Polytheistic religion vs. monotheistic
Do you gain more by worshipping one god or is there more to gain if you worship more than one god. Obviously the Greeks had more than one god and neither was particularly greater than the other. it would seem as they all had limits to their power. Even the ‘supreme god’ Zeus had limits as he was destined to give birth to a child more powerful than him (some may argue the child is Athena others suggest it could be Dionysos a subject I will return too.
Each god in the Greek world had be worshipped and even though you may have had a ‘favourite’ god as they did humans, it was important to worship each god as the consequences were dire; take Hippolytos for example. He refused to worship the goddess Aphrodite and incurred a particularly gruesome death. For Hippolytus openly dismissed Aphrodite and everything that she stood for so had to be punished. In the opening of the play Aphrodite devises her plan; as a pawn in her plan she makes Phaedra, Hippolytus, fall madly in love with him. Phaedra commits suicide to stop feeling the way she does but before so writes a letter to Theseus saying that Hippolytus raped her. In anger Theseus uses a wish granted by his father Poseidon to kill his son, only then is the truth revealed. Ultimately this play is a reminder to all men who refuse to worship the gods equally. Late we shall see Dionysos enact his own revenge on his family too.
What may strike a person from a monotheistic religion is how the polytheistic religion worked, I mean people worshipped the gods seriously and would do so for each god and it worked for the Greeks. Surely it would be more easy and simple to worship one god, why not just worship Zeus if he was supposed to be the most powerful god, known as the ‘father of the gods.’ So, how did the Greek polytheistic religion work?
This calls into question the importance of major and minor gods. They were worshipped too, even heroes, and with all these gods hanging around it were hard to imagine the gods did not get jealous. To emphasize the importance of worshipping there were the Homeric Hyms, which celebrates the gods in an over the top way. Even in Christianity Jehovah God is called ‘a jealous God.’ Hence, it was up to the particular person who chose whom to worship. Obviously if you were in Athens you were to celebrate and worship Athena, but you could also worship other gods being the other 11 major gods as well as other daemons. However the 12 major gods changed depending on where you lived, so it suggests that religion was a community affair and depended on what you can gain from the gods of a particular region.
An even more interesting case is Dionysos as he established himself as a major god even though his mother was a human and he also made it into the Pantheon at Athens which was would have fully established as a major god amongst the other well-known 11 gods. For Dionysus wasn’t his only child made out of an affair that Zeus had, he had numerous children from many women, lesser gods. Daimones, nymphs, the fates, human heroes etc, however none made a claim to being a major god. Dionysos according to Euripides play the Bacchae had to establish his rightly place as one of the Olympians and travelled through Greece so people would know who he was. This also reminds us of the myth that tells us that Dionysus was twice born. This comes from the fact that Hera having tricked Semele into making Zeus reveals his true form was incinerated and dies. But Zeus retrieved the foetus of Dionysus and sowed his into his thigh, thus Dionysus is twice born.
Dionysus introduction to the Olympian gods was not very welcome at first, if we return to the play of Euripides people did not believe he was the child of Zeus and so he went to Thebes to teach the people a lesson.
