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Mythological Profiles on the gods and goddesses from the Marvel Universe, DC Universe, Legendary Journeys, Percy Jackson and other TV and Motion Picture Appearances
The
Gods of Earth
The Gods
of Earth are a group of extra-dimensional superhuman beings that have been
detrimental, responsible and indirectly influential toward the development of
human civilization. There are well over a dozen apparently separate tribes or
races of extra-dimensional superhuman beings known to humanity who claim to be
gods, none of whom is God, the religious concept of the unique creator-force and
guiding spirit in the universe prevalent in Judeo-Christian and Muslim faith.
Gods appear to be a class of superhuman beings unto themselves. Because their
origins and true natures are shrouded in myth and controversy, the gods remain
difficult entities to readily define.
There are certain commonalities among all gods, or Immortals in the sense they
represent a race of extra-dimensional beings, an examination of which may shed
more light on their special nature. All gods are or were physical beings and
appear to be composed of something analogous to flesh, bone and tissue except
that it is more durable, denser, stronger and more resistant to injury than
similar human flesh, bone and tissue. Certain gods now exist in an immaterial
state or can assume an immaterial state at will, but even these beings were once
physical in origin.
No god exists alone, but is part of a tribe (called “pantheon”) that includes
numerous other gods possessing human-like familial relationships with one
another. Some pantheons include a number of gods known to the mythology of earth
and a large number who are not. Each pantheon is associated with a certain
tribe, race or culture of people (usually kept isolated from other regions by
geographic or cultural barriers) with a common origin who once worshipped them.
Often times, a pantheon of gods is known by the group of people who worshipped
them; for example, the Olympians have been known as both Greek and Roman gods,
the Annunaki as gods of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians, the Danaans as
the gods of the Celts and Gauls and the Coati by the Aztecs and Mayans. Each
pantheon, as a self-contained group, sometimes took the name of the realm where
they existed, a common ancestor or another reference to assign themselves as a
race into their own, such as the Asgardians, Danaans, Xian or Anasazi. Each
pantheon once existed or still exists in its own separate world and with certain
exceptions (such as Hercules, Thor and other gods with vested interest in
mortals), takes very little active part in the affairs of present day humanity.
It has been suggested there are more than a few gods who have taken human roles
or identities in history and have had parts in critical historical events. In
fact, several gods have once lived on earth in human roles (certain Egyptian and
Sumerian Gods ruled as kings or pharaohs of portions of Earth before known
written history). With this contact, several of the strong connections between
Immortal and mortal man have provided many of mankind’s most detailed accounts
of Immortal activity, but over the years and constant oral retellings, these
tales have become distorted, confused and embellished for the sake of religious
or cultural doctrine. All of these tales now encompass modern mythology with no
sense of the actual historical significance that they once shared. It is quite
likely, that the Immortals of earth had vested interest in the destiny of human
civilization and were elevated willingly or unwillingly into religious deities
depending on their inherent personalities. In fact, several of the original
concepts of mythology concerning the gods support the existence of one true
deity or “God” before worship of multiple deities became widespread.
Certain individual gods within each pantheon became associated with a particular
natural phenomenon, object existing in the natural world or much-valued skill. For
instance, Thor is the Norse god of thunder, Artemis is the Greek goddess of the
hunt and Horus is the Egyptian god of the sun. Many pantheons have gods in command of identical fields, such as a god of the dead. Many of these areas of expertise seem to have
developed out of the individual god’s personality, skill or attribute
culturally significant to it. Mankind’s former worship of Immortals does not
seem to have affected their given deity’s (or pantheon’s) existence or store
of superhuman energies. (This contrasts with demonic entities and beings such as
Dormammu or Mephisto, who will often drain portions of the life forces of their
followers and worshippers to increase their own power). If this were the case, a
god such as Thor or Hercules could not be as powerful as he is if he were
dependent on belief in him to sustain his might. The relationship between
ancient mankind and the Immortals they called gods seems to have been one based
solely on religious belief and peace of mind even long after the Immortals
ceased seeking active worshippers. In fact, long after many of the Immortals
retired their godly duties, they continued with vested interest in the lives of
their former worshippers and the descendants of such. Both Zeus and Hercules
watched closely over their mortal descendants and Brigid of the Celtic Gods
protects over the descendants of the Celts. In modern years, many of the former
gods of earth seem to traffic earth but do so from behind mortal guises and
restraints.
