Greek, Roman and Norse Mythology

Recently I have been reading about Norse mythology and the parallels between the gods of the Vikings and the gods of the Greeks and Romans struck me as quite interesting.  The parallels between the Greek and Roman gods alone are quite well known, as the Romans adopted their religion from the Greeks, but the Vikings also have similar deities.  They are all very similar, so much so that I have been able to compare them individually, as follows.

Greek               Roman               Viking
Zeus                Jupiter                 Odin
Aphrodite        Venus                  Freya
Heracles         Hercules            Thor
Apollo              Apollo                  Frey/Bragi
Ares                 Mars                    Tyr
Hermes          Mercury               Thialfi
Dis                   Pluto                    Loki/Hela

I think that the Viking goddess Iduna could have been Artemis (Diana) or Minerva (Athene) but I am not sure.  I also noted other resemblances between these mythologies.  For example, in Greece, the Olympians fought constantly against the Titans.  There seems to be a similarity in Norse mythology.  The gods of Valhalla are also continuously waging war against the giants.

It seems that they all originated from the same source.  So what was that source?  Ancient documents from Herodotus, Plato and others show that the Greeks borrowed their gods from the Egyptians, and the Romans borrowed their gods from the Greeks.  Perhaps Egypt was the founder of these religions.  And where did Egyptian gods come from?  It is believed that, possibly, the Egyptian gods were all really different traits of one god, and the priests characterized each demi-god.  And who was the one main god?  It seems to have been the sun.  And who was the sun?  Well, you can read more about this here.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting.

-Legolas