Interaction between gods

Zeus would be the type to respect fate. Even if he could help he would likely turn Odin down.

There were a few threats to Zeus' authority, but luckily for him he ate Metis instead of impregnating her again so she could not have a son, Zeus abstained from screwing Thetis when he found out how strong her future kid would be, and the deification of Heracles helped fight off the Gigantes.

edited 10th Nov '15 4:50:15 PM by shiro_okami

Most Gods don't even get along with their own pantheon. so it would be difficult for there to be any complete alliance between 2 fool pantheons though I could see alliances and relationships forming between Gods of difference pantheons to increase their power for example Loki and his daughter hell might attempt some form of alliance with Hades.

I don't think the Christian God would do much direct interaction with the Greek Egyptian Norths Celtic Hindu Chinese or Japanese gods. he probably send his Angels to settle any disputes. that gives me a theory on cupid's origin his mother Aphrodite was involved with in Archangel like Gabriel or Michael.

By the way there is a game where you can play as one of 70 gods from 7 different pantheons Greek Roman Egyptian Norse Mayan Hindu or Chinese http://www.smitegame.com

Hades wouldn't have much reason to work with them. He was the least dickish of the Greek gods and becoming ruler of the underworld didn't change that. He's not NICE, but he's not evil either. Loki is fecking evil (at least by the standards of the Scandinavians) and Hel isn't much better.

edited 10th Nov '15 8:01:31 PM by nekomoon14

Loki is more dickish than outright evil and many are arguing his role in Ragnarok is inclusion of christian monks wo asociate with teh devil.

Like I said before I think Hade would have some envy of Osiris and egyptian goes, I mean they are well respect it while he is stuck underground while his dick brother rule the skys and his other dick brother rule the seas.

Not to mention the fact was originally the King of the Egyptian Gods before he became the ruler of the Underworld. Can you imagine how Hades would deal with the fact that God of the Underworld is considered a demotion?

Osiris: Man, this job is tough. I had to judge 500 people today and Thoth just would not give up on the puns.

Hades:...cute.

Yahweh would be too busy denying their existence.

Hades kidnapped Persephone tricked her into eating the food from the other side so that she would be forced to return to him. so he's far from benevolent I personally think that Loki's daughter Hell the queen of the underworld in Norse mythology would be a better match.

As for Yahweh there is one way to explain the existence of Greek and Norse gods without contradicting Christianity, Chronis and the Titans were descendent of Lucifer. The battle between the Olympians and the Titans was the point at which they defected from Lucifer which occurred sometime after the fall. but they never returns to heaven to serve Yahwehn. as for the Norse gods according to Norse mythology Odin descended from a jötnar named Ymir who was an evil Frost giant that Odin killed just like Zeus killed Chronis. So the Norse gods can be explained the same way.

Actually, Zeus gave Hades permission to take Persephone as his wife. Bridal abduction was a custom (even when the bride was already promised to the groom). And I don't believe for one second that Demeter didn't teach her daughter basic divine etiquette while she was teaching her to paint flowers or whatever she was supposed to be doing before she became the queen of the underworld; this leads me to believe that Persephone chose to remain as Hades's wife (but I'm biased in his favor and attached to the image of them as a happy goth couple).

I like A Mythology Is True better than All Myths Are True because there are usually too many inconsistencies with the latter. But I don't like pagan religions being Hijacked by Jesus. So, instead of the pagan gods being fallen angels, Yaweh can be portrayed as a particularly megalomaniacal sky deity.

edited 13th Nov '15 2:03:00 AM by nekomoon14

Outside of the two world conquerors, a lot of Afro-asiatic religions have this belief that "God" is the sum total of everything, the creator being the universe itself, it's will omnipresent, everything else, be they Orishas, Alusi or whatever else that may have came to be called "gods" just extensions of it with some degree of independence that will amount to nothing but a footnote in the grand scheme of things.

Even among the Indoeuropean groups, "Hinduism" as it's come to be called has "The wise call the one by many names, for whoever prays in reverence to any god in reality prays to me." proverb.

