[Sir ReGiN]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Epona:


Well I hope someone else will be able to help out because my bible knowledge is very poor!
The short answer is no, there were no gathered writings. I think this is because the Bible serves a particular purpose in a particular style of worship - whereas the Greeks and Romans did not worship their gods. I know more about the Romans, who viewed the relationship with deities a bit like a contract - if you do this for me, I'll sacrifice some wine for you - and then both sides of the deal would be met - they did not kneel down and pray to their gods, nor did they try to convert anyone - it was not a religion in the same way that Christianity is a religion. It was very personal, and there were no morals binding people together based in the religion - morals were social rather than religious. Hence there was no need for collected stories and teachings to unite people under the same banner and with similar ways of worship.

There were of course plenty of stories about gods, many of them were humerous, and these would have been told orally by poets and storytellers. Some of these very early Greek stories were written down, and are attributed to the lyric poets Hesiod and Theognis of Megara (Works and Days) - but they are poems, not a code by which to live your life or worship your gods. Theognis also wrote political lyric poetry. Another way of depicting stories involving gods was in art - sculpture in temples was a way of telling a story about both gods and history, with depictions of mythological and firmly historical events - but again, this is not a code for worship in the same way that the bible is.

---

A most satisfactory answer! Thank you [img]smile.gif[/img]
You are a very interesting person Epona!