Hard polytheism
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Hard polytheism specifies a variety of polytheism which considers the various Gods and Goddesses to be distinct divine beings with separate personalities. Hard polytheists reject the idea that "All Gods are One God", that the Gods are temporal manifestations or aspects of only one of the Gods or that deities merge or change into each other. In that, their point of view can be contrasted with soft polytheism. Hard Polytheists also reject the ideas that the Gods are merely archetypes or that they are simply personifications of natural forces.
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[edit] Hard polytheism and mythology
The Greek gods provide an example. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods were independent deities who weren't aspects of a great deity and did stand on their own. Soft polytheism means that the person practicing a polytheistic religion believes that their gods are aspects of another god or goddess. In the case of the Ancient Egyptians this comes in the form of triads or triple gods or goddesses. They believed that certain Gods were aspects of a great God. Amon was an aspect of Ra and was usually known as Amon-Ra. The triple gods Ptah-Sokar-Osiris to give an example shows that even though their Gods may have distinct personalities and traits, they are considered to be aspects of an another deity.
[edit] A unifying principle
It should be noted that Hard Polytheism does not involve the rejection of the understanding that the Gods are manifestations of a common divine essence. Neoplatonism, the underlying theology of Classical Polytheism developed the idea that the Gods share a common divine essence called The One. 'The Gods may be One' to a hard Polytheists but 'The Gods are not One God'. A a unifying principle can be used by hard polytheists to provided a philosophical basis for Polytheism and as a safeguard against Soft Polytheism and Monotheism.
[edit] Beliefs and other religions
Hard polytheists tend to believe that all Gods are real even those of different religions. This should not be taken to believe that it is a requisite of hard polytheism to believe that every single deity is real in precisely the way they are portrayed by different religions. That every different representation of a God represents a different deity. Some Gods appear in many religions and are clearly the same God, for instance the Indo-European God Dyeus appears in different religions according to their own cultural understanding; Zeus: Greek, Dyaus Pita: Vedic, Jupiter: Roman.
[edit] Contemporary usage
The term "hard polytheism" is most often used to describe a theological position in Neopaganism, most commonly found among practitioners of reconstructionist Neopagan religions. It is especially prevalent in Hellenismos and Religio Romana, as these revivalist movements are based on the ancient religions of Greece and Rome, which were generally hard polytheist in outlook.
[edit] Polytheistic religions
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