This extract is taken from the beginning of the play of Euripides Bacchae which states how Dionysus will get his revenge on those who did not believe he was a god. Later on in the play we realise how much important it is too worship a god that Cadmus? Or Tiresias say that even if they were not sure if he really was a god, it is better to worship him is case he was, rather than be punished for the hubris:
‘Lo! I am come to this land of Thebes, Dionysus' the son of Zeus, of whom on a day Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, was delivered by a flash of lightning. I have put off the god and taken human shape, and so present myself at Dirce's springs and the waters of Ismenus. Yonder I see my mother's monument where the bolt slew her nigh her house, and there are the ruins of her home smouldering with the heavenly flame that blazeth still-Hera's deathless outrage on my mother. To Cadmus all praise I offer, because he keeps this spot hallowed, his daughter's precinct, which my own hands have shaded round about with the vine's clustering foliage…. this is the first city in Hellas I have reached. There too have I ordained dances and established my rites, that I might manifest my godhead to men; but Thebes… For this city must learn, however loth, seeing that it is not initiated in my Bacchic rites, and I must take up my mother's defence, by showing to mortals that the child she bore to Zeus is a deity. Now Cadmus gave his sceptre and its privileges to Pentheus, his daughter's child, who wages war 'gainst my divinity, thrusting me away from his drink-offerings, and making no mention of me in his prayers. Therefore will I prove to him and all the race of Cadmus that I am a god.‘[1]
This extract shows that Dionysus is angry that is has not received that worship that other gods have received, showing that although he is relatively a new god, he has earned his way to be worship like the other gods having gone into different cities and teaching them his Bacchic rites. Euripides play, links into that fact that Hera had tricked Semele is making Zeus reveal his true form. Similarly like Aphrodite he intends to get his revenge on the people who have denied his worship. The status of his being as god has to be shown to the world, and by Dionysus making an example of his mother’s family, will surely make others think twice about not worshipping him.
‘Lo! I am come to this land of Thebes, Dionysus' the son of Zeus, of whom on a day Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, was delivered by a flash of lightning. I have put off the god and taken human shape, and so present myself at Dirce's springs and the waters of Ismenus. Yonder I see my mother's monument where the bolt slew her nigh her house, and there are the ruins of her home smouldering with the heavenly flame that blazeth still-Hera's deathless outrage on my mother. To Cadmus all praise I offer, because he keeps this spot hallowed, his daughter's precinct, which my own hands have shaded round about with the vine's clustering foliage…. this is the first city in Hellas I have reached. There too have I ordained dances and established my rites, that I might manifest my godhead to men; but Thebes… For this city must learn, however loth, seeing that it is not initiated in my Bacchic rites, and I must take up my mother's defence, by showing to mortals that the child she bore to Zeus is a deity. Now Cadmus gave his sceptre and its privileges to Pentheus, his daughter's child, who wages war 'gainst my divinity, thrusting me away from his drink-offerings, and making no mention of me in his prayers. Therefore will I prove to him and all the race of Cadmus that I am a god.‘[1]
This extract shows that Dionysus is angry that is has not received that worship that other gods have received, showing that although he is relatively a new god, he has earned his way to be worship like the other gods having gone into different cities and teaching them his Bacchic rites. Euripides play, links into that fact that Hera had tricked Semele is making Zeus reveal his true form. Similarly like Aphrodite he intends to get his revenge on the people who have denied his worship. The status of his being as god has to be shown to the world, and by Dionysus making an example of his mother’s family, will surely make others think twice about not worshipping him. According to Richard Seaford, Dionysos succeeds in establishing himself as a god as the Dionysiac festival is practised within the city.[2]
Modern day polytheism
To try to understand Polytheism I have also looked at Hinduism; although they do not call their religion polytheistic but hedonistic, meaning they believe centrally on one god but accept the existence of other gods. If we look at Hinduism the religion like the Greek polytheistic religion has one main god Vishnu who is called the preserver and protector of the universe who is the counter part of what Zeus would be. As Zeus divided up the earth between his two brothers, the gods of the Hindu world also divided up the world, with Brahma who is the creator of the world and Shiva the destroyer. However because Vishnu protects the earth he is seen as the greatest of the god, there even being sub religion which the Greeks may have called there ‘cult religion’ for the god Vishnu called Vashnavism. Also compared to the number of lesser gods that the Greeks have, in Hinduism it is said that there are 33 million gods and goddesses. Obviously not all receive worship that many lesser gods of the Greeks did but there appears to be no jealously between the Hindu gods and they all live peacefully among each other.
In comparison to the Greek polytheistic religion Hindus do have a Holy Scripture called the Vedas which are scripture that reveal the truth for Hindus.
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