All of the pantheons of gods have their own myths of creation (which once believed
by their human worshippers), assigning members of their pantheons with key
positions in the creation of all that exists. Obviously, not all of these origin
tales can be simultaneously literal and current scientific knowledge tends to
discredit all of them. What is known about the origins of the Immortals is that
they are not the first beings of their type to appear on earth. There is
substantial evidence that prior to mankind’s existence, and perhaps the
existence of any other relatively complex organic life on Earth, beings referred
to as the Elder Gods once existed on Earth. These Elder Gods are believed to
have somehow coalesced out of the Earth’s biosphere (the fertile
life-supporting environment) and taking physical form by intermingling with the
substance of the Earth itself. The first such being to have achieved
consciousness this way is called the Demiurge and is called the prime creative
force of its kind. According to certain accounts, the Demiurge congealed into
consciousness even as the conditions on Earth became right for life and then
sensing the need for diversity, split up into countless fertile fragments, each
of which spawned a new organism. These Elder Gods, the spawn of the Demiurge,
were generally an imperfect class of non-humanoid beings (such as Set who took
the form of the serpent), who degenerated into life-preying demons with the
passing eons. The Elder God known as Gaea is believed to have escaped that fate
by attaining a more advanced form (humanoid) and entrenching herself in the
crust of the Earth itself. She thus became one of the few surviving Elder Gods
and became known as Mother Nature. Gaea claims to have mated with a
reincarnation of the Demiurge at the peak of the Elder Gods’ degeneration and
given birth to a newer, more perfect race of gods.
Their offspring Atum was conceived to slay the degenerate gods of the old generation
and open the way for the new gods of Earth. If Atum is indeed the first of the
new gods and Gaea’s account of the Elder Gods is essentially true, then Atum
is the primal parent of all the later generations known to man. After slaying
virtually all his predecessors and cleansing the earth of their evil, Atum split
into countless fertile fragments, such as the Demiurge allegedly had done eons
previously, thus spawning the modern gods now known to modern man. (Atum is the
name the Egyptians called the primal Earth god. He may have been called other
names by other generations). If Atum did spawn the later generations known to
man, then the individual Immortals of those pantheons are related even as all
the families of man are related. (Indeed, the Egyptian gods viewed the Asgardian
God Odin as the reincarnation of Atum.) Evidence of common origin of all the
gods of earth is that there have been intermingling between pantheons,
particularly those whose worshippers have lived in close proximity to each other
(such as the Olympians and the Danaans). There is also evidence that what is now
known as one tribe or pantheon is made up of more than one smaller tribe who
merged together as one. (For instance, the Aesir and the Vanir remerged into the
Asgardians after years of unrest while the Coati have split into Aztec and Mayan
Gods). Although this theory of the origin of the Immortal race cannot be fully
verified, it is as yet the most integrated hypothesis proposed to account for
all the facets of the Immortals of Earth.
It would appear that none of the pantheons worshipped by the myriad peoples of
Earth is an outright fabrication on the parts of their worshippers. Every
pantheon once worshipped on earth appears to have been (and in most cases still
is) literally real. Among the many pantheons of gods known to exist are those
beings worshipped by the Greeks and Romans, Norse, Egyptians, Mesopotamians,
Hindus, Chinese, Japanese, Aztec and Mayan tribes, Incans, Celts and Gaels,
Slavs, Finno-Ugrians, Native Americans, Oceanic Aborigines and Africans. The
chieftains or “sky-fathers” of these various pantheons have encountered each
other at various times, once at a convocation initiated by Odin of the
Asgardians and Zeus of the Olympians to address the problem of the Celestial
visitation on earth. (It should be noted that some of these pantheons have
multiple sovereigns or chiefs in equal positions of power. Vishnu, Brahma and
Shiva have shared rule of the Hindu gods and The Dagda and Leir are but two
chiefs in the Celtic-Gaul Pantheon). It has been conjectured that it was the
alien Celestials who dispatched at least some of the realms of the gods into
other dimensions. Another theory is that the gods themselves elected to move
their homes to other dimensions where they would be safer. Still another is that
the godly realms naturally drifted into other dimensions due to a shift in the
Earth’s cosmic axis.
It should be noted that there are various beings who claim to be gods or were
mistaken by them in the past, but are not truly gods or true Immortals. Among
them are Eternals (Zuras was mistaken for Zeus), aliens (the Axi-Tun and the
Horusian races), mutants (Storm, The Black Queen, et al), extra-dimensional
beings (Darkseid, Perrikus, et al) or human beings of extraordinary mystical
potential (such as Duncan MacLeod). In modern years, people have transformed
certain iconic individuals (such as Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley) into
immortal status. Still yet, there are also certain characters in modern myth
that have achieved status on par with the Immortals or former gods of earth (The
Modern Pantheon) who have been dubbed “superheroes” by tabloids such as the
Daily Bugle or the Daily Planet.
The
Olympians - Gods of Greece and Rome
The Asgardians – Gods of Scandinavia and Germany
The
Anunnaki – Gods of Mesopotamia
The
Devas – Gods of India and the Middle East
The
Oxlahuntiku and Bolontiku – Gods of the Aztecs and Mayans
El
Doradans – Gods of South America
The
Danaans – Gods of the Celts and Gauls
The
Kalevalans – Gods of Finland
The
Anasazi – Gods of the North America
The
Kahunas – The Gods of Polynesia
Superheroes – The Modern Pantheon
Creature Features - Mythical Monsters
NOTE: This site is not meant as a source for serious research on mythology or religion. A lot of serious mythological research as well as hypothetical theory has been involved in the creation of the profiles seen here. No offense is intended for any figures depicted or described here, especially concerning Hindu, Native American or any other deities still worshipped today. Please send any feedback, questions or comments to William Uchtman or visit the Guest book here or follow me on Twitter.
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