2026-05-03 14:31 UTC
Comparative mythology has simultaniosly saved and completely ruined polytheism.
Like, it's cool that people can reach cross time and history to see all of the similarities in the human experience. This builds a great foundation for what life and ritual mean, and brings us all closer, even though we're not worshipping the same gods.
But also, trying to squish the gods into neat boxes and only focusing on the similarities between them makes one lose all of the unique and diverse traits among them. Sure, us humans might fall into large groups of stereotypes, but we are each so much more than a general classification. If we regard ourselves as completely unique individuals, then the gods deserve the same courtesy.
It's tempting to think that there's some super ancient 'one mythos to rule them all,' but let's be real, that's just the monotheism talking. Humans are messy and diverse creatures, and we always have been.
#polytheism
Replies (3)
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@Ashmire@pagan.plus 2026-05-05 01:21
@Cat_LeFey@pagan.plus Yes! It's good to understand the different perspectives other cultures might have, and even to note the areas where we're not so different. Unfortunately one area where a lot of humans are the same is that many don't like to think too hard, so they just skip over whatever takes more than a minute to understand or makes them uncomfortable to consider.
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@SJAsh_03@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-05-03 15:09
@Cat_LeFey Mythologies are just human interpretations of the divine. It has always struck me as arrogant to expect the gods to conform to our flights of fancy. Trying to create overarching fancifulness just compounds the error.
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@wannabemystiker@expressional.social 2026-05-15 16:02
@Cat_LeFey@pagan.plus Didn't the Romans start that? Damn them. 🙂