I’ve been thinking about this, and I’ve seen lots of New Age books to help people worship Celtic Gods, Norse Gods, and a few other of the “Old Gods” as it were, but I’ve not seen any on the Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greek. Is it just that I’ve never noticed them, or have people decided that they don’t believe in 'em or what? Anybody know?
I knew a Greek pantheon worshipper in college. Any pagans out there who can speak to this issue?
My house contains a shrine to Murray, the God of Accounting.
On the vernal equinox, we sacrifice a copy of last year’s tax code in His name.
The only book which springs to my mind on this topic is Practical Greek Magic, by Murry Hope, which on first searching appears to be out of print… it was published in 1985 (AD), so I guess there are still a few Zeus-worshippers out there.
(Yes, I was a neo-pagan, or at least “neo-pagan-curious”, for a while.)
Yes, the Greek pantheon is still worshipped.
In addition to “full pantheon” types there is also a branch of Neo-Paganism called Dianic Wicca the concentrates on Greek Goddesses, especially (duh!) Diana.
Yes, my fellow Neo-Pagans, I realize that is a gross simplification, but I just didn’t feel like a 1000 word dissertation this morning.
My impression is that this is a practice that died out in late Classiical times and then has been revived in a more “wiccan”-ish form attuned to modern type paganism.
Later Classical writers sometimes commented on the decline of then-established religious (“pagan”) beliefs and practices. According to one I read recently in George Luck’s “Arcana Mundi”, supposedly the first of the old gods to go was Pan, in the time of Augustus. Anther writer wrote specifically on the decline of orcales, which began (so the writer says) under the stability of Roman rule. Supposedly, the great(-est?) oracle of Delphi knew its days were done and even said at one point that a new religion was on the rise.
A website I looked at a while back on Coptic stated that the last use of formal heiroglyphics was c. 450 AD on an obscure island upstream in the Nile somewhere; it was one of the last centers of the old religion as it had been cross-pollinated by the Greco-Roman gods.
Hail Eris!