Friday, October 27, 2006

The Gods in Hellenismos?

So I've been reading this book in the library called "Ancient Greek Religion" by...his last name is Mikalson. I found the discussion about the difference between Gods in the daily cult and Gods in literature very interesting. One point he makes (or I'm pretty sure he does, I may have misunderstood) is that the Greeks would have recognized a pan-Hellenic God named Poseidon, but they would have worshipped their local "version" of him, such as Poseidon Soter of Sunium (the example he uses). Along with this he talks about local hero/heroine cults that wouldn't have been worshipped outside of their local area/city-state.

What I was wondering about all of this is whether there is any analogous concept in modern Hellenismos? If so, is it practiced? From most websites I've browsed through, many modern Hellenes (Hellenists? Not sure which is proper) seem to worship the more pan-Hellenic idea of the Greek Gods. I see this as totally understandable considering the position many Reconstructionist Religions currently find themselves in; but is there belief/practice in place where such a system as the original Greeks had could develop? With this question I have in mind the subject of how the Gods were localized that the author explains, that basically being that local Greeks would attribute a title to a particular God because of real events that they felt the God had a hand in, which would then develop into a localized cult of the God.

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