Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s episode, we’re going to dive
into a very interesting question, which is whether Greek gods can be brought to death
when people no longer believe in them.
Let’s get into it.
Now, I can’t say for certain whether a lack of worship can result in a Greek god plunging
through death’s gates, passing on to the next world or being erased by oblivion, but
I can say that there are two myths - the Greek creation myth and the myth of the great flood
- that serve as very strong arguments, showing Greek gods to be immune to death in a world
devoid of exaltation and worship being paid to them. Let’s take a look at these myths.
The Greek creation myth rejects the notion that gods die when no one believes in them
because, simply put, it describes gods existing before humans. At this point, You might be
asking yourself, what does this have to do with anything? Well, if gods existed before
there were humans to worship them, then doesn’t it follow that gods would be equally unaffected
if there were humans who didn’t worship them, as was the case when pagan religions
were eventually superseded by Monotheism? I feel like it’s fair to extrapolate from
the Greek creation myth, which shows gods to be unaffected by a lack of worship, and
conclude that gods would be equally unaffected by a lack of worship resulting from absolute
disregard by humanity.
The second myth germane to this discussion is the great flood that Poseidon and Zeus
conjure to drown the earth and eradicate humanity. In this myth, by Zeus’ estimation, mankind
had degenerated to such a deplorable state that they have become irredeemable. Salvation
was no longer an option. Wickedness and moral bankruptcy were rampant. The only effective
course of action left was to efface humanity from existence, to scour humanity from the
face of the earth. The rising waters that swallowed continents whole nearly snuffed
out every human life. Only two people were saved. Pyrrha was the daughter of the second-generation
Titan Epimetheus and of Pandora. She married Deucalion, who was the son of the second-generation
Titan Prometheus, who, in turn, gave Pyrrha and Deucalion advanced warning of the impending
flood. They took refuge aboard a boat, and the sight of them, forsaken and forlorn amongst
a sea of freshly gorged on plains, valleys, and mountains, moved Zeus, who relented and
allowed humanity to be repopulated.
This is a severely truncated version of this myth. Almost everything is glossed over, but
despite this, it performs its function, which is to raise this question: why would Zeus
eradicate humanity - which he basically did; only two people survived - when his own life
was tied to the worship paid to him by the race he just virtually exterminated? If Greek
mythology has taught us anything, it’s that Zeus is supremely self-interested, so committing
to a course of action - and more, an entirely avoidable course of action - that would lead
to his own death really doesn’t seem consistent with his character, which was that of an unabashed,
incorrigible hedonist. Therefore, given Zeus’ willingness to end the human race, it seems
reasonable to assume that the end of humanity wouldn’t have meant the end of the gods,
which of course means that the gods can live without worship.
Whether you think the creation myth and the myth of the great flood culminate into an
argument against Greek gods perishing once humanity ceases to believe in them boils down
to if you think this extrapolation is fair: if gods continue to live when humans don’t
exist to worship them, then by extension, this must mean that humans existing but not
worshipping would also not affect whether gods live or die in Greek mythology.
So, What do you think? Do you think this is a fair argument, or do you think that there’s
a meaningful difference between people not existing and people existing but not worshipping
as they both pertain to whether a lack of belief can kill a god.
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