When did the religion of ancient Greece devolve from a viable belief system into a collection of fables which have come to be labeled as Myths?

At the time of Homer (circa 750 BCE) the Greek Gods, Goddesses and Heroes were absolutely real ... we can also deduce from Homer that, at the time of the Trojan War (circa 1250 BCE), the Gods and Goddesses were a matter of fact and in no way mythical.

Herodotus (484-425 BCE) and Xenophon (434-355 BCE) wrote about the descendants of the Gods and Goddesses in no uncertain terms ... to these well traveled and educated men, the exploits of Herakles (Heracles), Jason, Theseus and Perseus were a matter of historical fact and not the exploits of mythical folk heroes or symbolic archetypes.

It wasn’t until the time of poets such as Aristophanes (427-382 BCE) that we start to get suggestions that true reverence for the Gods and Goddesses of old had been lost ... the Immortals and their semi-human offspring had now become the subject of off color jokes and disrespectful characterizations which would never have been tolerated in times past. Despite his artistic jibes at the Immortals, I doubt seriously whether Aristophanes, or the people who enjoyed his plays, would have been so bold as to defile a temple or act inappropriately in a sanctuary ... the oracles and temples of the Immortals were still sacred to the people of Greece and commanded reverence.

By all accounts, Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) was a very pious man ... his respect for the Gods and Goddesses was unwavering ... he performed sacrifices and consulted omen-priests prior to making important decisions ... his judgment was always tempered by signs from the Immortals. Alexander knew for a fact that he was directly descended from Herakles and Achilles, from his father and mother respectively ... Herakles was the son of Zeus and Achilles was the son of the Goddess Thetis. It was also widely believed that Alexander thought himself to be a direct descendant of Zeus-Ammon and thus not just distantly related to the Immortals but semi-divine.

By the time the Romans supplanted the Greeks as the major power in the Mediterranean (circa 280 BCE), the Greek religion was simply recognized as an older, yet similar, variation of the newer Roman religion but it was by means “mythological.”

When the Christian religion became the official religion of Rome (circa 337 CE), the older religions became “pagan” and the beliefs of their adherents were attributed to nothing more than the whimsical ignorance of a bygone age. We must remember that the Greeks understood the motion of the planets and reckoned time by the position of the constellations in the night sky ... they predicted eclipses and measured the earth with remarkable accuracy ... they were not ignorant or stupid. Even so, the new Christian religion ridiculed all previous religions and made adherence to the pagan beliefs hated and sometimes fatal.

The Dark Ages which followed the fall of Rome (circa 400-1000 CE) allowed the ancient Greek religion to slip into obscurity. Greek literature was preserved in monasteries financed by the same church which had once tried to erase all evidence of its existence. Monastic students of the Greek language found a treasure trove in the works of Homer, Hesiod and Xenophon. By preserving the Greek language, the scholars inadvertently preserved the Gods and Goddesses who were embedded in the literature.

With the coming of the Renaissance (circa 1450 CE), the Greek Gods, Goddesses and Heroes became the subject of countless pieces of art ... Renaissance art had the twofold effect of breathing new life into the forgotten Immortals by rendering them “unreal” and thus “mythical.”

It wasn’t until Alexander Pope rewrote The Iliad and The Odyssey into English (1717 CE) that the Greek Immortals lost all their potency. Pope transliterated almost all of the Greek names into what he presumed to be their Latin equivalents ... Zeus became Jove ... Hera became Juno ... Ares became Mars ... Odysseus became Ulysses and so on. I feel sure that Alexander Pope did not intend to belittle or diminish the sanctity of the Greek Immortals, he was simply typical of his time in that he saw no difference between the Greek and Roman pantheons ... to Mr. Pope, Zeus was identical to Jove (Jupiter) ... since they were both “mythological” deities, their names were interchangeable. I personally believe that the publication of Alexander Pope’s versions of The Iliad and The Odyssey was the defining moment when the ancient Greek religion became mythology.

From that point on, the ancient Greek religion was universally thought of as “mythology” ... the exploits of the Greek Immortals became folk tales ... the divinity of the Greek pantheon became imaginary and the children of the Immortals became mere humans with exaggerated reputations.

This web site is entitled Greek Mythology because that is the common designation of anything dealing with the ancient Greek religion. When I began this site, over ten years ago, I too was under the delusion that the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece were “mythical” beings but, after an in depth study of the subject matter, I have now come to realize that the term “Mythology” is completely inappropriate ... the Immortals of ancient Greece are as real as any modern deity ... furthermore, the ancient Greek deities have withstood the test of time ... they are still among us.

I sincerely hope that you will embrace Greek Mythology with the understanding that we are not dealing with dusty old folk tales but instead a collection of historical accounts which document the incredible accomplishments of an immortal race of beings who have made an indelible contribution to all the religions which followed and shaped the belief systems of western world.

Michael W. Stewart