Gods & Demigods

The existence of many Gods was assumed by most people in antiquity

Gods and Lords in the Greco-Roman World

What we now mean by “divine” was not what ancient people meant. We think that only God is "divine", while everybody else is not, but this is not what ancient people believed.

In ancient polytheism "divinity" was not restricted to one God or a group of gods. It was first of all a matter of power. People believed that there were different degrees of divinity, from exalted humans to the supreme gods.

In Greek-Roman Mythology there was a complex hierarchy of "divine beings." Everyone who had "super-human" powers was labeled "divine."

At the top of these truncated pyramid of divinity, there were the "gods" (THEOI), the highest twelve gods who were believed to live on Mount Olympus, lead by their king Zeus.

See also Twelve Olympians, namely, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and either Hestia, or Dionysus.

Then there were many demigods (or "Lords" [KYRIOI]), the superheroes of antiquity.

Usually, they were children of gods and humans, like Orpheus, Perseus or Aesculapius:

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Or were "adopted" by a god as "sons of God" (Alexander the Great, Augustus, Nero)

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In recent times the demigods have become popular iv TV series and videogames:

God and Lords in Judaism

Surprisingly, Jews did not differ substantially from their polytheistic neighbors in their understanding of the “divine.” Also for Jews the universe was populated by superhuman “divine” beings (angels), exalted humans and other manifestations of God. “Jews also believed that divinities could become human and humans could become divine.” The biggest difference was that the Jews conceived the truncated pyramid of polytheism as a perfect pyramid that had only one God at the top, their God, but still preserved the presence of numerous, “less divine” beings.

For Jews (and early Christians) there is only one God (THEOS) in heaven. What make "God" unique is the fact that God in uncreated, and is the Father and Maker of Everything. Ancient Jews (and Christians) also believed, however, in a complex hierarchy of "divine" beings.

Below God are other "divine" beings, i.e. the Angels (LORDS). These less-divine, more-than-human beings could be still called “gods” by texts from the Second Temple period. They were "divine" but were created by the supreme God.

and a few humans who have become angels, like Enoch and Elijah:

or the Messiah anointed and adopted as the Son of God:

Samuel Anoints David (1842 Biennourry), art]]

The "divine" Jesus

Where is the risen Jesus? As the Messiah, the Forgiver and the future Judge, he was understood as a "divine" being, but to which degree?

The first Christians, like Paul, never called Jesus "God" (or THEOS). They preferred to use the term "KYRIOS" (or "son of God").

" We know that no idol in the world really exists, and that "there is no God but one. 5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords-- 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6).

At the end, the term "God" (THEOS) would be applied to Jesus for the first time only at the end of the first century in the Gospel of John. The discussion about the relationship between Jesus, God the Father and the other "divine" beings would remain at the center of the Christian theological debate for centuries.

Pagan and Christian iconography of the Gods

Ancient Jews (and Christians) strongly opposed any form of idol worship. Some Jews totally rejected the use of any kind of image. Many Jews, however, understood the power of images and thought that the best way to reject idolatry was not to suppress pagan representations but to use them for they own religious purposes.

In ancient Jewish-Hellenistic synagogues, the pagan representation of the Zodiac with at center the chariot of Apollo was commonly used as a symbol of the unity and order of the universe:

Early Christians inherited from Hellenistic Jews the same attitude. They strongly rejected any form of idol worship; see already Paul. And yet they used pagan images to deliver their own message.

The ancient representations of pagan "demigods" (like Orpheus) or mediator "gods" (like Hermes) provided the first models to the early Christian iconography of Jesus.

Zeus became God the Father:

The model for the representations of the [[Madonna and Child the was provided by the ancient iconography of the Egyptian goddess Isis:

Traditional images of gods (here Apollo carrying the baby Dionysus) were also used in the description of Saints:

See 1 Corinthians and then the Letter to the Hebrews