Clearly a deity you want to worship
by Zeno Telos
The Greeks figured out something amazing in their understanding of the divine. Other gods were inhuman monsters whom civilizations feared, such as Egyptian or Babylonian deities, or all-powerful bastards whom civilizations feared, such as the Hebrew God. Not the Greek gods. They looked like us, partied like us, and would even come down and have sex with us. They were us- immoral, imperfect, and at odds with each other. The eminent Edith Hamilton wrote the following in 1940:
“That is the miracle of Greek mythology – a humanized world, men freed from the paralyzing fear of an omnipotent Unknown. The terrifying incomprehensibilities which were worshiped elsewhere…were banned from Greece.”
The Gods and Heroes were not from some netherworld – they were from your hometown: the Pegasus returned to its stable at night in Corinth, Odysseus hailed from Ithaca, Aphrodite from Cyprus, Pan from Arcadia, Dionysus from Thebes (and his mom was human!). There were no omnipotent Gods. Even the most powerful amongst them, Zeus, who commanded lightning, rain, and thunder, could be deceived or defeated in his schemes (often by Hera), and frequently had to go great lengths to get his way. The Fates also controlled destiny, a force he could not bend. Zeus ruled, but there was a balance of power throughout the Heavens. Makes sense. Absolute power corrupts absolutely (just check out the Hebrew and Christian gods).
It is impressive to note that amongst the Greeks, no cities worshiped Ares, the God of War. He was there, he had his business to do, but no one thanked him for it. (The Romans, not surprisingly, loved him). Perhaps the most brilliant realization of the Greeks is that the Gods did not create the universe, but that the universe gave birth to the Gods – a radical proposal, even now, despite it being a basic tenet of the cosmos.
Monotheism becomes dominant with two innovations Christians added to the heavenly Hebrew lord: One, God didn’t just scare the living shit out of you, but he loved you as well, and two, that a mere belief in him and his crucified son (who was actually him- the story kinda breaks down here) could get you into an eternal paradise. All the injustice in one’s life could be endured with stoic fortitude because this toilet earth was just a temporary passage ship on the way to eternal Disneyland. This was an ingenious message for converting the suffering masses, but while professing only one god there was zero tolerance for the other deities. This meant lots of people needed to be eradicated who didn’t understand how one demon-seeing hippie getting crucified by the Romans could possibly have anything to do with their lives. Clearly a regression.
Now I’m certainly not saying you need to dump your deity, just that you should expand your options. Believers who continue to live in the false reality of monotheism and put their faith solely into one being like Yahweh or the Flying Spaghetti Monster are missing out. Not only do multiple gods mesh with cosmic reality, but having more of them allows one to better enjoy life. Greek Gods aren’t judgmental and there’s one for any need you may have. So you can keep your crosses or your pirate regalia, just add busts of Zeus with some disrobed statues of Aphrodite to the new altar at your pad.
