▲ | thaumasiotes 7 hours ago | |
> How should I make sense of this line from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin#Roman_era_to_Migration_Pe... : "There is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and the existence of a cult of Odin among them is debated." You should read "the worship of Odin" and "the existence of a cult of Odin" as meaning the same thing. The sentence wouldn't mean anything different if it said "there is no direct, undisputed evidence for a cult of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and its existence among them is debated", or "there is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and it is debated whether he was part of their pantheon". > Definition 1 starts 'The veneration, devotion and religious rites given to a deity'. There are two concepts here: 1. Belief that a god or spirit exists. 2. Rituals intended to communicate with, maintain good relations with, propitiate, or placate a god or spirit. "Worship", "veneration", and "devotion" all refer to both of those concepts. "Religious rites" refer to the second one. (Compare https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship : "to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power".) So a reference to belief in a deity is an attestation of "worship", "veneration", and "devotion". For rites, Tacitus mentions that Mercury receives animal and human sacrifices while other deities only get animals. > What do we call a personified supernatural being who is not worshiped? Are there really no such entities? In the ordinary sense, obviously not, because acknowledging that something is a supernatural entity is worshiping it. But even in the sense of particular rituals, there are no such entities. All supernatural beings receive prayers some of the time. |