History Main / AncientGrome

* According to [[https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/polyamory-is-wrong.png this t-shirt]], "polyamory" is wrong because mixing Greek and Latin roots is wrong. (No t-shirt was found with same position onh "hexadecimal".)

* ''Film/BedtimeStories'': The setting of one story, supposedly in "Ancient Greece" yet having clear Coliseum and Roman Emperor knockoffs, while his character's name is close to that of Spartacus, the famous gladiator turned slave revolt leader against the Romans.

[[folder: Art]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

--> '''Crew Chief:''' [[LampshadeHanging Okay, but why Rome? Aren't you, y'know... a Greek god? I mean, if you were a Roman god, wouldn't you be called Maxie Jupiter?]]
--> ''[[DeathGlare Maxie glares directly at him]]''
--> '''Crew Chief:''' You know what? I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot who doesn't deserve to be in your mighty and, uh, infallible presence so [[ShuttingUpNow I'm going to leave now]].

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Folklore and Mythology]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Web Video]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

** Somewhere, the 4th-century bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, is throwing up his hands and saying "I don't know, you tell me."

* The sequel to ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', shoots this trope to hell by making ''very'' clear distinctions between Greek and Roman mythology.
** It even subverts the usual convention of having Ancient Greeks as a united front against foreign intrusions, which was actually a characteristic of the Ancient Romans. In the series, it's explained that most Greek demigods don't get to live for quite long after their graduation from Camp Half-Blood, as their solitary nature makes them easy prey for monsters (reflecting the individual city-states of Greece that cooperated mostly under a TeethClenchedTeamwork in the time of war). In contrast, the Romans, [[ThePowerOfFriendship valuing teamwork and cooperation]], are more well-established and has many of their demigods living to their old age; it's the reason why the Roman Empire managed to conquer so large an area in the time of disjointed barbarians, after all.
* The Egyptian sister series of above, ''Literature/TheKaneChronicles'', however, plays this straight by mostly using the Hellenized spelling of the Egyptian gods instead of the actual (well, approximated, but it's the closest thing we got) Egyptian spellings. "Horus", "Isis", "Osiris, "Anubis", "Nephthys", and "Apophis", for example, would be called "Haru", "Iset, "Ausir", "Anupev", "Nebthet", and "Apep", respectively, in Egyptian. There are exceptions, though, such as "Set" and "Ptah", which are the same in both languages.

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/IncredibleHercules'': Two different explanations have been provided in the comics for the use of his Roman name when everything else is drawn from the Greek myths. The first was that Herakles is his real name and Hercules is his "superhero" name, since that name is more familiar to Americans. This was later retconned into his having changed his name to distance himself from his stepmother Hera (since Herakles means "Glory of Hera").

** There is also the use of messenger of love, (the little cherub with heart-shaped arrows) being called Cupid, which was his Roman name as his Hellenic name is Eros.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has Greek Gods, Roman Gods, Egyptian Gods and a few more. The only god that isn't included is the Christian/Jewish/Islamic God due to Joss not liking him. This trope could be justified, seeing as all these various gods seem to exist.

-->-- '''Horace''' describing Rome's mass copypasta of almost everything Greek.

* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/grssk/comments/cc0fw1/uspph_uphdph_uphsph/ This tattoo]].

* Discussed in ''Fanfic/FateStarryNight''. Shirou refers to Berserker as "Hercules", but Ritsuka corrects him, as Hercules is a romanization of the original Greek "Heracles".

* Lampshaded by the protagonist of the Soviet film ''Film/ThePokrovskyGates'': "My name is Konstantin, which is Classical for "steadfast".
* ''Film/{{Clash of the Titans|2010}}'' shows Greek soldiers in Roman armour and wielding gladiuses.

[[folder: Art ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Folklore and Mythology ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Lampshaded by the protagonist of the Soviet film ''The Pokrovsky Gates'': "My name is Konstantin, which is Classical for "steadfast".

