ZEUS?: A Short Note

Since this topic hit the New York Times the other day, and since my buddy, Jerry Clark, noticed me about it, I've decided {foolishly} to say a few words. As this is in a subject area {traditional gods} that I'm pretty ignorant about, and which don't {in their traditional descriptions nor behaviors} easily fit within my model of Reality, I probably shouldn't be lumbering you with any comment at all, but Devil Take The Hindmost, here goes.

The stimulus for these ramblings comes from an article in the NYT by professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Gary Gutting. The good Doctor wrote an intellectual opinion about how we jump to conclusions, particularly on the side of doubt and dismissal, based upon mental habits which are unhelpful to the pursuit of truth. These habits are built upon social prejudices rather than objectivity. For instance, today's modern social prejudices would lead us [in the absence of certain kinds of proof] to outright reject the assertion that Zeus exists or even once existed, whereas the more honest assessment would be that since we have no strong evidence either way, we should be willing to grant the possibility at least of the old god's existence, somewhen or another. There are after-all a whole pile of legends about him, and a good part of several cultures based upon him and his godly colleagues.

Gutting's philosophical point will, of course, not be missed by any followers of the history of the anomalies. ALL of our interests are met with the exact rejections from the cultural establishment, as would be assertions about Zeus. Anti-anomalists and wary atheists have immediately smelled a rat in Gutting's viewpoint, as expressed here. They are no dummies, despite being morons of a different sort. They feel, probably accurately, that if they let Gutting's philosophical position stand, it would be the Trojan Horse not only for legitimization of research on anomalies, but acceptance of the reasonableness of employing God as a factor in the Cosmos. If Zeus existed, why not God? ... yes, it's enough to make one shudder in one's mortal bones.

That's the sub-text here. It's something that we know perfectly well already. But more trivially: what about this Zeus guy? Could he have existed?

Let's take a little walk Out Proctor..... {I'm not promising any Zeus sightings on the way though}.

Zeus---- humanoid-looking entity; shape-shifter though. Seems generally selfish and arrogant. Not sure whether he really cares about anything; perhaps amoral. Has some paranormal powers, and they are sometimes Big Deals. Hurls an energy bolt when he's mad. Lives in a place called "Mt. Olympus", which is in the sky, but previously was thought to be on an actual physical mountain here on Earth. A few other groups have claimed that the main Greek group got it wrong, and he lived on different mountains.

Hmmmm..... the question is not WHO he is, but WHAT.

You all must answer this question in your own ways. For me, I'll begin with my own theological assumptions: [on the assumed-for-discussion-basis that this entity was real]
1]. Zeus wasn't God as my Theology views God;
2]. If Zeus had the free ability to enter into normal human lives and willfully, physically affect them using paranormal power, then he wasn't Satan or the attendant "devils" either;
3]. That leaves very clever humans, or those folks that we always end up with, the Middle Earthers, or Faerie Folk.

Could Zeus have been based upon some advanced human[s]? "Sorcerers"? "Wizards"?

I'm really at a loss as to how much a human being might be capable of. The Druid-type people [and the painting of Zeus above looks remarkably Druidical doesn't it?] may easily have known all manner of healing, agricultural, metallurgical knowledge, and Zeus is often given credit for bringing a lot of that. BUT .... shapeshifting? Hurling bolts of energy? Those seem a bit too much to be the phenomena of clever druid-like fellows.

What about Faerie?

Celtic Faerie seems not to "look" much like Zeus and his friends, but there are some similarities. There are shapeshifters all over the Celtic landscape, and plenty of examples of selfishness and amorality. The Faerie Folk often live in "special" geological or ancient places: Forts, mountains, mounds, lakes and streams. One of Zeus' four main attributes was the Oak, surprisingly. The Greeks themselves felt that the origin of Zeus was in Crete, in a Cave. The VERY ancient cult of Zeus at Dodona featured priests who meditated under trees watching the play of light and winds on the leaves. Zeus, originally, may have been a lot "closer to Nature" than we moderns think.

As I said, I don't know any answers here. But if entities such as Zeus, Diana, Aphrodite, Heracles existed, they "feel" to me paranormal and faerie. Whether that be in the style of The Old Green Man of the Celts, or the Lightbringers, or the giants of the mountains, they seem to belong there. There are dribbles of evidence that the paranormal can express itself physically {poltergeist phenomena and Ouija-gone-wrong, as examples}, and maybe the denizens of Faerie could manage some spectacular affairs.

Professor Gutting didn't want to actually pursue any trails of evidence, either because he didn't know any or he felt that such detail would muddy the philosophical point he was making... and it was probably both. But you and I don't have to worry about our reputations, so we can do the good work that the "good doctor" cannot.

Strolling in the Green Forests of Mystery Out Proctor is just so much more pleasant than those suffocating Halls of Academe, don't you think?

Peace, Blessings... and some Fun, my friends.