I am no expert on Greco-Roman literature but I have read and enjoyed the Iliad more time than I have read the Book of Mormon. I cannot help but have some feelings for Athena. There is some inspiration there. However I do not attend an Athenian temple and offer sacrifices. I find that I view Athena as fiction. That of course does not make her meaningless and does not prevent her name and idea from being able to be used by people like me who no longer take her literally.
I think the language of semetic deities carried poetically useful meaning past the time or in a larger sphere than where they were literally believed. It is difficult I think to judge usage in some Biblical texts. It is true there is a past when they were believed and polytheism has a real presence in Israel I gather. Yet it is also clearly true that monotheism became the normative belief. Than transition is not as clear as the ends of the process.
I wasn't really talking about any of the other deities worshipped anciently other than the Hebrew ones. There were many who were deliberately lied about in later Biblical texts and whose memory and role in the cosmos and creation was suppressed. That is the transition that you speak of. It involved lots of executions of people who thought it was wrong to erase Asherah, the wife of God, among many other pantheon members. Her extirpation from Judaism is one of the great wrongs of ancient religion, in my opinion.
Do you think it's possible that your blithe attitude towards defunct deities originates from your not being raised in proximity to their former worship? I would think that it does.
Jewish Temple at Elephantine included worship of both Yahweh and his wife Anat-Yahu. This was after the Babylonian exile, and the Jewish priests there apparently had friendly relations with the priests in the Jerusalem temple, even though Deuteronomy was written to put an end to the practice of having more than one temple. Judaism I think was far more diverse than has been traditionally believed.
I am no expert on Greco-Roman literature but I have read and enjoyed the Iliad more time than I have read the Book of Mormon. I cannot help but have some feelings for Athena. There is some inspiration there. However I do not attend an Athenian temple and offer sacrifices. I find that I view Athena as fiction. That of course does not make her meaningless and does not prevent her name and idea from being able to be used by people like me who no longer take her literally.
I think the language of semetic deities carried poetically useful meaning past the time or in a larger sphere than where they were literally believed. It is difficult I think to judge usage in some Biblical texts. It is true there is a past when they were believed and polytheism has a real presence in Israel I gather. Yet it is also clearly true that monotheism became the normative belief. Than transition is not as clear as the ends of the process.
I wasn't really talking about any of the other deities worshipped anciently other than the Hebrew ones. There were many who were deliberately lied about in later Biblical texts and whose memory and role in the cosmos and creation was suppressed. That is the transition that you speak of. It involved lots of executions of people who thought it was wrong to erase Asherah, the wife of God, among many other pantheon members. Her extirpation from Judaism is one of the great wrongs of ancient religion, in my opinion.
Do you think it's possible that your blithe attitude towards defunct deities originates from your not being raised in proximity to their former worship? I would think that it does.
Alphus, I was speaking of how people use religious imagery whose literal reality may be fading from or no longer a part of belief. In the present day the figure of Jesus may be used to express ideas, relationships of power or ideals by both people who believe the Christian story and those who do not. My thought being that not every time(or assuredly) the divine rides a storm cloud is belief in Baal
demonstrated.
I have had enough dark thoughts about Josiah reform that I cannot help but see you have a point about harm in the religious transition for Israel . However that transition would have been more complicated than mean power people forcing everybody to disregard what they believed. Josiah died overreaching and the other kings did not wish to follow his program. It is not so clear as to why Josiah's failed and brutal reform ends up fitting later belief.
It is difficult to be sure but it is possible the Canaanite polytheism had things that all sorts of people did not like. Yes I am aware that there is room to suspect as exaggerated the dark images created in later Jewish writing. Molock and the sacrifice of children are examples. The belief in Gods wife faded without a story to remember her by , at least in Israel.
I think I remember Athena because of the story of people which has maintained memory of her. I find the story of people much more interesting than the relationships elaborated between the members of the pantheon. I suspect a lot of people share my preference leading to tendency to forget the details about the queen of heaven. Her story has become faint. I wonder if that story meant more to people it would not be so faint.
