'Who mourns for Adonais?'

Michael Forrest as 'Apollo' (courtesy of www.startrek.com)

As this could well be my final posting in my Greek religion blog, I feel I should utilise my 'original idea' format and talk about one of my favourite topics revolving around Greek religion. Now before I start, I shall warn readers that this posting might not appeal to everyone, and it is entirely fictitious - but then again, Greek mythology has its fictitious aspects! The title of this posting refers to an early episode of the TV series of Star Trek, which stuck in my mind thanks to its portrayal of the Greek god Apollo.

The reason why I have included this as a blog is that in one of the scenes, Kirk (the captain) comes up with the theory that the Greek gods were not mythological beings, and fragments of the ancient Greeks' imagination, but they were in fact creatures with abnormal powers from a different part of the universe who took on the form of humans and resided in ancient Greece. To the ancient Greeks they would have been seen as gods! When these 'beings' saw that humanity did not need the assistance of 'gods' they went off to different parts of the galaxy.

So in short, while this could be interpreted as a rather silly or irrelevant point, I feel it is fascinating that we take the aspects of Greek religion for granted. We, the scholars, the historians and the students have to base our knowledge of the Greek gods on sources from the time such as Homer and Hesiod. Ancient greek lives from people such as Apollodorus, however who's to say these people really knew why they worshipped the Greek gods? What if they were in fact real beings. Every myth has it's basis and founding, the Trojan war is widely believed to have occured, thanks to the recent excavations in modern day Turkey. Wood (1998:4) states: 'there was a justifiable reluctance among scholars to admit the idea that the epics have a real connection with historical events of the thirteenth century BC. Indeed the feeling was fairly widespread that the Trojan War was simply a myth and had no relation to history whatsoever. The new discoveries in archaeology, diplomatic records and linguistics are continuing to fill in a real historical background to the Trojan War.' While this doesn't prove the real existence of the Greek 'gods', it does leave us with a thought that we should not be so naive when we think of the gods as simple a 'myth' (perhaps!)

This topic is linked somewhat to the religious belief of gods in general. Wisdom (1944:185) has stated 'The existence of God is not an experimental issue in the way it was. An atheist or agnostic might say to a theist "you still think there are spirits in the trees, nymphs in the streams, a God of the world". He might say this because he noticed the theist of the time in drought pray for rain and make a sacrifice and in the morning look for rain. But disagreement about whether there are gods is now less of this experimental or betting sort than it used to be.' I  think that Wisdom has a fair point here, perhaps the existence of the Greek gods were real, but only in the minds of Greek people when in times of need or distress. Admittedly, it looks likely that the writers of Star Trek had a vivid imagination; compelling, but vivid nonetheless!

Fictional the show may be, however anyone who views this episode cannot shake off that seed of doubt that is in their minds regarding the origins of the gods. McLaren (1999:39) states: 'In the encounter with Apollo, we have cut the last cord to a pre-scientific understanding of the cosmos with its myths of the gods. Nevertheless, something in the back of our minds is unsettled and unsatisfied. At the corners of consciousness we sense that the cosmos is colder than it was before. Some nameless dread, some angst, crowds unwelcomed into our psyche. We are not reassured; we are disquieted.' This is a compelling point, which only adds to the fascination of the existence of the gods. I am not saying I will start a conspiracy theory about the Greek gods, I am simply saying is it really that silly to think that they were real? We can trust the ancient sources, there is no real reason why we need to dispute them! But for those of us who like to go against the norm, there is that little crumb of comfort of Star Trek to call upon!

Further Reading:

M. Wood (1998) In search of the Trojan War. University of California press
J. Wisdom (1944) Gods. Proceedings of the Aristotellian society. New series, Vol 45 pp 185-206
J. E Porter & D. L McLaren (1999) Star Trek and sacred ground: explorations of Star Trek, religion and American culture. SUNY press