There are a few Gods
that do not fit ‘perfectly’ into a particular group of deities. The main god
that ‘does not fit’ in is Dionysus, who is depicted in the image. Dionysus does
not fit in the Olympian twelve perfectly for many reasons; one reason is that
he is technically a demi-god as his mother was Semele, a mortal that died as
she asked to see Zeus (her lover) in his true form. Semele died whilst pregnant
with Dionysus, Zeus rescued Dionysus and placed him in his thigh till he was
ready to be born. This is why I said he was technically a demi-god as he was
conceived by a mortal and an immortal however he was born from an immortal that
fathered him. Dionysus is known as the thirteenth Olympian God because he does
not fit in the Olympian twelve.
Dionysus
is also not seen as a ‘perfect’ fit in to the Greek Gods as it seems he was a
late arrival to Greek religion as he was not mentioned in early literature. The
fact that Dionysus was ‘a late arrival’ would have meant that the play ‘the
Bacchae’ by Euripides was probably true. In the play the King of Thebes
Pentheus did not believe that Dionysus was a ‘proper’ God and told the people
of Thebes not to worship him, he was later punished for these actions. The fact
that Dionysus was a ‘late arrival’ to the Greek Pantheon would mean that he
would not have been accepted or worshipped as much as the other Gods in the
pantheon hence why Dionysus does not fit in the Olympian twelve as he was a
later arrival and could of arrived after the ‘Olympian twelve’ had been decided
on.
Hecate
was seen as a Goddess that did not fit perfectly this is probably due to her
attributes of witchcraft, the moon, necromancy and magic. The Ancient Greek
people had trouble trying to fit Hecate in for a number of reasons. One of
these was some people found it hard as one of her attributes was the dark side
of the moon however she carried a torch, this was problematic as she stood for
darkness but she was depicted holding a torch. People may have been wary of
worshipping Hecate as she was the goddess of magic and witchcraft and the Greek
people would have been superstitious and supporting witchcraft would have given
people the wrong idea about you. Worshipping Hecate could be seen as a form of
protection from the witchcraft and magic. People would worship Hekate as a form
of protection from the evil eye.
Bibliography
Book
Hornblower, S and Spawforth, A. (1998). The
oxford companion to classical civilization (oxford)
Website
Image
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