The word ‘god’ is not a name. It is a descriptor that has, historically, been applied not only to the Creator (or the idea of a Creator) of all that is, seen and unseen, but more generally to those forces or realities that govern, control and structure the universe, life in general, and specifically the lives of human beings.

Contrary to popular characterizations, polytheists, such as the Greeks and pagan Romans did not really have “gods of…” chaos, time, war, wisdom, etc. Rather, they thought these things in themselves (albeit in personified form) were divine, i.e., forces that control us, impinge themselves on us and our reality, and in relationship to which we stand in awe, reverence, and perhaps terror.

The word ‘deity,’ meaning ‘a god,’ comes to us from the word deus, which seems to come from the Proto-Indo-European root of dyeu-, which means “to shine,” like the sun shines over all. In a quite literal, etymological and historical sense, the sun is our god; it is that which shines over us and reveals things via its light. The sun is truly the universal source of light for all of us—or at least it was until we harnessed first fire and then later electricity. (The word ‘universal,’ means “the one over, or which includes, the many.”)

Even if our ancient ancestors thought of the sun as a god—and they surely did—they also realized that there are other realities that “shine,” so to speak, and stand as universals that determine our reality in a more metaphorical but no less important way. These universals they personified and thus enumerated as their various “gods,” i.e., deities. Each, in its way, was thought to be a reality that transcended or was different than the domains or aspects of life or the universe for which they were responsible. But over such domains and aspects they did rule. Hence, they came to be understood as realities to which we could orient ourselves properly or improperly.

Religio (or religion) is the virtue of properly worshipping such divinities. It may be said, in light of the aforementioned, that the object of such worship is the universal. The Greeks did not venerate wars, they venerated War, i.e., Ares (Ἄρης). venerate erotic sensation (ερως), they venerated the Erotic (Ἔρως). They did not venerate chronological moments, they venerated Chronos (Χρόνος).

©2022. Christoffer Lammer-Heindel. All rights reserved.

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