Vesta B.

asked • 03/14/17

Why do you think the Greeks created their godss to look, act and feel like humans

Greek Gods and Goddesses

Brett H.

tutor
I just graduated from Polis Institute in Jerusalem. While there, I wrote a paper for a Jewish philosophy class about what I see to be a connection between the story from both ancient Jews in the first century CE and Christians up until 3rd century CE, there more or less common position that the "gods" (Elohim in Hebrew or Theoi in Greek) were heavenly celestial beings often called Angels (sons of God), that came to earth, lusted after women (Genesis 6:1-4) and took on flesh to take the beautiful women as their wives. Many books in antiquity (2000 years ago more or less such as those in the Dead Sea Scrolls - Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Flavius Josephus "History of the Jews" and Philo "On the Creation of the World") suggest that the global flood was sent in response to the chaos among mankind created by these apostate beings that revealed secrets to men and women that were not supposed to be revealed. Hundreds of cultures, Anthropologists have found, on all 7 continents have some sort of flood story, with most of them being global (not just Gilgamesh and Genesis). So I contend that as the distribution of various tribes around the globe from Noah's 3 sons evolved into stories that evolved to be gods (Elohim (angels) or Daimonia (δαιμονια demons) or Theoi (θεοι gods from Greek)) that did many of the wicked behaviors shown in the Greek god mythology that these Hebrew and Christian books in antiquity suggest they did as apostate angels. The Judeo-Christian view from antiquity suggests that angels descended upon Mount Hermon in ancient Palestine, took human wives after taking on flesh, had offspring with them, who were giants of old. The Book of Jubilees says that when the flood wiped them out, their disembodied spirits are the demons (δαιμοια daimonia) that roam the earth. Having lost their own bodies, they seek to find a "host body" to possess, and the Judeo-Christian view of antiquity would say that the Hebrew creator God gives people over to them if they do bad things and serve them. So the answer to the question: "Why do you think the Greeks created their gods and goddesses to look, act and feel like humans?" would be answered this way. Hope that helps. Message me if you have further opinions or questions. I could share the paper I wrote for my class if you like.
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07/23/21

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Cathy C. answered • 09/26/22

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5 (25)

Degree in classical languages, both classical/biblical Greek

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There is no known answer to this question! About all that we can infer is that the Greeks had a healthy imagination--much more so than the Romans, whose polytheistic religion originally was far more vague and amorphous than the Greeks' was. We do know that the Romans borrowed their colorful mythological stories from the Greeks, not the other way around.

Sorry but that's the best I can do. ;)

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