Again, according to Campbell, the two are very similar, and many of the Saints were chosen to fill specific pagan holidays.
The Ancient Greeks had a very different type of belief than the more modern Christian beliefs, and even tried to make accommodations for the Jewish and Christian Gods (only to be mocked by the Jews and Christians for their efforts to be inclusive). The Ancient Greek Belief was that your Family Spirits and Ancestors did more of the job that we would think of a personal theistic god doing. These spirits watched out for family members and strove against enemy family spirits for political/temporal dominance. The Greek Gods were remote powers of the natural world and were to be avoided at all costs in daily life. The last thing you really wanted was the natural force of lightning or rain to show up in town. So, ceremonies and rituals were made to propitiate these Gods so that they would do their jobs and “Please, Please, leave us alone!”
One would petition only specific Gods whose myths made it clear that they had a vested interest in specific peoples. Athena was one such God, Zeus was another, for the peoples of Crete and Pergemon. However, outside of those specific remits, it was dangerous to play with the gods by calling for their favor or damnation.
Thus, most people in Ancient Greece, believed that such beings existed, but that “Mostly, they leave me alone as long as I make sure to observe their rites.” They were very powerful, but I don’t think that any of the Greek Gods, nor all of them combined, could be said to be omnipotent, omniscient, and certainly not omnipresent (The Greek Gods were personifications, like people who had very a specific locale).
So, yes, they were very much like the Saint-for-every-occasion. Save that they did not have the larger presence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being lording over them and mankind.
Again, according to Campbell, the two are very similar, and many of the Saints were chosen to fill specific pagan holidays.
The Ancient Greeks had a very different type of belief than the more modern Christian beliefs, and even tried to make accommodations for the Jewish and Christian Gods (only to be mocked by the Jews and Christians for their efforts to be inclusive). The Ancient Greek Belief was that your Family Spirits and Ancestors did more of the job that we would think of a personal theistic god doing. These spirits watched out for family members and strove against enemy family spirits for political/temporal dominance. The Greek Gods were remote powers of the natural world and were to be avoided at all costs in daily life. The last thing you really wanted was the natural force of lightning or rain to show up in town. So, ceremonies and rituals were made to propitiate these Gods so that they would do their jobs and “Please, Please, leave us alone!”
One would petition only specific Gods whose myths made it clear that they had a vested interest in specific peoples. Athena was one such God, Zeus was another, for the peoples of Crete and Pergemon. However, outside of those specific remits, it was dangerous to play with the gods by calling for their favor or damnation.
Thus, most people in Ancient Greece, believed that such beings existed, but that “Mostly, they leave me alone as long as I make sure to observe their rites.” They were very powerful, but I don’t think that any of the Greek Gods, nor all of them combined, could be said to be omnipotent, omniscient, and certainly not omnipresent (The Greek Gods were personifications, like people who had very a specific locale).
So, yes, they were very much like the Saint-for-every-occasion. Save that they did not have the larger presence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being lording over them and mankind.