So I suppose those are the gods most inclined to at least try to find common ground among peers, regardless of much opinions may differ on say, everything. The devas and trimurti in particular have came close to causing their own downfalls multiple times simply because they kept giving gifts to groups that routinely try to usurp them and refused to simply negate those boons rather than go back on their words.

As for works where different gods interact, The Buddha is a peer of Horus, Odin and Vishnu in Samurai Jack, American Gods is about new gods but various members of the old pantheons do exist as well, there is some apparent familiarity in The Dresden Files, there is a council of "Sky Fathers" in Marvel Comics, Jesus and Krishna are both members of the Super Best Friends and I think someone already mentioned Smite.

edited 22nd Nov '15 12:26:32 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

"So, instead of the pagan gods being fallen angels, Yaweh can be portrayed as a particularly megalomaniacal sky deity."

What is next? the idea that serpert of eden, apohis and serpent of midgar are the same.....

........

I think you give me an idea....hmmmmmmmmmm

Anyway, I feel for some reason Satan(the jewish one) would be the lawyer of the gods, always there with his card in cases someone need him(and consider how the gods are always facing each other...)

@Indirect Active Transport: The further you go back, the more distinct they are. Over time, many gods became one. It's like how there were many different Zeuses back in the day but they eventually coalesced into a single Zeus. I think it's a mechanism of syncretism.

Many gods have the same archetype. For instance, you have the Indo-European "sky father" (Zeus, Tyr, Dyeus) and thunder god (Zeus, Thor, Indra); the hero vs. dragon theme that exists in many mythologies; and the Greek demi-gods are very similar to the Biblical Nephilim. So it's not very farfetched to think that the similar elements in mythology all came from the same source. The big question is who is copying whom; everybody has their own ideas about that.

edited 24th Jan '16 2:22:08 PM by shiro_okami

In my work, it states that myths and religions here on Earth are different cultures interpreting the actions of basically the same set of entities working under different titles. For example, Thor, Horus, Lord Krishna, and Michael were all the same entity in this universe.

But they're nothing alike?

Ok so here is the deal in my universe. First of all not all myths are necessarily true, there is a great deal of grey areas and confusion regarding what people know about the gods and what is actually true. The biggest open secret in my series is that none of the Gods created humanity though many claim responsibility.

Each pantheon exists in their own home dimension be it Olympus, Asgard and even Egyptian gods who are supposed to be the manifestations of various parts of the world have their own home. The Earth dimension was a weird anomaly populated by beings considered mortal or fragile.

The Gods encountered the primitives peoples of Earth and divided territory either through conflict or negotiations. Some toyed with us while others tried to guide us, Earth was one big pertri dish of bacteria to be poked and prodded. Most creation myths were outright lies created to gain influence (a contest of who can get the most worshiping monkeys, though not all the gods were dicks about it).

The reason the gods sort of disappeared and became more talk than action can be attributed to a race of a beings called the Eldritch (yes, Cthullu Mythos). There was a war and a collective decision made to hide the Earth dimension since many gods had become fond of the little humans. A barrier between worlds was set up but over the years it grew weak as the gods grew lesser in number (some killed by the Eldritch, others vanished without a trace).

July 16, 1945. The humans had finally done the impossible. Los Alamos was a place where the barrier was already a bit flimsy, haven taken many a blow from divine forces. The nuclear test blew a hole in the sky and magic leaked back into the world.

My story actually begins in 2015 and one of the protagonists is a history teacher so we learn what happened in between during classes and then shift to the problems the heroes face in the modern day. It's very much Shonen anime inspired with the 6 heroes gaining abilities based on some of the more obscure deities (or in one case a holy saint). The setting is naturally a high school.

Many gods appear, some as helpful mentors while others appear as megalomaniacal usurpers looking to take advantage of the weakened pantheons. So yeah, Zeus is one of the villains.

