Does Zeus Exist?
Zeus is the King of the Gods, in Ancient Greek religion. A son of Cronus the Titan and grandson of Gaia, he rules a heaven that he shares with various other Gods. It is claimed by some that the idea of him is ancient, and crosses the whole of the Indo-European world, so that in India, he appears as Dyaus Pita in the Vedic religion (precursor of modern Hinduism), and in Rome he is Jupiter, while to ancient Germanic people he was called Tiwas, from whose name we get the day-name, Tuesday.
During the fifth and sixth centuries AD, worship of the Greek and Roman pantheon was violently suppressed at the orders of Christian Bishops and Emperors. Temples were destroyed, metal statues were melted into coins, and marble ones reduced to lime; books were burned, and priests and devotees were crucified, beheaded, burned, fed to beasts and otherwise despatched to Hades -- or, if they were lucky, merely exiled or forced to convert. Unsurprisingly, worshippers of Zeus are these days very thin on the ground. The fact that no-one worships Zeus nowadays is not proof that he doesn't exist, though, any more than the fact that lots of people worshipped him in the past was proof that he does or did exist.
How, then, can we answer the question of whether Zeus exists, or ever existed?
The emptiness of mount Olympus, could count as evidence against the existence of Zeus, if we assume that the story that Zeus and his fellow Gods live on that mountain is meant to be taken literally, and that their usual form is physical, so that they should be visible when we look. On the other hand, some of the usual arguments that can be used against the existence of the Christian God cannot be applied to Zeus. For instance, the argument from evil. Since it is not taken for granted that Zeus is consistently benign towards human beings, and nor is he almighty (just very mighty), it is not paradoxical that there should be evil in the world under his rule.
It cannot be ruled out that Zeus is dead. The Vedas have Indra killing Dyaus Pita. Perhaps Zeus's apparent failure to protect his followers from persecution at the hands of Christians during the 5th and 6th centuries indicates that he was at least a bit poorly during that time.
During the fifth and sixth centuries AD, worship of the Greek and Roman pantheon was violently suppressed at the orders of Christian Bishops and Emperors. Temples were destroyed, metal statues were melted into coins, and marble ones reduced to lime; books were burned, and priests and devotees were crucified, beheaded, burned, fed to beasts and otherwise despatched to Hades -- or, if they were lucky, merely exiled or forced to convert. Unsurprisingly, worshippers of Zeus are these days very thin on the ground. The fact that no-one worships Zeus nowadays is not proof that he doesn't exist, though, any more than the fact that lots of people worshipped him in the past was proof that he does or did exist.
How, then, can we answer the question of whether Zeus exists, or ever existed?
The emptiness of mount Olympus, could count as evidence against the existence of Zeus, if we assume that the story that Zeus and his fellow Gods live on that mountain is meant to be taken literally, and that their usual form is physical, so that they should be visible when we look. On the other hand, some of the usual arguments that can be used against the existence of the Christian God cannot be applied to Zeus. For instance, the argument from evil. Since it is not taken for granted that Zeus is consistently benign towards human beings, and nor is he almighty (just very mighty), it is not paradoxical that there should be evil in the world under his rule.
It cannot be ruled out that Zeus is dead. The Vedas have Indra killing Dyaus Pita. Perhaps Zeus's apparent failure to protect his followers from persecution at the hands of Christians during the 5th and 6th centuries indicates that he was at least a bit poorly during that time.
posted by Rebecca Necker at 5:40 PM
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