fixing the issue.

A mentally-ill admirer of Green Arrow, Carrie “Cupid” Cutter was given superhuman senses in a government experiment gone wrong. It also led to her imprinting in very unhealthy ways on the Emerald Archer, including carving symbols into her own flesh(!!) to espouse her love. She eventually regained her memories and her sanity, but the Flashpoint event seems to have retconned away that happy ending.

8) ATHENA <> MINERVA

Embodying wisdom, warfare, and arts & crafts, Athena’s origin story often has her leaping from the forehead of Zeus by sheer force of will and/or parthenogenesis. The power of syncretism has conflated her with Minerva, also goddess of wisdom and arts, with added purview of justice, law, victory, and strategy.

A Wonder Woman analogue from Great Britain, Diane “Athena” MacQueen is a member of The Olympians who may or may not be a real Amazon. Her adventures are very “late-eighties realism as seen in the graphic novel Watchmen”, ending with her in a relationship with the non-powered team administrator.

A Wonder Woman analogue from the pages of Pantheon, Minerva is a member of The Freedom Machine who is either a real Amazon or the actual mythological goddess. Not only that, she has the ability to summon medieval weaponry out of thin air, and is seemingly expert with all of them, from sword to staff to bow. When last seen, she was stranded in a world that was either another planet or another dimension, with no method of return.

7) HERA <> JUNO

Goddess of marriage, women, and family, Hera is the queen of the Olympian gods, known for both her motherly dignity and her furious vengeance. (If you were married to a cosmic philanderer like Zeus, you’d likely have the same portfolio.) In the Roman pantheon, Juno held a similar position as the wife of Jupiter, but was more of a warrior figure, often shown wearing a diadem and carrying weapons.

The long-time administrative assistant of Tony Stark, Pepper “Hera” Potts-Hogan was given cybernetic implants and sent to Los Angeles to serve as comptroller for The Order, the official super-team of the state. The Order and the Fifty State Initiative that spawned them were short lived, and Pepper returned to Stark’s employ, where she became the armored hero Rescue.

A member of the Amazoness Quartet, a team of circus folk whose modus operandi changes from medium to medium, JunJun is Sailor Juno, named for an asteroid so large it was considered a planet until the 19th century. Her hair is biologically and geometrically impossible.

6) NEPTUNE <> POSEIDON

Starting on the Roman side this time, Neptune is the god of the sea (and of fresh water, just to be clear), and is brother to Jupiter and Pluto, sharing dominion over all the realms. His counterpart, Poseidon ruled not only over the sea, but storms, earthquakes, and for some reason, horses.

Born with an odd metabolism that required constant exposure to salt water, Neptune Perkins was a member of the Young All-Stars, a sub-group of the wartime All-Star Squadron. Though the Crisis on Infinite Earths wiped Earth-2 Aquaman out of existence, the multiverse and editor Roy Thomas insisted that something that the place that he would have held, as nature abhors a vacuum. Neptune later grew up to serve as United States Senator from Hawaii.

A member of a strange proto-human order known as The Greeed, Poseidon managed to steal some of Kamen Rider OOO’s power medals and turn himself into an evil Kamen Rider! Using a powerful spear that he calls the Deepest Harpoon, Kamen Rider Poseidon battled OOO and Kamen Rider Aqua before being destroyed when his medals were taken back.

5) DICE <> ASTRAEA

Dice (also rendered Dike, pronounced “die-see” or “dee-kee”) is the goddess of justice and moral order, often seem as an attendant of Zeus. She is also known as Astraea, the celestial virgin, referring to the Greek belief that she was actually part of the constellation Virgo. Modern images of the embodiment of Justice are often conflations of Dike and Roman deity Themis/Justicia, with a blindfold added in the 16th century.

Rita Dice (known to her friends as Fuzzy Dice) was sent to a supermax prison where the sexy female inmates can earn time off their sentence by getting naked, which… is creepy and I think we should move on.

The implicit leader of the Space Sentinels, a trio of superheroes who are named for gods, Astraea is never given any other name. With the power to transform into any living creature and functional immortality, she teams with the literal demigod Hercules, begging the question of whether she, too, is meant to be the actual mythological being.

4) ARTEMIS <> DIANA

The goddess of the hunt, wilderness, nature, and chastity(?), Artemis is another child of Zeus, born before he little brother whom we’ll get to in a moment. Roman mythology has tied her to Diana, a Roman and Hellenistic goddess who handles the hunt, as well as the moon and crossroads.

An Amazon of the lost tribe of Bana-Mighdall, Artemis was born a mortal human, only becoming an Amazon after the death of her family. A one-time member of the Justice League, she later fell in with former Robin Jason Todd as one of his Outlaws. She was last seen on Paradise Island, working to unite the splintered Amazon tribes.

The lady friend of Golden Age hero Boomerang, Diana (surname unknown) chose to join him in the field, using her archery skills to join him in tandem evil-punching. Her costume is pretty racy for 1944, which may explain how she never got recognized even though she used her real name as her nom de guerre. For my part, I respect anybody whose superhero togs are a bathing suit, corsair boots and a massive musketeer hat, but I can’t help but feel like her dress got ripped off in combat.

3) APOLLO <> APOLLO

The aforementioned twin brother of Artemis, Apollo reigns over music, archery, dance, The Sun, and quite a few other patronages. Son of Zeus, he is usually considered the most beautiful of the gods, and is the embodiment of all music. His Roman counterpart is… um… Apollo, who reigns over music, archery, dance, The Sun, and quite a few other patronages. Son of Zeus, he is usually considered the most beautiful of the gods, and is the embodiment of all music. Similar figures arise in Dorian, Minoan, Anatolian, and proto-Indian European cultures, making Apollo the deity equivalent of Batman.

When the Marvel and DC Universes were combined by a cosmic accident, Cyclops and The Ray amalgamated into Ray “Apollo” Summers, a member of the JLX (the prosaically named Justice League X-Men). With his beloved Firebird at his side, they something something fight for metamutant causes, then ceased to exist at the end of the Marvel Vs. DC miniseries.

Clearly named after the OTHER Apollo, Swinton Sawyer was chosen by a strange alien for his courage and brains. As a member of the Galactic Sentinels, the hero team of Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, Apollo could not only fight with his weird ax-thing, he could merge with the other Guardians to form composite hero Knightron. It’s the TV show equivalent of a knockoff toy from the local pharmacy, only without the charm.

2) LUNA <> SELENE

Roman mythological goddess Luna is the embodiment of the moon, often seen in conjunction with sun god, Sol. She is also sometimes part of a diva triformis (“triple goddess”) with Proserpina and Trivia, and was one of the few visible gods of lore, since she appeared in the night sky most nights. Her counterpart, Selene, was the daughter of Titans in Greek myth, and was likewise associated with Hecate/Trivia in a triple goddess form. (Some stories of Selene are heavily tied to Artemis, but that’s the nature of these kinds of oral histories.)

A member of the super-team called Flashpoint, Luna (real name unrevealed) and her associates were created by Solar, Man of the Atom as an attempt to find a world where he might fit in better. Strangely, she ends up being a complete cypher, and every member of Flashpoint feels like a parody of ’90s superhero conventions, but it’s not clear whether the writer actually intended that or just couldn’t do any better.

A 17,000-year-old mutant in the Marvel Universe, Selene Gallo has the ability to drain power from living beings in order to give herself superhuman abilities. Overuse of her stored powers can drain her, even making her show her age, but she’s been plotting and scheming since Conan walked the Earth, so she’s a pretty shrewd operator.

1) JUPITER <> ZEUS

The sky-father also known as Jove, Jupiter is the king of the Roman gods, using his thunderbolts to maintain dominion over the sky, while his brothers handled the sea and underworld. He was represented by the Eagle (seen all over Roman coins, armies and official buildings), as was his counterpart, Zeus. Zeus was also represented by the bull and the oak tree, and had a habit of turning into different forms to seduce his many sexual conquests.

A magician who actually came from planet Jupiter, no other name given, Jupiter was ridiculously powerful as so many of the magicians of the Golden Age ended up being. Despite his pseudo-scientific trappings, Jupiter’s six appearances were no different than Zatara, Mandrake or their legion of magician knockoffs.

An ally of The Futurians, little is known of Doctor Zeus, even his real name. Working with Hammerhand and Ms. Mercury, he used his power to throw lightning to deter evil. I mean, I’d knock it off. He shouldn’t be confused with Doctor Seuss, whose creations stole Christmas, would not on a train, and saw it on Mulberry Street, respectively.

Once again, this week’s topic, Ten Mythical God Pairs, is all me, but feel free to follow along @MightyKingCobra to suggest a topic of your own! There’s always more Ten Things madness on my Twitter or check out the full Twitter archive here! As with any set of like items, these aren’t meant to be hard and fast or absolutely complete, if only because we still haven’t gotten all the way down to Geoff, the God of Biscuits or Simone, the Goddess of Hairdos. Either way, the comments section is below for just such an emergency, but, as always: Please, no wagering!

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