Sunday, December 12, 2004

Major Gods


This is Zeus sitting on his throne.

There must be a leader for a group of people, even the gods need one. Every civilization has their own gods, and the worshipers mainly serve the main god.

Like Zeus, the major god of Greece, who lived in Mount Olympus, was well-known. He’s the god of lighting. I think the Greek didn’t pick him as their main god because of his thunder hurling ability, but he’s the best among his brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Poseidon the sea god was too reckless, he had once defeated by Athena. However, Hades was the god of death, and the death god rarely becomes the major god.

In Norse mythology, there were two kinds of tales telling different major god. Odin, the god of war, was mentioned often in Nose mythology as the major god; but some of the historical remains said that Thor, the god of thunder, was the major god. Norse people always choose the war chief as their mightiest god, and in later records, Thor started to compete with Odin to become the major god.

Ancient Egyptian admired the mighty sun, so they worshiped it as their major god, Ra. Ra was a god with a bird, and he’s same with the son of Osiris, Horus. A sun always hanged on his head as his symbol. He was often appeared with Osiris, the god of death in early carves.

However, proper religions’ major gods are their ancestor. Whoever started a religion, he’s the major worshiped god. Middle America’s civilization has a few details for us to discover their myths. Until now, we only know that their worshiped the sun god. It’s similar with Egyptian, and the origin of the American (or Red Indians) maybe the Egyptian.

Not every major god has the best quality, like Norse gods, they fight with each other to get the first place. Egyptian and Greek goddesses give birth of half-breed or kill their children…

No comments: