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Polytheism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polytheism is the belief in and/or worship of multiple deities, called gods and/or goddesses. These are usually assembled into a pantheon, along with their own mythologies and rituals. Many religions, both historical and contemporary, have a belief in polytheism, such as Shinto, Ancient Greek Polytheism, Roman Polytheism, Germanic Polytheism, Slavic polytheism, Chinese folk religion, Neopagan faiths and Anglo-Saxon paganism.
Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but can be monolatrists, specialising in the worship of one particular deity. Other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times.
Polytheism (belief in one or more gods), is a type of theism but contrasts with monotheism (belief in a singular god), which is the dominant belief in the world today. In certain religions, such as Wicca, the various deities are seen as emanations of a greater Godhead.
Etymology
The English language word "polytheism" is attested from the 17th century, loaned from French polythéisme, which had been in use since 1580. In post-classical Latin, the term is polytheismus. The word is attested later than atheism but earlier than theism.
It ultimately derives from the Greek adjective πολυθεός (from πολύς "many" and θεός "god"), in the meaning "of or belonging to many gods" found in Aeschylus (Suppliant Women 424), or "believing in many gods" in Procopius (Historia Arcana 13).
Gods and divinity
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The deities of polytheistic religions are agents in mythology, where they are portrayed as complex personages of greater or lesser status, with individual skills, needs, desires and histories. These gods are often seen as similar to humans (anthropomorphic) in their personality traits, but with additional individual powers, abilities, knowledge or perceptions.
Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in many cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits, which may include ancestors, demons, wights and others. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, and belief in the existence of all these beings does not imply that all are worshipped.
Types of deities
Types of deities often found in polytheism[citation needed]
- Sky god (celestial)
- Death deity (chthonic)
- Mother goddess
- Love goddess
- Creator deity
- Trickster deity
- Life-death-rebirth deity
- Culture hero
In comparative religion
Monotheism may be contrasted with polytheism in that the former is a belief in the existence of only one god. Polytheism and monotheism, being -theisms, may not be contrasted with -isms. The latter incorporate principles that do not necessarily reflect any relationship to theos "(of) god(s)." For example, monism is the term for any system with exactly one primal/primordial unity from which all other entities derive.[citation needed]
Mythology and religion
In the Classical era, Sallustius (4th century CE) categorised mythology into five types:
- Theological
- Physical
- Psychological
- Material
- Mixed
The theological are those myths which use no bodily form but contemplate the very essence of the gods: e.g., Kronos swallowing his children. Since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity.
Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world: e.g., people before now have regarded Kronos as time, and calling the divisions of time his sons say that the sons are swallowed by the father.
The psychological way is to regard (myths as allegories of) the activities of the soul itself and or the soul's acts of thought.
The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example: to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, or heat Typhon.
The mixed kind of myth may be seen in many instances: for example they say that in a banquet of the gods, Eris threw down a golden apple; the goddesses contended for it, and were sent by Zeus to Paris to be judged. (See also the Judgement of Paris.) Paris saw Aphrodite to be beautiful and gave her the apple. Here the banquet signifies the hypercosmic powers of the gods; that is why they are all together. The golden apple is the world, which being formed out of opposites, is naturally said to be 'thrown by Eris '(or Discord). The different gods bestow different gifts upon the world, and are thus said to 'contend for the apple'. And the soul which lives according to sense - for that is what Paris is - not seeing the other powers in the world but only beauty, declares that the apple belongs to Aphrodite.
Historical polytheism
Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical attested pantheon which includes the Ancient Greek religion, and Roman Religion. Post classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, and many others. Today, most historical polytheistic religions are pejoratively referred to as "mythology", though the stories cultures tell about their gods should be distinguished from their worship or religious practice. For instance deities portrayed in conflict in mythology would still be worshipped sometimes in the same temple side by side, illustrating the distinction in the devotees mind between the myth and the reality. It is speculated that there was once a Proto-Indo-European religion, from which the religions of the various Indo-European peoples derive, and that this religion was an essentially naturalist numenistic religion. An example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems.
In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time. Deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder culture's pantheon to a newer one, as in the Greek Titanomachia, and possibly also the case of the Æsir and Vanir in the Norse mythos. Cultural exchange could lead to "the same" deity being renowned in two places under different names, as with the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, and also to the introduction of elements of a "foreign" religion into a local cult, as with Egyptian Osiris worship brought to ancient Greece.
Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives. However, the Greek philosopher Epicurus held that the gods were living, incorruptible, blissful beings who did not trouble themselves with the affairs of mortals, but who could be perceived by the mind, especially during sleep. Epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds.
Hellenistic religion may still be regarded as polytheistic, but with strong monistic components, and monotheism finally emerges out of Hellenistic traditions in Late Antiquity in the form of Neoplatonism and Christian theology.
- Religions of the Ancient Near East
- Historical Vedic religion
- Ancient Greek religion
- Ancient Roman religion
- Celtic polytheism
Polytheism in world religions
Polytheistic religions
Folk religions
The various folk/indigenous religions of the world are practically all polytheistic.
Explicit polytheism in contemporary folk religion is found in African traditional religion as well as African diasporic religions. In Eurasia, the Kalash are one of very few instances of surviving polytheism. Also, a large number of polytheist folk traditions are subsumed in contemporary Hinduism, although Hinduism is doctrinally dominated by monist or monotheist theology (Bhakti, Advaita). Historical Vedic polytheist ritualism survives as a very minor current in Hinduism, known as Shrauta.
Ancient Greek polytheism (Hellenic polytheism)
Ancient Greeks recognized the 13 major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, and Hestia, though various lesser gods were also worshipped. Different cities worshipped different deities, sometimes with epithets that specified their local nature.