Challenge: Greek pantheon evolves into monotheism
- Thread starter Hattusas
- Start date
Hellenic religion became a mysteric cult based in the cult of Cosmos, when every god is an angle of it: Zeus is the sky, Demeter is the nature and so on.
You can mix it with a lot of Egyptian mysteries and weird Jewish esotericism, for example Hermes Trismegistos, which is the master of knowledge, developer of writing, he taught mathematics to Pythagoras according other myths, he is Abraham according some Jewish writer, and so on...
You can mix it with a lot of Egyptian mysteries and weird Jewish esotericism, for example Hermes Trismegistos, which is the master of knowledge, developer of writing, he taught mathematics to Pythagoras according other myths, he is Abraham according some Jewish writer, and so on...
Brightflame
Banned
Some of the Neo Hellenes believe that the Gods are facets of human and natural ideals and areas. E.g, the Skies, agriculture, beauty.
I write something about he for a SW thread: Alexander is deified as Alexandros, twin brother of Athena and god of strategy as well
Paganism in the late Empire was already developing into Neo-Platonism with everything being an aspect of or originating from The One, whether you call it the Source or the Absolute or the Godhead or whatever.
If Christianity did not take over as the dominant religion in Late Antiquity, then it is likely the old style Greek religion would have fully developed into Neo-Platonism in the same way the old Vedic religion became Hinduism. If so, we can see that one of the possibilities of Neo-Platonism is to turn into some kind of monotheism, although it would be very different than Judeo-Christian monontheism. It would be more transcendental or panentheist.
We would still see the old style worship of the Greek Pagan gods in the countryside for a long time, but theology and city intellectual life would be dominated by the new teachings. The end result would be very similar to the diverse cults within Hinduism, with the pagan Greek gods still being accepted, but only as "aspects" or "servants" or "emanations" of the One.
If Christianity did not take over as the dominant religion in Late Antiquity, then it is likely the old style Greek religion would have fully developed into Neo-Platonism in the same way the old Vedic religion became Hinduism. If so, we can see that one of the possibilities of Neo-Platonism is to turn into some kind of monotheism, although it would be very different than Judeo-Christian monontheism. It would be more transcendental or panentheist.
We would still see the old style worship of the Greek Pagan gods in the countryside for a long time, but theology and city intellectual life would be dominated by the new teachings. The end result would be very similar to the diverse cults within Hinduism, with the pagan Greek gods still being accepted, but only as "aspects" or "servants" or "emanations" of the One.
I believe there was an idea of Theos hypsistos ("God Most High") floating around philosophical circles in the Hellenistic world from about 200 BCE onward, for what it's worth...
Wouldn't you first need a long-term unification of Greece in order for that to work?
Very much yes. Judaism has clear roots in the Levantine polytheistic tradition.
Thank you for confirming that; I wasn't solid.
In fact sizeable chunks of the Hebrew scripture use the 'e' word (Elokim, modified as done in speech) to refer to G-d, and that's a plural, essentially 'gods'. Somehow it never got changed on conversion to monotheism.
(PS I hope this goy managed not to hit any mines in the minefield of Jewish names for the Deity...)