Is it silly that many minor things like perfumes had a patron god or goddess in old pagan polytheistic religions? Why would something as insignificant as locks have a powerful deity ruling solely over such solo unimportant subject?

[LegateLivius]

Something so common among today's society is how people have a tendency to laugh at how so many old religions especially pagan polytheistic ones that existed before Christians had a god or goddess for seemingly petty stuff such as Silvanus being the patron god of trees. That its common to see devout Abrahamics especially hardcore Christians and Muslim fundamentalists to mock say Egyptian paganism for having a patron god of perfumes, Nefertem. And its not just the hardcore religious  who feel this way, that many atheists and other irreligious types also often comment its ridiculous that Celtic religion had a god dedicated to pigs, Moccus.

So it makes me curious why old religions before Christianity had so many deities devoted entirely to minor things such as Syn the Goddess of Locks in Scandinavian religion who all locksmiths in the Viking era revered as an all powerful entity and Fornax the Bread Goddess of the Roman Empire.

Whats the reason behind this? Was it actually an important thing not to sneer at (as modern humans do) that for example that across East Asia that there exist multiple deities whose sole purpose is for hot baths? Or that West Africa had a god for drums? Was it actually a big deal that so many ponds across Europe once had an entity specifically devoted to each pond and worshiped in reverence for being patron of that small pond not featured in national maps?

Edited July 15, 2023 by LegateLivius

[guy]

On 7/15/2023 at 7:14 AM, LegateLivius said:

So it makes me curious why old religions before Christianity had so many deities devoted entirely to minor things such as Syn the Goddess of Locks in Scandinavian religion who all locksmiths in the Viking era revered as an all powerful entity and Fornax the Bread Goddess of the Roman Empire.

What's the reason behind this? 

I am the last person to ask about religious or philosophical matters. But here I go ....

Every society, including secular ones, has a need to have a belief system to explain the surrounding world. Even Revolutionary France needed a replacement for Christianity that had been suppressed. It created a Temple of Reason for the Cult of Reason based on the ideas of reason, virtue, and liberty.

Temple of Reason - Wikipedia

Romans, being a highly superstitious and Proto-scientific society, needed a vast array of gods to explain the many natural phenomena and unexplained events around them.

Quote

 

Important definition (from Wikipedia) : Protoscience is a research field that has the characteristics of an undeveloped science that may ultimately develop into an established science.

Protoscience - Wikipedia

 

 

The Romans, therefore, developed their own complex belief system that included numerous gods to explain natural events and observations. Here are just a few examples:

Candelifera: Goddess of childbirth

Cardea: Goddess of hinges and doors

Cloacina: Goddess who presided over the sewers in Rome

iris: Goddess of the rainbow

Tempestes: Goddess of storms

 

 

≡ Roman Gods and Goddesses List 170 Legendary Roman Gods (adducation.info)

List of Roman deities - Wikipedia

 

 

Since Jupiter was the King of the Roman gods, lord of the skies, and the patron deity of Rome, I wonder how many of the "lesser gods and goddesses" were merely venerated and not truly worshiped. An example of venerated entities would be saints in modern day Catholicism, many having a more local significance and even falling out of veneration. (St. Christopher, although still recognized as a saint, no longer has his feast day appearing on the Church's universal liturgical calendar, for example.)

 

Here is good video based on the series "Rome" discussing the gods in the Ancient Rome.

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by guy