That's not the point I was making. In Afroasiatic religion, a common theme is that the essence of the creator resides in everything. Less "God created the Universe" than "God is the universe and its form depends on God's whims". The technical term is monism and comes in many variations (Pantheism is literal God is everything and everything is God. Panentheism is God is in everything but is somehow distinct from everything else. Pandeism is that the creator is not actually playing a conscious role in creation, for the three most popular stances). Syncretism can play a role and monism is itself pretty susceptible to it. El Ellyon (God Most High) was already the one and all with lesser Elohim (godly beings) as possible aspects of before the Israelite religion rose, rejected the concept of multiple gods and attributed their multiple attributes to how they viewed the one.

For a surviving modern example Yoruba teach Akamara as the source of everything, Olorun, Olofi, Eledumare, their words for God representing three different ways it regulates itself. The gods they worship, Orisha, are lesser manifestations of Olorun, Olofi or Eledumare humans can actually observe and interact with on some level. Humans are too manifestations, as are rocks, planets, everything. Some things influence the rest creation more than others, some make up more of it currently but the creator is all encompassing.

That's why I speculated some groups like the Orisihas, Devas or Loa might be more compromising than others. They may not be in agreement on the exact details, but they would each believe everyone to be the same on some level, united by a creator they all share equally.

edited 4th Feb '16 4:38:52 AM by IndirectActiveTransport

I get what you're saying. I don't think we're disagreeing, I just wanted to point out that the further you go back in time the "harder" the polytheism becomes. If you look at it in a certain way, it looks like gods are eating each other and absorbing each other's attributes (which could be a very interesting plot point).

edited 3rd Feb '16 3:00:59 PM by nekomoon14

With regards of how dealing with the Abrahamic God, if you make the pagan gods fallen angels and the like it may have some Unfortunate Implications in the form of Hijacked by Jesus but if you just make God incredibly megalomaniac you'd also risk having the same Unfortunate Implications except flipped around.

The best way to deal with it I'd say would be having it a sort of Unreliable Narrator scenario where the pagan gods state the Abrahamic God is just a delusional egomaniac while the Abrahamic God observes the Pagan gods aren't "real" gods, rather wayward creations of his that should be ignored, and make it so it's unclear which of them is actually correct.

That way both can interact easily, just the pagan gods view the Abrahamic God as a bit of a dictator while the Abrahamic God is dismissive of the pagan gods as lesser gods than Him.

In my own All Myths Are True webcomic that I'm working on, I sidestep that issue by confirming that Abrahamic supernatural beings exist, but they never appear on panel.

For example, this exchange between Apollo and the protagonist's Muggle Best Friend.

he's roomates with Buddha

edited 8th Feb '16 9:18:53 AM by Belisaurius

My idea about an All Myths Are True story is that different gods exist in different dimensions, and that what is theologically true in one dimension is false in another.

In my specific story, the Abrahamic God is the general creator of the universe and most gods are spontaneous creations of God's universe he didn't intend to but allowed to happen, but he also observes different religions around the world have basically made him into a Decomposite Character.

His introduction goes something like "Who are you?"

('in a deep tone): "I am The Elementals, I am the Titans, I am Shiva, I am Vishnu, I am Brahma, I am Buri, I am Borr, I am Amun-Ra, I am Wahegru, I am Eledumare, Olorun, Olofi, I am the God of Abraham, The God of the sons of Isaac, the sons of Jacob, and the God of the Cross. I am alpha and I am omega. I am tnat I am."

Sorry to Necro, but I was thinking about the issue of putting YHWH into an All Myths Are True setting:

If we have have multiple pantheons here, what I'd probably do is have YHWH be a former God King of a particular pantheon (probably Canaanite mythology) who used to run it like a normal polytheistic God King until the gods underneath him tried to rebel, so he since took more direct control and has officially banned worship of his former subjects.

So what I'd probably go with is that his No True Scotsman mentality only applies to his own former pantheon. Ra, Krishna, and Zeus might be gods, but he doesn't consider Moloch to be a god.

To be fair, no one Top God should be superior to the other. That means you, YHWH(because if we go by the general perspective, All Myths Are True falls apart)

Once a year all the gods get together and draw names out of a hat. Whoever draws their own name gets to claim to be the one, the only and the best god. YHVH just happened to win on the years they were writing the Bible.