The Romans believed that all religions were already near perfect counterparts. They maintained that there is only one pantheon of gods, and the pantheons of different cultures are just different names and interpretations of the same gods. The Romans used it as a tool of conquest. After they conquered a nation, they told the natives that they all worship the same gods, and put a lot of effort into making sure everyone identified as being part of the same religion. It’s easier to revolt against an oppressor who is a different religion and ethnicity than you. Human beings have a harder time organising resistance against a group they culturally identify with.
Some Roman scholars had limited contact with Vikings, and they determined that Odin is the Norse counterpart of Hermes. That’s the point where syncretism starts to get a bit silly, because while they are both gods of travellers, the scholars completely ignored the hierarchy of the Norse gods. They ignored that Odin is the skyfather. Perhaps that’s why our modern culture is so fascinated by Thor as the most popular Norse god. As a thunder god, Thor syncretises to Jupiter/Zeus, the king of the gods. Syncretism actually continued into the Christian age, and some believed that the Norse counterpart of Jesus is Loki. It’s fascinating. You see, while Loki was a trickster, his other two big functions in the Norse pantheon were the scapegoat and the bringer of Ragnarok. When the Aesir promised to pay a dwarf to build a wall and didn’t want to pay up, they went to Loki for help. Loki seduced the dwarf’s donkey to slow down the work, and that’s how we got Sleipnir. Loki was at times the savoir of the Aesir. And as for Ragnarok, the Christian monks who talked to the Vikings saw Ragnarok as a Norse name for the rapture. So they assumed Loki was Jesus.
Now, if you tried syncretising Christianity to the Greek pantheon, Jesus would come out equivalent to Dionysus. There’s the wine miracles, there’s the hanging out with prostitutes, and there’s the being an ally to slaves and the oppressed. Slaves were allowed to join the Cult of Dionysus, which is really cool. And of course, if you want to get queer with it (which I always do), then Dionysus being raised as a mortal girl fits in nicely with Jesus not having a Y chromosome because there was no sperm involved in his conception. And I don’t even need to tell you how queer Loki is. So it’s really neat that Jesus and two of his syncretisms are trans. But there’s a lot of other thematic similarities between Jesus and Dionysus like the fact they’re both liberators and they’re both conquerer-kings. As paradoxical as that is, it’s true of both of them.
The Romans believed that all religions were already near perfect counterparts. They maintained that there is only one pantheon of gods, and the pantheons of different cultures are just different names and interpretations of the same gods. The Romans used it as a tool of conquest. After they conquered a nation, they told the natives that they all worship the same gods, and put a lot of effort into making sure everyone identified as being part of the same religion. It’s easier to revolt against an oppressor who is a different religion and ethnicity than you. Human beings have a harder time organising resistance against a group they culturally identify with.
Some Roman scholars had limited contact with Vikings, and they determined that Odin is the Norse counterpart of Hermes. That’s the point where syncretism starts to get a bit silly, because while they are both gods of travellers, the scholars completely ignored the hierarchy of the Norse gods. They ignored that Odin is the skyfather. Perhaps that’s why our modern culture is so fascinated by Thor as the most popular Norse god. As a thunder god, Thor syncretises to Jupiter/Zeus, the king of the gods. Syncretism actually continued into the Christian age, and some believed that the Norse counterpart of Jesus is Loki. It’s fascinating. You see, while Loki was a trickster, his other two big functions in the Norse pantheon were the scapegoat and the bringer of Ragnarok. When the Aesir promised to pay a dwarf to build a wall and didn’t want to pay up, they went to Loki for help. Loki seduced the dwarf’s donkey to slow down the work, and that’s how we got Sleipnir. Loki was at times the savoir of the Aesir. And as for Ragnarok, the Christian monks who talked to the Vikings saw Ragnarok as a Norse name for the rapture. So they assumed Loki was Jesus.
Now, if you tried syncretising Christianity to the Greek pantheon, Jesus would come out equivalent to Dionysus. There’s the wine miracles, there’s the hanging out with prostitutes, and there’s the being an ally to slaves and the oppressed. Slaves were allowed to join the Cult of Dionysus, which is really cool. And of course, if you want to get queer with it (which I always do), then Dionysus being raised as a mortal girl fits in nicely with Jesus not having a Y chromosome because there was no sperm involved in his conception. And I don’t even need to tell you how queer Loki is. So it’s really neat that Jesus and two of his syncretisms are trans. But there’s a lot of other thematic similarities between Jesus and Dionysus like the fact they’re both liberators and they’re both conquerer-kings. As paradoxical as that is, it’s true of both of them.