Om Religionene
Fra caplex.no; mytologi, mytesamling; vitenskapen om myter
Fra caplex.no; nordisk mytologi. Lite er kjent av den tidligste gudedyrkelsen i Norden. Gravfunn tyder på tro på liv etter døden, helleristninger viser til forestillinger om magiske og hjelpende makter i forb. med en fruktbarhetskult. Tidlige skrevne kilder, f.eks. Tacitus fra år 100 e.Kr., nevner at mennesker ofres til guden Mercurius: Odin. Gammel no. og isl. diktning, særlig Snorres Edda og Ynglingesaga, og den eldre Sæmundureddaen, gir innblikk i den rel. forestillingsverden i før-kristen vikingtid.
To gudeslekter, vaner og æser, utkjemper en kamp og forlikes ved at noen av gudene utleveres som gisler. Vanene er fruktbarhetsguddommer og av eldre opprinnelse, og avspeiler en kultur som lever av å dyrke jorda. Dyrkingen av dem ble fortrengt til fordel for æsene, som forbindes med en kvegavlkultur. Sentrale er forestillingene om verdens tilblivelse (med Ginnungagap og urjotnen Yme), undergang (Ragnarok) og gjenfødsel, samt ideen om tre nivåer av eksistens med guder i Åsgard, mennesker i Midgard og jotner i Utgard.
Viktig er også forestillinger om livets tre, Yggdrasil, dødsriket Hel og Valhall, hvor de falne i krig får bo. Det ble ofret til gudene for å få rike avlinger og krigslykke. Stort sett var det dyr som ble ofret, men menneskeofringer forekom også. Den fremste offerfesten var midtvintersblotet. Troen på overnaturlige vesener, alver, dverger, riser, osv., har overlevd like fram til vår egen tid.
Fra wikipedia.com; Greek mythology is the set of myths which come from the religion of ancient Hellenic civilization. These stories were familiar to all ancient Greeks and, although some thinkers professed skepticism, they provided the people with both rituals and history. Like the religions of most of the neighboring groups, the Greeks believed in gods who were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and sex, while Ares was the god of war and Hades the god of the dead. Though there were hundreds of beings that could be considered "gods" in one sense or another, most figured only into obscure bits of folklore, perhaps as fragments of remembrances of more ancient deities. Actual worship was centered around only a few gods, mostly the Olympians (or thirteen gods in total) were the center of large pan-Hellenic cults, though Persephone (patroness of the Eleusinian mysteries) is a prominent exception. Many regions and even individual villages had their own cults centered around nymphs or minor patron deities virtually unknown elsewhere. Foreign gods like Cybele (a Phrygian goddess) were well-known in Greece, but not actively worshipped.
Fra wikipedia.com; Egyptian mythology (or Egyptian religion) is the name for the succession of beliefs held by the people of Egypt until the coming of Christianity and Islam.
The timespan involved is nearly three thousand years, and beliefs varied considerably over time, so an article or, indeed, even one whole book, cannot do more than outline the many entities and subjects in this complex system of beliefs. Egyptian Mythology is different from Greek or Roman Mythology, in that in Egyptian Mythology most deities are of human body and animal head or vice versa.
Fra wikipedia.com; Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. Few of their myths have survived intact, but Celtic mythology has nevertheless influenced modern European civilisation.
Celtic mythology can be divided into three main subgroups of related beliefs.
Goidelic - Irish, Manx and Scottish
Insular Brythonic - Welsh, Cornish
Continental Brythonic - mainland European
(..) the Celtic culture (and its religion(s)) were not as contiguous as the more homogeneous Roman or Greek cultures. Our current understanding holds that each tribe along the vast Celtic area of influence had its own deities. Of the 300+ known deities, few indeed were commonly honored.