With almost a year of Myth Mondays and a
list of major gods and goddesses of the world to browse through, there is quite an assortment to choose from, but you probably already have a favorite. Here's a form for you to tell which one and why:
Who Is Your Favorite God or Goddess?Photo CC Flickr User thisisbossi
Comments
My favorite god is the primordial god Pan. The primordial god Pan is not the lesser Pan of the Greeks. There was great debate among ancient writers, who could not figure out how it happened that “Pan”, whose name means “All” and was originally a much more powerful and all-encompassing god, got downsized with the advent of the Olympians.
Hesiod’s writings serve as a major source on Greek mythology. They are generally thought by scholars to have been recorded around 700 BC.
Myths also are preserved in the Homeric Hymns. Homer has been thought to have lived around 850 BC, but other ancient sources give dates much closer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, dated to around 1194–1184 BC by Eratosthenes, and this date is gaining support in light of recent archaeological research.
However, before that time, the Xian or Gods of China, a race of superhumanly powerful humanoid beings were worshipped in the Ancient Chinese Empire from around 2000 BC. According to ancient myths, the Xian are descended from the primordial giant Pan-Ku who was born as a dwarf from the cosmic egg conceived by Yin and Yang, the female and male principles of the universe. A second myth, however, relates that he was born from the five elements.
Could the mythology of China have found its way to Homer or Hesiod transforming into the Olympian Pantheon?