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Ancient polytheistic religions. What exactly did they believe in? How many deities did they worship? Were the gods from Etruscan mythology related to Hellenistic? Were the gods that Aeneas brought from Troy to Latium the same as Greek just with different names?

Discuss.

Some have theorized that Man's psychological development as a species mirrors, in large scale, the cognitive development of a typical individual.

The polytheistic religions in human history would represent that stage in human development when a person is too young to consider the Big Picture. Thus there is a god for the ocean, god for the dead, god for the forest, etc. Even if there is a Chief God, one who rules over all the other gods (eg, Zeus, Odin), he is still a god among many, rather than an overall "One with a second."

The rise of monotheistic religion would correspond to that stage in human cognitive development when a person can "pattern-think," can apply a kind of panoramic/vision-logic to the world and see unifying connections that he/she could not see before when younger.

bag

Please define Ancient Religions more clearly. As far as I am concerned, Christianity is an Ancient Religion.

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
Ancient polytheistic religions. What exactly did they believe in? How many deities did they worship? Were the gods from Etruscan mythology related to Hellenistic? Were the gods that Aeneas brought from Troy to Latium the same as Greek just with different names?

Discuss. Oh...many of them. In fact what Jesus is today is based on the same stories as many of them...Osirus-dionisus, Mithra, RA, Horus, Krishna.....................Whoooooo goody...we get to talk about them


jump

Originally posted by Mindship
Some have theorized that Man's psychological development as a species mirrors, in large scale, the cognitive development of a typical individual.

The polytheistic religions in human history would represent that stage in human development when a person is too young to consider the Big Picture. Thus there is a god for the ocean, god for the dead, god for the forest, etc. Even if there is a Chief God, one who rules over all the other gods (eg, Zeus, Odin), he is still a god among many, rather than an overall "One with a second."

The rise of monotheistic religion would correspond to that stage in human cognitive development when a person can "pattern-think," can apply a kind of panoramic/vision-logic to the world and see unifying connections that he/she could not see before when younger.

bag

But who's to say that one god is on a broader scale then many? Who's to say one god is more "believable" per say to many?

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Please define Ancient Religions more clearly. As far as I am concerned, Christianity is an Ancient Religion.

I'm talking religions before modern era. Which, Christianity came after the birth of Christ. Which in and of it self represents the start of Common era.

Originally posted by debbiejo
Oh...many of them. In fact what Jesus is today is based on the same stories as many of them...Osirus-dionisus, Mithra, RA, Horus, Krishna.....................Whoooooo goody...we get to talk about them


jump

Mithra is the persian son of god. Born to a virgin mother correct?

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
Mithra is the persian son of god. Born to a virgin mother correct? Yep...Mithra is an Indo-Iranian god, worshipped at least as early as 1400BC. In Hinduism he is praised as the binomial Mitra-Varuna.

Originally posted by debbiejo
Yep...Mithra is an Indo-Iranian god, worshipped at least as early as 1400BC. In Hinduism he is praised as the binomial Mitra-Varuna.

Now was his birth prophesied or anything? I don't truly know any back story to him. All I know is that early Christians used his birth, as a catalyst to recruit the pagans.

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
Now was his birth prophesied or anything? I don't truly know any back story to him. All I know is that early Christians used his birth, as a catalyst to recruit the pagans. They are very similar. Same miracles and such...Paul was much influence by him to bring about what he did in the NT, which differed from what Christ taught and also the OT.
http://www.crystalinks.com/mithra.html

http://www.bizstore.f9.co.uk/indexmithras.htm

So he's a sun god? Like Ra, Apollo, Aurora.

Now, Mithras in Roman mythology, does he derive from Mithra in Persian?

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
So he's a sun god? Like Ra, Apollo, Aurora.

Now, Mithras in Roman mythology, does he derive from Mithra in Persian? Yes, he is one of the many names for the sun. and is the sun god. Just as Jesus is the "Sun of Righteousness".

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. Malachi 4:2.

core of the Outer and Inner mysteries was a mythical, male entity who was part god and part human -- often referred to as a "god-man." The biographies of these god-men were consistent from religion to religion. The main difference among the faiths was his name:

Alexandria: Aion
Asia Minor: Attis
Babylonia: Antiochus
Egypt: Osiris and Horus
Greece: Dionysus and Asclepius
Syria: Adonis
Italy: Bacchus
Persia: Mithras

Syria: Adonis....Is that truly the same Adonis from greek?


See this is honestly why I made this thread. To discuss the inter locking of most polytheistic religions.

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
Syria: Adonis....Is that truly the same Adonis from greek?


See this is honestly why I made this thread. To discuss the inter locking of most polytheistic religions.

Adonis family tree...Yes, they crossed. Sometimes called Adoni.

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Adonis.html

So what exact religion intrests you most? I don't mean what religion are you, I'm strictly speaking out of the polytheistic views, which intrest you most?

Hmmmmm I don't know. I find pagan religions interesting and how they connect and weave through each other. Though I am not pagan. I think pagans are fun though from what I've heard....They have lots of parties with wild sex....hahahahaha. Wicca is also interesting because of the nature aspect of it, the elements and the power of them. And being that I believe god is something in all things I can see how wicca sees things work just as Shamans do. Well, many religions do.

I'm a believer in something higher that connects us all together. Something that is bigger than any one religion.

Yeah....I see what you're saying.


