Have The Mythological Gods Changed?

Modern mythology may look very different from the mythology of the ancient world, but the human need to create god, heroes and stories that explain our world has not disappeared.

“The mythology of a people, that is the structured collection of their myths, is a description of the World, the past and the future as they see it.”

Indian Mythology an Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend – Jan Knappert

The ancients worshipped many gods; each culture had their own. We know of them today because of the art and worshipping practises they left behind in the archaeological record. The various deities were identified with natural phenomena or forces of nature. Humans assigned divine power to things they could not control such as thunder, lightning, rainfall, the Sun and fire. It helped them explain such natural forces and seek protection or good harvests. They believed each god personified a different force, e.g. Poseidon was the God of the sea and storms, Thor was the God of thunder, Mars was the God of war, Freya was the Goddess of love,
beauty and magic.

Today most of these deities are just stories, although some have survived through to modern day. This takes place in two forms. First there are those such as the Norse and Greek gods (Thor, Zeus, Odin) who survive today, not as living religions, but as literary and cinematic archetypes. Secondly, in religions like Hinduism, gods have survived into the modern day because India has maintained an unbroken tradition of local worship, text preservation, and cultural incorporation that dates back to about 4000BCE.

Therefore, in the main, the gods haven’t disappeared. We have simply changed how we view them, or what we call them. It might be considered that the new gods are the superheroes of DC and Marvel comics. Today’s gods wear spandex!

Christopher Knowles comments, “Young children have a magical world view. Because they don’t understand the physical processes of the everyday world, they tend to perceive their environment as supernatural” (Our Gods Wear Spandex, The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes.)

We may no longer believe that Zeus throws thunderbolts or that Odin rides across the sky, because we now understand the universe through science, technology, psychology and popular culture.

But we haven’t stopped creating myths. We have simply changed the gods in those myths. We have never stopped creating gods, we have simply changed the language in which we imagine them. Consequently, our gods increasingly appear as superheroes, aliens, artificial intelligences, mutants, space-faring beings and
extraordinary humans.

Superman arrives from another world. Thor comes from another realm. Wonder Woman emerges from a world of gods. The X-Men explore what happens when humanity evolves beyond itself. The Matrix asks whether the reality we experience is real.

I think we need to stop thinking of mythology as something that belongs to the ancient world, we still need myths in the modern world and I believe we have them. We still create beings with extraordinary powers. We still tell stories about heroes who descend from the heavens, possess abilities beyond ordinary humanity, battle supernatural forces and sacrifice themselves for others. Quite simply, the hero has replaced the God. Often this hero is a saviour figures. “All superheroes are essentially saviour figures. Unlike religious saviours, however, superheroes offer salvation as a tangible, unambiguous event.” (Knowles).

I don’t think the line should be drawn at superheroes. What about the Star Wars saga with Luke Skywalker as the saviour, or the Dune series with Paul Atreides, and Tolkien Legendarium? With their enduring appeal across decades, and the complexity of the stories, are these the modern myths?