Apr 29, 2020, 11:15 AM
by Bjarg Jonsson
Each pagan god or goddess typically contained well rounded attributes, not just one. Freya, usually associated with sex and fertility, received first choice of the battle slain for her hall. Freya was followed by some warriors as their patron goddess.
Thor, the god of the common man, was also associated with fertility. His hammer was placed in the lap of a new bride, to bless the marriage with children.
Odin/Woden/Wotan, the god of the nobility, was not very popular. He was associated with death (the business of nobility). He was associated with the boatman, ferryman, disapater, selector and conductor of the slain. God of the subconscious and dark places. The cost of reciprocity with Odin could be death, he is a collector of the select dead.
All of these gods were caught up in an epic struggle, which was cyclical. The cycle would end and begin again. It was a mythology, which brought order. Each diety could play the central part for that diety’s followers.
The big G god, is everything all together and therefore unknowable or comprehensible. Pagan gods are not everywhere or all knowing.
The Romans of the time considered Christians to be atheists. The big G was beyond understanding and certainly not a Phonecian thunder god adopted as the Hebrew big G or the rabbi version of Mythris.
The Christians gave themselves feet of clay when they went from mythology to saying their cosmology was fact and without error.
The great falling away was in the cards when they lost the capability of killing people for pointing out the obvious.
The power is in the myth (J. Campbell). If not then the sword, I suppose.