What interests me most is the rituals. Like the one with Asclepius. In case you don't know, he was the Greek God of Medicine. Now, back in ancient times, if you were sick, you'd go spend the night and pray outside his temple.

Once you were healed, you would then sacrifice a rooster in his name. Now tell me why a rooster? Who picked a rooster? It had to come from someone.

Does anyone else have any interesting rituals?

I do know that many of the pagan religions had there own rituals from knot tying, caldron's burning herbs, candles, cloths, stones, salt, blood, incents (hmm like Israel)...Oh..way too many especially the incantation words......and all of them were different. What was the same was the intention of their actions not so much the action of the ritual its self...Intention was the common element. Just as the church today uses intention for miracles...It's the belief of it that can make something happen or not...and it doesn't always work.

Can someone explain to me "Ragnarok" in Norse mythology? Is it the destruction of the pantheon, or the world in general? I know the basics ie: Loki unites with the giants....But not the intricacies. Can someone perhaps explain it a little better?

Originally posted by Darth Macabre
Ancient polytheistic religions. What exactly did they believe in? How many deities did they worship? Were the gods from Etruscan mythology related to Hellenistic? Were the gods that Aeneas brought from Troy to Latium the same as Greek just with different names?

Discuss.

While it's very simplistic way to look at things, some would describe the early polytheistic religions as the forerunners of science. In the early days of human civilisation people possessed the curious nature, the desire to understand the world, and why things were the way they were. Where the sun went, why things grow, the seasons, storms. Of course, without the necessary level of science needed to understand such phenomenon they did something very natural, and attributed supernatural beings and their little dramas to it. Be it Ra sailing across the sky as the sun, or Osiris bringing the vital Nile inundations. In this sense many of the ancient gods represented and symbolised natural things - a reason why so many cultures seem to have similar deities. And by anthropomorphising nature in such a way it let people think they had some control over it, that if they made the right offerings, said the right prayers, that they would get good crops, or defeat an enemy.

And it's quite likely both the Etruscan and Trojan Gods were indeed related to the Gods of Greece. Greece, after all, was a major trading/colonising power, spreading their culture throughout much of the ancient world. The Etruscans were for a long time culturally stunted, and eager to assimilate aspects of any culturally rich society they encounted, such as the earlier Greeks who reached Italy- in essence there is little doubt, apparently, that Greek religious culture spread to many civilisations who adapted it and made it their own.

As to Ragnarok, if memory serves, it is essentially the big battle at the end of the world, fought between the gods led by Odin (representing order) and the monstrous army led by Loki (representing chaos.) I know some of the gods die, but I don't think it's all of them. It was all prophesised, and it will be disastrous for all existence. There is a great piece of Norse poetry known as Snorri's Edda I believe, which details the whole thing, before, during and after.

Ragnarok is the final battle to be fought against the Gods of the Aesir and the heroic dead, against Loki, the frost giants, and the unworthy dead from Hel' s realm. The forces of evil, along with most of the gods, will be slain, and a new world will arise. Only a handful of Gods, including two of Thor' s sons, and two of Odin' s, are destined to survive the conflict. Two humans will survive to repopulate the world, and the god Baldur will be resurrected.

Originally posted by Imperial_Samura
...some would describe the early polytheistic religions as the forerunners of science...

This is consistent with the approach that the cognitive development of the human species mirrors that of a human being.

Remember, as a little kid, how the world was seemingly full of magic? "Magical thinking" represents a lack of differentiation between the young child's thoughts and the world "out there;" the former can influence the latter. This would correspond to the period of nature/shamanistic religion in human history (with regard to your "average" prehistoric joe/jane).

As the child grows and begins to differentiate between the inner and outer world, "mythic thinking" takes over: a mix of magical thinking and scientific reasoning. This corresponds nicely with, eg, the time of the ancient Greeks whom, on the one hand, used a multitude of gods to explain much of the world, and yet also believed in systematic observation of the natural world.

In their beliefe, has Ragnarok happened yet? Have we already re-populated the earth?

It sounds almost like Genesis, and Jesus ressurection.........though not sure, but believe it's a future event...like the Apocalypse.

I don't think it's happened - after all, the Norse were predicting a future event, and I thin we'd notice a war that wiped out all but two people.... although it would tie in with the Christian creation myth.... two people repopulating the whole world destruction=new beginning.

That's what I'm saying. Is there someway that history could tie in the two events?

Originally posted by Imperial_Samura
I don't think it's happened - after all, the Norse were predicting a future event, and I thin we'd notice a war that wiped out all but two people.... Very white people unlike the middle easterns.

Well it's an interesting though because in scripture it says

Gen.28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth........The word replenish means to make it full again...

Was it full at another time, destroyed and now to be made again?

Originally posted by debbiejo
Very white people unlike the middle easterns.

Well it's an interesting though because in scripture it says

Gen.28 And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth........The word replenish means to make it full again...

Was it full at another time, destroyed and now to be made again?

That is quite the find...Genesis 28 you say? I've never noticed that before. Replenish. That's interesting.

Genesis 1:28.

I thought it was interesting too when it was pointed out to me some time ago. Why the word "Replenish".??

Originally posted by finti
No it was set to be the end of time just like the christian apocalypse which it probably drew some insperation from.
After Ragnarok the humans Liv and his woman Livtraser, (both name meaning life in Norse and todays Norwegian) Eve also means "Life or Mother of Life."