Hellenic Paganism Q&A

>>1535613

http://www.theoi.com/

Here's the mythology bibliography, it's not just about the stories, the myths, but deals with religion as well:

http://pastebin.com/17BuEyuq

This right here is a gold mine for myths: >>1536038

I'll answer what I can.

>Did they identify foreign pantheons with their own, or were they separate?
Interpretatio graeca. Lots of mixing up with the Egyptian pantheon even though those Gods are not even of Indo-European origins, for example.

Paganism is very universalistic.

>Did the gods they worshiped change over time? E.g. could a village that worshiped Demeter start worshiping Apollo?
You could add a statute to a temple dedicated to another God.

Your allegiance to a Deity or another depends on how he or she rewards your faith.

Pact with Athena for victory -> build a big temple to her once you win, commission statues and songs, etc.

>How was the pantheon itself viewed? Was Zeus always supreme among the Olympians or did the top god change in the eyes of the worshipers?
Zeus is the guy in charge, he's not stepping down now that he's there.

>Were religious wars ever fought between followers of different cults?
Why would they do such thing, lol. It's so goddamn stupid, unthinkable, foreign.

You fight for secular reasons, Ares is lord.

>What were the roles of Oracles and how were they viewed? With fear or reverence?
The Oracle of Delphi was an institution whose respect was pan-Hellenic, and so were their riches.

This is a condensed version of what prof. Donald Kagan said in the Open Yale Course on Ancient Greece.

You go on a pilgrimage to Delphi, visit the Oracle, but there's a queue. You want to skip the queue, so you talk to the priest, bribe him with food and offers, talk to him, he hears the latest news from you.

Once you're in the presence of the oracle, she'll speak in tongues, the priest will tell you the latest news he heard from the guy that came before you.

That's how the Oracle of Delphi was so accurate in its predictions, the best in all Greece.

>>1535613
>E.g. could a village that worshiped Demeter start worshiping Apollo?

Individuals didn't do much worshipping, that was the job of priests. A regular goy might make an offering to Apollo to cure his shingles, another to Hermes before undertaking a journey, and another to Aphrodite to help with >tfw no gf
While gods certainly had geographic regions where they were dominant, as Hera was in Sparta or as Athena was in Athens, for the most part people didn't align themselves with particular gods, they made offerings when they wanted a god's blessing but the rest of the time they left the task of honoring the gods to the priests.

>>1535613
the thing about "paganism" of any tradition is that there was no set tradition or code.
it was about "same action" rather than " same faith" so as long as rituals were adhered to the individual faiths were vastly different.

if you want to imagine what it was like historical texts are not enough, instead look to Hindu society as it is the largest surviving indo-euro faith and very similar to how European pagans would have acted.

also note in Greece mystery cults and monotheistic sun worship of the Monad was more popular

It was all about that sweet sweet BP. The rest is incidental.

>>1536094
>people didn't align themselves with particular gods
people had personal gods, house spirits, great ancestors (in the case of Rome) and so on, there was definitely a degree of personal worship, even more so with mystery cults involved.

these people were not the enlightened atheistic smug liberals people seem to imagine them as, they were very antediluvian in their ideas and their similarities only make them ever more alien in their superstition.

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1012KB, 1944x2592px

>>1536094
lolno
They had housegods and ancestorspirits.
A bit like in indochina were the common people lie down fruits as sacrifiece for the dead.

>>1535613
The Twelve Olympians were a council, Zeus wasn't really 'supreme', the other eleven would disagree with him in the Myths. He was 'the king of the gods' though.

I don't see why you'd need any information on dead pagan religions

Just be happy with Catholicism

>>1536334
bye shill, don't be afraid of the Great Awakening

>>1536334
Because Rome got it right the first time.

Now fuck off to one of your 'humanities' threads, the adults are talking.

I find it a bit odd that despite Hellenism being by far the best preserved pre Christian European faith the neopagan movement is primarily centered around Germanic and Celtic shit. I could only guess the reasons, maybe Vikings.

Not to be a fag but reading about Hellenism makes me mourn its death as it sounds like a religion more my speed. I guess cultural pagans can't exist without genuine pagans though and they're gone forever.

>>1536684
Germanic pagan customs survived better in things like folklore and traditions. It's less dogmatic than Hellenic traditions in terms of rituals and what you need to do. Plus more Americans are Germanic and thus it's closer to their roots. I think there's also a solid thread of prepper, outdoorsman, farmer, tribal aesthetic that attracts people.

I'm Germanic pagan who dabbles in other traditions as well

>>1536684
>the neopagan movement is primarily centered around Germanic and Celtic shit
Not in Greece or Italy. The word you're looking for is not centered, but growing.

Northern European Paganism grows faster than its Greco-Roman counterpart because religious people over there are lousy "Christians."

Lutheranism and Protestantism in general are pure exoteric, scripturalist, modernist shit, a factory for apostates that doesn't respond to the laypeople's spiritual demands.

So they look to other religions, besides Neopaganism they look for answers in Buddhism, or even in Islam with Sufism.