(i) gods exist independently of mankind, exactly as described in the myths, but have mostly withdrawn from Earth;
(ii) gods are human projections, with a powerful albeit dependent existence.
A related sf premise:
(iii) in Poul Anderson's Genesis, a post-organic intelligence re-creates extinct humanity and teaches some early generations as if it were a god.
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and American Gods assume (ii). Most of Poul Anderson's fantasies assume (i) but do any assume (ii)? I am rereading "A Feast for the Gods" to check. It features Hermes, the Wayfarer, whom we have mentioned recently. Hermes reflects that the Olympians:
"...had never been served by the American people..."
-Poul and Karen Anderson, "A Feast for the Gods" IN Poul and Karen Anderson, The Unicorn Trade (New York, 1984), pp. 202-227 AT p. 204.
In American Gods, some immigrants bring gods and other beings with them.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
One of the things which has struck me about "A Feast for the Gods" was how "1960's" it looks to me. This is not a criticism, the story is still very much worth reading. The "datedness" increases interest in that piece of fiction.
Ad astra! Sean
Though there -are- Hellenic pagans now who worship the Olympians perfectly seriously; some in Greece, too, btw.
Polytheism appeals to my imagination but not to my intellect. I say but cannot believe that thunder is Thor passing overhead.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: I really can't take the Olympians seriously! I keep being reminded of that Roman character in THE GOLDEN SLAVE who contemptuously dismissed them as "those children." And what I read about the Olympian "gods" in the works of Homer does not improve my view of them.
Paul: I never think of Thor when I hear thunder and see lightning! Rather, I would think in terms, if I could, of the scientific reasons we see and hear such things.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Thunder at night in New England definitely sounded like a giant or a god tripping over mountains in the dark.
Paul.
Sean: I take all religions equally seriously, as human phenomena, and their devotees each take their own seriously… and others less so.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: But thunder and lightning never makes me think of Thor. Rather, I'm more likely to wonder what would make sound crash thru the sky like that. Or to remember Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity and lightning.
Mr. Stirling: That is a reasonable point, taking even the Olympians seriously simply as human phenomena.
Ad astra! Sean
Btw, the Greek Orthodox Church gets -really upset- with Hellenic neopagans. Much more so than Han with other non-Christians. Probably because for a long time Orthodoxy and “Greekness” we’re very closely linked - no other faith could claim to be native in the way they were. But worshipping the Olympians -can-. There’s nothing more Greek than that!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, I have heard of how CLOSELY entwined a sense of national Greek identity has become with being also a Greek Orthodox Christian. And that touches on one of the things that bothers me about all of the Orthodox churches, that political and national aspect, of becoming, at least in part, a merely "ethnic" thing. I prefer the more truly universal, CATHOLIC view of those Christians in communion with the Pope, that the Church should take a more arms length view of the local nation. That, ultimately, has been why the Catholic Church has so often been at loggerheads with so many states.
And I still don't take the Olympian "gods" seriously in the sense of actually believing they exist!
Ad astra! Sean
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