Welcome to toldinstone.
This is an abridged version of a chapter in my first book, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators,
and War Elephants.
Did the Greeks believe their myths?
Virtually all Greeks and Romans accepted that the gods existed.
Although philosophically-minded members of the elite speculated on the existence of a
single supreme god or divine principle, most agreed that there were many gods.
Of these, the twelve (or so) “Olympians” – the anarchic heavenly family headed by
Zeus / Jupiter – were generally acknowledged to be the greatest.
Neither the Greeks nor the Romans ever developed a canon of sacred texts, caste of priests,
or code of moral rules.
Neither, in fact, had a truly cohesive religion at all, since every city and village treasured
its own traditions of honoring the gods.
This variety was balanced by a few commonalities: a shared pantheon centered on the Olympians,
some famous sanctuaries and oracles, and the vast and amorphous collection of stories about
the gods we call the myths.
Classical Greek authors speculated that the myths had taken place about a thousand years
before their own time – between about 1500 and 1200 BC by our reckoning.
It was understood, however, that the mythic past was qualitatively different from the
present: humans had been taller and stronger, fearsome monsters had roamed the countryside,
and gods had mingled more freely with humanity (in more ways than one).
Members of the elite tended to assume that the masses took the myths literally.
One author, a professional dream interpreter, observed that most people believed the stories
about the gods and heroes, and so tended to dream about them.
Another author claimed that the peasants around his home imagined Agamemnon, the mythical
Greek war leader at Troy, to be the current Roman emperor.
Elite opinions on the myths are better attested.
Most educated Greeks and Romans accepted that the gods endorsed the performance of traditional
rituals, and were familiar with the canonical tales.
But as early as the sixth century BC, some Greek intellectuals began to criticize the
traditional stories.
A few of the more radical thinkers of the Classical period theorized that the myths
were half-forgotten episodes from ancient history, and that the gods were misremembered
human kings.
Plato thought the myths subversive and unsuitable for children; Aristotle dismissed them as
an opiate of the masses.
The Epicureans claimed that the gods took no interest in mankind, and rejected the myths
as products of human ignorance and fear.
Their Stoic rivals contended that the gods were aspects of a single divine principle,
and reinterpreted the myths as allegories.
Early in their history, the Romans had assimilated their gods and myths to those of the Greeks.
The Roman elite, however, seems to have regarded knowledge of Greek myth as basically a matter
of cultural literacy.
Many sympathized with the prevailing philosophical approaches to myth.
In his Meditations, for example, the Stoic Marcus Aurelius allegorized the gods, identifying
Zeus with “Nature.”
His contemporary, the satirist Lucian, wrote several treatises poking fun at the myths,
including one in which the horrified gods watch an Epicurean philosopher demonstrate
their non-existence.
Whatever their philosophical leanings, educated Greeks and Romans of the imperial era tended
to combine a sincere belief in the gods with distaste for the amorality of the myths.
An increasingly popular compromise was to blame the myths on demons.
Demons, minor spirits that wandered the skies, had long been a feature of popular religion.
But they became more prominent under the Empire, when Platonic philosophers began to emphasize
their importance as intermediaries between humanity and the gods.
Many members of the elite came to believe that the gods of myth were actually demons
– some evil, some merely mischievous – who had bedeviled mankind in the distant past.
Allegories deepened and demons multiplied in late antique interpretations of myth.
Neoplatonism, the era’s dominant philosophical school, theorized many levels of demons (including
the Olympian gods) between mankind and an ineffable supreme being.
On these terms, the myths tended to be understood as elaborate allegories.
One philosopher even wrote a sort of pagan catechism, in which he insisted that the traditional
myths were divine, because they presented the gods and their gifts to humanity.
But they could not, he hastened to add, be taken literally.
Some of the Greek myths explained natural phenomena.
Others described the origins of religious rituals.
Still others validated social institutions, advanced territorial claims, or endorsed ethical
principles.
But few myths had any single purpose.
Most were nothing more and nothing less than stories – told and re-told, interpreted
and re-interpreted.
Such stories do not need to be taken literally to be believed.
For the full version of this answer and many others, check out my book Naked Statues, Fat
Gladiators, and War Elephants.
Thanks for watching.