Aidonian's blog

Verily at the first Khaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Khaos came forth Erebus and Nyx (black Night) but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontos, without sweet union of love.

This myth is a beautiful one. Its one of the few creation myths of the world and universe by extension. Since reading Edward Butler’s book Hellenic theology, I’m started to think more about the topic of what a God is. Monotheists have a clear distinction about what their god is, while for polytheists it is different. Even though the definition of an all power, all knowing, all good god of monotheists is somewhat flawed one if you delve deeper into it. Its interesting to think about a definition of the Gods based from a polytheistic point of view.

I think these are valid questions that I feel are hard to explain. The reason why is that everyone will have a different idea on what defines a god and what makes it real. You can only speak from your personal experience and view.

Throughout history humans have always put human emotions and faces on impersonal things like deities, angels, demons, ghosts, even animals and aliens. It lies in our nature to do so, because we feel that that is the way to connect with those beings on a personal level, so we can relate to them. Disney has made a career of it to portray animals in their movies as beings with human emotions and needs. In sci-fi and fantasy we see a similar thing with creatures like Elves, Trolls, dragons, demons, vampires, etc…

So is it any surprise to anyone that people do the same with the divine? The philosophers have argued against the Homeric depiction of the gods. They are right in their opinion. The Homeric depiction does seem rather childish and silly. Than again, those myths are not meant to be taken as dogma either. They are not part of some kind of bible. Myths are used as a device to tell something about the origins of the world, of society, of their relationship with the divine and their place in the world. They weren’t atheists like some Christians like to point out. They were believers, but didn’t believe in the Homeric depiction of the Gods. The Homeric representation is purely anthropomorphic It is like most don’t think of God as some white guy with a long white beard strutting around in heaven. Believing that the Gods are anthropomorphic limits Them and Their interactions with the world. The Gods are more than that. Admittingly I haven’t really thought about the nature of the Gods for most of the time since I became a polytheist. Still, I accepted Their existence as fact. Through my limited interactions with Them, it was true for me that They are real as much as any other person who has had a religious experience.

What is a God?

Having come from a Christian background, my ideas on what defines a god is influenced by Christian theology. I will make no excuse for it. It is what it is. Personally, I find this to be very challenging because it challenges me to think about a subject rarely discussed. What defines a god? Our minds is limited to how much information it can process. So our view will also be limited as well. It is impossible to know everything there is to know about the world, the universe, the divine. We are limited to what we can sense through touch, vision, hear. Our mind can only interpret the world through those senses and whatever theory we can theorize.

I feel that there is no easy answer. Is a deity all powerful, all knowing or is the power

In polytheism one can assume that the gods share power, but they can also limit their power to a domain or two. To simplify it. Aphrodite`s power would be limited to the domain of love and sexuality, while her power could extend far beyond that as is prover with her epithets like “killer of Men”, “Warlike”. She could easily cross over to the domain of healing, art, etc… One could argue that the Gods chose to limit their power for the sake of unity amongst themselves, if they argue at all. I can imagine that the Gods could easily be all powerful and all knowing at the same time. I for one have no problem with this theory that they are all powerful and all knowing. This leads to another question. Why do they need us for?

A God is a supernatural being who can influence the world and lives to their will. While most definitions state that it a being who created the world. For polytheists, this is differently. Our Gods differ vastly from the monotheistic deity. They aren’t all creator Gods who created everything. So that definition doesn’t hold up. The ancient Greeks and Romans made a clear distinction between gods of seas, rivers, trees, mountains, etc.. These were local deities, divine manifested in a natural world. These Gods are different in my opinion than that of the Titans, Olympians or even the Protogenoi. Why are They different? Well in my humble opinion, that the Protogenoi, Titans and Olympians are more universal. Khaos is space, Erebos and Nyx are the darkness of space. With the advent of light, where light penetrated the darkness from the primordial universe, the rest of the Protogenoi gave form the universe as we know it. The Titans than entered the universe to mold it further so They could prepare the way for the Olympians to rule over. So the Gods weren’t born in this universe like we are. Their “birth” meant that They broke through the barrier that separated their real from our universe. In my opinion, these groups of Gods are in a sense hyper cosmic Gods, in the sense that They don’t need the universe to exist. They already existed in another plane of existence. So when Herakles, Pollux were deified meant that it was the first time, human or half human was able to be elevated to the real of the Gods. They transcended into another realm. Does this mean that Khaos “created” the universe like Yawheh did? No, that part I havent figured it out yet to be honest. If Khaos is the creator of the universe of the universe personified, than it would mean that the creator of the world/universe was for many an obscure deity, rarely honored. It means that for the ancient Greeks and Romans by extension, the creation of the world was not that important, but more the fact that we all are part of the natural order. The Gods made this world, we are part of it. We are not the stewards of this world. We are as much part of this world as all other creatures big and small.