When did people stop believing in the old gods like Greek and Norse? Did the Vikings just wake up one morning and think ”this is bullshit”?
In: Culture
I just finished re-reading Mythology by Edith Hamilton. One of her themes touches on this (at least in regards to the Greeks). She discusses several times how the Greeks of the Classical Period were uncomfortable with many of the recurring elements of the mythological stories including human sacrifice and the dishonorable ways the male gods behaved towards young women and their children.
Additionally she relates a story about Socrates in which he is asked if he believes a particular myth and he replies:
“‘The wise are doubtful,’ Socrates returned, ‘and I should not be singular if I too doubted.’ This conversation took place in the last part of the fifth century B.C. The old stories had begun by then to lose their hold on men’s minds.”
I’m not sure if this represents the common view among classicists, but Hamilton certainly seems to think the Greeks had begun to outgrow their myths by the Classical period.
Cannot confirm, but I suspect most religious beliefs stemmed from human projections on nature – someone must care about crops, so we’re going to revere the god/goddess of crops – someone must care about reproduction, so we’re going to worship the god/goddess of reproductions. As we learn more from science and grow accustomed to our collective “self,” we start figuring out that we are gods/goddesses/manipulators of nature and stop relying on “the old gods like Greek and Norse.” I honestly just wrote all this out with exactly 0 real sources, but it kinda makes sense.
I assume its kind of like how we all slowly left Myspace and got on the Facebook train…Less corporate and more social but if everyone around me at work keeps talking about this “Christianity” thing I assume at some point I’ll pick it up. Especially if the King says so
One point is that polytheistic religions (like the Norse one) are usually more tolerant of other religions than monotheistic religions. To them the christian God would have been just another God and would see no problem in worshipping all the gods. It is quite common to find Christian crosses and Thor’s hammers in graves of a certain time period. Then gradually the local priests would convert the populace out of believing in the old Gods.
Sometimes people were converted by force, sometimes peacefully, but as the Christian faith had the backing of the elite (because being Christian was a smart move politically) in the long run they stood no chance.
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