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By the time of the establishment of the Roman Empire, the Greek tradition was already exerting considerable influence on the Roman, to the extent that once relatively independent traditions became somewhat fused. Equations between gods were freely made: Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite became Venus, and so on. Originally, Roman pietas (sense of duty ...
By the time of the establishment of the Roman Empire, the Greek tradition was already exerting considerable influence on the Roman, to the extent that once relatively independent traditions became somewhat fused. Equations between gods were freely made: Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite became Venus, and so on. Originally, Roman pietas (sense of duty ...
The sources for a reconstruction of northern European religion are far better than those for the south Germanic peoples, but there were evidently similarities between the religions. The three main Scandinavian gods were Odin, Thor, and Freyr: Odin (or Wodan) had great magical power and wisdom and was called All-father; Thor (or Donar) was the warrior god; and Freyr was the god of fertility. It is possible that these gods are a reflection of the tripartite division of Indo-European society—priest, warrior, and cultivator. Among other deities, Balder, the dying god who was killed by a mistletoe branch, had a poignant charm. Nordic mythology also carries with it a sense of final doom of the gods, looking to the point when the world will be burned up, before its eventual re-creation.
The pattern of Celtic cults is not easy to decipher, because of lack of written records; but the stag-headed god Cernunnos was highly significant in iconography. There was also a variety of ancestral gods and goddesses, including a “great mother” of the type found in fertility cults of the ancient Middle East. Celtic religion had a special reverence for water in such forms as pools and rivers.
The Egyptian pantheon evolved into a complex form; many deities were theriomorphic but were presided over by such great gods as Re, the sun god, and Nut, the sky goddess. Re’s transformation as Horus, with a hawk’s head, was connected with the Osiris legend. The pharaoh was identified with him as the “living Horus.” Despite the attempt of Akhenaton, pharaoh in the 14th century bce, to exalt Aton as the single god, the Egyptian cult remained essentially polytheistic but highly articulated. With the domination of Egypt by the Ptolemies about 10 centuries later, the worship of Serapis, a hybrid Greco-Egyptian deity, was instituted as a means of binding together the two groups.
Though in Egypt the cause of the rise and fall of gods was partially the political struggles between the major city-states, the Sumerian religion was much less affected by such “earthly” considerations. An, the god of heaven, remained supreme, and such deities as the water god Enki and the air god Enlil were prominent. In Babylon, partly the successor state of Sumer, the most vital god was Marduk, creator of the world and of humankind, and victor over the primeval Tiamat, or chaos, who all but absorbed the older surrounding gods. His story is recounted in the epic Enuma elish (“When on High”). In Assyrian religion, Marduk was in effect replaced by Ashur; Ishtar, the mother goddess, was also important. In general, it can be said that Middle Eastern religion stemmed from early Sumerian and Egyptian sources and that the latter eventually had some effect on Hellenistic religion.
For almost a millennium close relations existed between the Vedic and ancient Iranian religions—from before the time of the Iranian prophet Zarathustra, who reformed the ancient religion sometime before the early 6th century bce, back to the time of the Vedic religion of the people who migrated to India about 1500 bce. Zarathustra, in his reforms, ...
Certain gods of no great importance in the Vedic tradition came to dominate classical Hinduism, above all Shiva and Vishnu. The latter was associated with belief in avatar, or incarnation. Most male gods in the Hindu pantheon also came to be represented with a female consort, symbolizing the shakti, or creative power of the deity. The increasing el...
Paganism (from classical Latin pāgānus "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism.
Greco-Roman. By Cynthia Stokes Brown. Instead of rule by a single person, Athens and Rome developed governments with widespread participation by male elites, which lasted about 170 years in Athens and 480 years in Rome.
Pasipháē derived from πάσι (archaic dative plural) "for all" and φάος/φῶς phaos/phos "light") [2] was a queen of Crete, and was often referred to as goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. The daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, Pasiphaë is notable as the mother of the Minotaur.
But the Roman senate's view of polytheism is too political, too formalist, to serve as a comprehensive gauge of the old gods' performance and popularity in the fourth century.
People also ask
How did polytheism influence the Roman Empire?
Was Rome a part of polytheism?
What is Hellenic polytheism?
Could polytheism still be Rome's 'lawful cult'?
What is the relationship between Neopagan and historical polytheism?
What philosophies were more important than traditional polytheism?
Mar 12, 2018 · Rooted in the traditions and philosophies of the ancient Greeks, one spiritual path that has begun a resurgence is Hellenic Polytheism.
