What happened to the Greek Gods and Goddess?

Question

What happened to all the Greek Gods and Goddess today? Why did the Greeks stop taking them seriously? How did it happened?

Answer 1

The Greek gods were evicted by a very popular branch of the cult of Yahweh, one of the desert gods in the middle east. Historically, Yahweh was only one god in a hierarchy of many, but was honored because he was in charge of storms and rain - vital to the survival of a desert people. Later Yahweh's image was morphed into a brutal war god, when he was elevated to solitary "God" status by the Jews so that they could organize an army and take land and property for themselves. A few hundred years later a branch of the Yahweh cult, which is called Christianity, usurped the Greek hierarchy with a revitalized hierarchy of Yahweh, his son, angels and saints.

Answer 2

things change all the time.

Actually from philosophy and religion 101 classes you might get the idea that nothing happened to them, save for a bunch of guy with bigger weapons came through and mandated they pay taxes to their new kingdom.

A lot of the gods from those pantheons were found with no use and thusly no practicers, however with a pantheon of 1200 or more aunts uncles and cousins, I have a sneaky suspicion not all of them were worshipped per say.

They just all changed names. When the Romans came and conquered Greece, many of the Greek gods were no longer worshiped by their greek name, unless they were highly valued, like Appollo and quite a few of the heroes. Zeus was practiced as Jupiter, but as the Greeks no longer had their own kings and were under Roman subjucation Zeus/Jupiter seemed to loose reverence. Being the God of kings has a price when all the kings are removed and forced to pay higher taxes.

Appollo actually had enough followers to be thought of as a huge sect and was absorbed into the Christian faith.

Concepts like Aries/Mars and Aphrodite/Venus are ideas that will never be removed. I am certain there were still practicers of the old faiths up until the stricter forms of Christendom stretched into the Greek provinces and then being run over by the mongols/huns and the turks...it all has to pay its price. Not to mention the bombings of WWII which destroyed most of the still remaining temples. I am betting there were still followers up until there was no way to get to the temples or the scions.

I am sure there are phrases in Greek that are subjective to terms and history of the past. A young lover telling his girlfriend she has the beauty of Aphrodite, or the reference that someone in the military has the edging of Aries sword...or something to that degree. Old men and women continuing to do the traditions their parents did, who did them as their parents did....and teaching their sons and grandsons the same traditions.

However, it happened in the past, a lot of the past is resurging again. And if you don't believe me, just think about this...

an amusement park opened a new ride, themed after Apollo. Fabian was the actor portraying Apollo on opening day and joked about how he was better than Apollo, he was Fabian. Fabian rode in the roller coaster cart and was hit in the face by a flying goose, broke his nose. Just in case you don't know, the goose is a symbol of Apollo.

The gods, if they weren't out and out killed, thier still about on vacation or something.

Answer 3

They got bored of playing games with only the lives of Greek humans, so they sub-let Mt Olympus to the Romans with job-sharing options for a while, and then, after a period of unemployment, called the Middle Ages, they re-financed and expanded some branch venues in the Italian Peninsula city-states, moved interest off-shore to Great Britain and North American markets with enough significant profit margins by the 1950's to re-actualize their corporate base once again in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco during the 1960's, resulting in the industrial giants we all recognize today as the New Age Movement and Neo Pagan Corporate Industrial and Publishing network. And yes, they still play stupid and cruel games with the lives of humans.

Answer 4

Really the ancient greeks never did stop taking them seriously. Then the romans took the gods and made them their own. I believe the downfall of the Gods and goddesses came when Alexander took over all his lands and introduced christianity to the people in all lands.

Answer 5

They're still around but almost no one believes in them, so they don't have a whole lot of power in our lives. They've had to find other ways to mess with us silly humans. Most TV sit-coms are based on old Greek dramas. Also check out Neil Gaiman's novel, "American Gods" for a good read and "answer" to your question.

Answer 6

I think the christans told them there god killed all the greek gods or something.

What ever happened christanity spread through greek and roman culture untill chirstanity was well enugh founded they could inforce it as the only religon in the land and they would kill anyone that worshiped them.

Answer 7

There were probably long ways to answer your question, but I will simply give you a direct answer: they were simply assimilated.

In a first basis, they were assimilated to the Roman Gods and were slightly adapted to serve the purposes of the Roman Empire. However, their "death" came with the rapid rise of christian followers, with most gods being adapted to fit the figure of Jesus Christ.
In art from later periods, after Christ's death, you may be able to find coins and other art pieces that depict Jesus and with characteristics generally assigned to Apolo and other classical figures.

Answer 8

Civilization, change and time. The same way we dont believe stories we heard when we were young is the same way the greeks have outgrown the stories that were made up to keep them in control

Answer 9

We slept. Haven't recovered full memory yet, so don't know how that came to be, but suspect foul play. From what they've done in my absence, I doubt they believed I'd return. Things change rapidly now and will continue to improve while they wither until they face me at their end.

Answer 10

Unfortunately, someone called Paul arrived in our Agora and preached about the "unknown" god.... but there are plenty of us (in Greece & around the world) who still give honor to the Deathless Ones!