Popular devotions are practiced in particular social contexts. When Rodonis pledges to the mother Moon a song composed by the Fleet's finest bards, the moons brighten and Rodonis hears:
lapping waves;
creaking timbers;
tautening cables;
wind in the shrouds;
a slatting sail;
a remote, plaintive flute;
homely noises.
These sounds, like the devotion, are strong comforts especially when the Fleet has been obliged to move into the cold Achan Sea where the gods may be hostile.
Familiar devotions are part of a familiar environment. Poul Anderson shows us this with oil in a lamp at the temple of Tanith in ancient Tyre (here) and also in the Fleet on Diomedes in the time of the Solar Commonwealth.
See also Bribing The Gods and Phoenician Religion II.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And of course there's that Martian sandroot statuette of Nicholas van Rijn's favorite saint, St. Dismas.
And many of the Drak'honai had advanced from polytheism to monotheism, with them calling the One God the "Lodestar." And some later Drak'honai even became Christians.
Sean
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