Book Reviewed: Gods, Demigods and Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology, by Bernard Evslin

The treasures of Greek mythology

This book is introductory in nature that describes Greek gods, goddesses and heroes that have inspired human creativity in Western civilization. It delineates Greek myths and their relevance to Greek religion and nature worship, which was also prevalent in ancient Israel and ancient India. The gods and goddesses are described alphabetically and the myths include stories about the gods and the role they played in human emancipation.

Ancient Greek, Egypt and Roman religions had numerous gods and goddesses. They were worshipped similar to gods of Rigveda in ancient India. But these religions did not survive after the advent of Christianism because there were no sacred scriptures and religious literature that could have supported their beliefs and practices. In contrast to this, Ṛgveda evolved as a major sacred scripture of early Hinduism that paved the way for other Vedic literature like Aranyakas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, epics (Itihasa), Bhagavadgita, and Puranas. The six schools of Hindu Philosophy that includes Vedanta were built on strong foundations of Vedic literature. This partly explains the survival of Hinduism over Greek, Egyptian and Roman religions. In addition, the Roman Empire’s embrace of Christianism accelerated the dominance of Roman Catholic faith.

The Greek religion believed that the pantheon of deities lived on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. From their perch, they ruled every aspect of human life. Olympian gods and goddesses looked like men and women, but they could change themselves into animals and other things. Homer’s epics of the Iliad and the Odyssey described the mythical story of Trojan War as a divine conflict as well as a human one. But he did not name the gods and goddesses who are probably his main characters. But about one hundred years later, Hesiod’s Theogony offered the first written origin story of Greek mythology. It said that the universe came from nothingness (Chaos, a primeval void) to being, and a family tree of elements, gods and goddesses evolved. They descended from all over; Gaia (Earth), Ouranos (Sky), Pontos (Sea) and Tartaros (the Underworld).

Serval gods of Greek and Roman religions bear resemblance to gods of Ṛgveda of Hinduism. They all have originated from a proto Indo-European inhabitants (Yamnaya culture). For example, god’s names had similar origin; Zeus (Greek) and Dyaus Pitar (Hindu); Hades (Greek), Yama (Hindu) and Yima (Persian mythology); Uranus (Greek) and Varuna (Hindu); Mars (Greek) and Maruts (Hindu); Daphne (Greek) Dahana (Hindu); and Paris (Greek) Panis (Hindu). Zeus (Greek), the king of gods is affirmed with thunder and lightning, the lightning bolt as his primary weapon. Similarly Vedic god Indra is king of the gods and heavens. One of his trademarks is the “Vajras” or lightning bolt, representing immense power and influence. Saraswati (Hindu goddess) is a “cosmic musician,” embodying perfection, knowledge, and wisdom, and Athena (Greek goddess) is very intelligent (Regula) and heroic. The Vedic trinity in ancient Hinduism was Indra, Varuna and Mitra, whose Greek counterparts were Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.

The supreme ruler of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon was the god *Dyḗus Pḥatḗr, whose name literally means "Sky Father". He was believed to have been worshipped as the god of the day-lit skies. Linguists reconstruct the names of some deities in the Proto-Indo-European language. The term for "God" was deiwos; this is reflected in Hittite as sius; Latin as Deus or divus; Sanskrit as deva; and Persian as daeva or div.

This is a good book for quick reference. But the author does not provide any illustrations, photographs, drawings or genealogical tables. In fact there is no introduction to this volume. Recommended to readers interested in ancient history, Greek history and Greek religion.