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/editpost.php?postid=1624732776086962400

The Romans would also continue placing plays in UsefulNotes/{{Athens}} or other Greek cities, to avoid slandering the state, but leave everything else Roman-like. The epics of Creator/{{Homer}} inspired the Literature/TheAeneid of Virgil (even though it was actually an attempt to connect Rome's distant past with Greece's enemies, by making Romans the descendants of Trojans), and authors such as Seneca the Younger wrote using Greek styles albeit adding more imitations and innovations ([[{{Gorn}} chiefly incredibly graphic descriptions of violence]] for which he became proverbial). The Roman Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} visited Greece in 66 AD, and performed at the Ancient Olympic Games, despite the rules against non-Greek participation. Also, due to massive Greek colonization (mainly before the rise of Rome), part of southern Italy was known as ''Magna Græcia'' (''Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, Megálē Hellás'') -- "Great Greece."

* In the DVD commentary for ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', Creator/JohnCleese claims that the Black Knight at the bridge was inspired by a story he was told in school, about a Roman wrestler who surrendered after breaking his arm in a fight, only to discover that his opponent (and recognized victor) was dead. There is no similar incident in Roman history. However the story is loosely similar to the death of Arrichion of Phigalia, a Greek pankrationist, at the ancient Olympics some 60 years before the Roman Republic was established. Arrichion broke his opponent's ankle while he was holding Arrichion's head in a chokehold; this threw him off balance and broke Arrichion's neck, but the opponent conceded defeat before anyone realized.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sunny_villa_ancientgrome_spyro.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[IWasToldThereWouldBeCake So where do we get the free gyros?]]]]

** There is also the use of messenger of love, (the little cherub with heart shaped arrows)being called Cupid, which was his Roman name as his Hellenic name is Eros.

* Mostly averted in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' which uses the correct Greek names for the characters and locations though the Eagle Bearer and most of the [=NPCs=] use the term "Greece" instead of "Hellas" to describe their homeland not to mention that the word "Greek world" is also used to describe specific colonies of the city states.

* Videogame/Wizard101 and Videogame/Pirate101 both have this in the realm of Aquila.
* The ''VideoGame/BioShock'' duology uses a lot of Greek and Roman inspired names for locations in Rapture, mostly Greek. Neptune's Bounty, Mercury Suites, and Minerva's Den are named after Roman gods; Hephaestus, Artemis Suites, Hestia Chambers, Dionysus Park, and Persephone are named after Greek ones; Apollo Square is technically both. Then there's Point Prometheus, named after a Greek titan; Olympus Heights, named after a Romanized name for Mount Olympos; the Adonis Luxury Resort, named after a figure the Greeks may have imported from Canaanite mythology; and Siren Alley, named after the Sirens from ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. Oh, and a mention of a location called Athena's Glory, named after Minerva's own Greek counterpart.

* The eponymous {{Fighting Spirit}}s of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' are mainly based off Greek mythology, containing figures such as Orpheus, Hermes, and Pollux and Castor, yet the Persona of Fuuka Yamagichi is Juno, a Roman goddess and equivalent of the Greek figure Hera, and Akihiko Sanada is Caesar, the emperor of Rome, especially UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar. Considering that the game also occasionally uses Christian mythology and even real people as the basis of some Personas, however, it's possibly intentional.
** Happens in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'' as well, moreso in ''Innocent Sin.'' We are given Maia, Artemis, Hades, Apollo, Hermes, Chronos, and Vesta, and yet Tatsuya's starting Persona is Vulcanus (Hephaestus) and ''both'' of Lisa's Personas are Eros (Cupid) and Venus (Aphrodite).

* A lot of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology mythological Greek characters]] that Rome borrowed are known either by their Greek or Roman name but not both, even when set in the "other" culture. Many of their Roman names (except for Poseidon/Neptune and Dionysus/Bacchus) are now {{Forgotten Trope}}s, despite the ''planets of our solar system'' being named after them. (Or perhaps because of it through a OneMarioLimit effect. Such names as "Jupiter" and "Mars" are so closely associated with the planets to modern hearers that their mythological origins have been supplanted.)

* Mostly averted in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'' which uses the correct Greek names for the characters and locations though the Eagle Bearer and most of the NPCs use the term "Greece" instead of "Hellas" to describe their homeland not to mention that the word "Greek world" is also used to describe specific colonies of the city states.

** The Greek god of death is named Pluto in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, rather than Hades, presumably because the name "Hades" was already given to Mephisto's realm (which is clearly FireAndBrimstoneHell) at a time when the word "Hell" couldn't be used too freely in Creator/MarvelComics. The name Pluto is resonably acceptable in that it sounds close to the original Greek "Plouton", another name for Hades that was especially associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries.