On the similarities of the European Gods.

You don't have be a great thinker or seer to be able to come to the conclusion that the most well known polytheistic beliefs in North and South Europe seem to share a lot of the same gods.

The Norse pantheon has Thor, the god of thunder and most powerful of all the gods in Asgard. In Greece they have Zeus who is more a combination of Thor and Odin. He is the god of thunder and at the same time the god all on Mount Olympus answer and listen too. The Ancient Romans called him Jupiter, or Jove. The god of thunder and the king of the gods. But even in the far East in countries as India and China you can find myths and stories similar to the ones we hold so dear here in Europe. In India we have Vishnu who by merely thinking about creation created Brahma from a lotus flower growing from his navel which in turn created the world. A story which shares a lot of similarities with the Greek creation story of the Golden Egg laid by Nyx, or night. Even the Genesis creation story from the Bible is a tale told in a similar way. All these stories, these myths all come from one common ancestor to the European folk and our pantheons - the Indo Europeans. Various schools of thought exist regarding possible interpretations of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology. The main mythologies used in comparative reconstruction are Indo-Iranian, Baltic, Roman, and Norse, often supported with evidence from the Celtic, Greek, Slavic, Hittite, Armenian, Illyrian, and Albanian traditions as well. OK. Awesome. But how did their one pantheon transform in the pantheons and gods we know today? It's quite simple actually. In the way most stories and beliefs spread, even nowadays. Through conquest and the (literal) search for greener pastures. The Proto Indo Europeans were a semi nomadic people who's economy centered around livestock and the raising of livestock. Therefore they had to constantly move and track in search of greener pastures. Unfortunately those greener pastures were often already occupied by a different folk but as with many folks in those ages the Proto Indo Europeans (or PIE for short) were a patriarchal and fierce warlike folk. There were two things that gave them a major military advantage over the other folk. Two things we take for granted now but we're the difference maker for our ancestors. Those being the domesticated horse and the wheel. Or put even simpler, chariots. So whatever folk was occupying those greener pastures they wouldn't for long. Over the millennia they fought, tracked and conquered their way through the Eurasian continent taking their gods and customs with them. Slowly over time transforming in the gods we know today. This is of course but a small percentage of the impact the PIE had on the history of Europe and Asia. I will go further in depth on the origin stories and cover them in a single post each.