Life has left me with a bunch of ideas, one of which being that I should totally create a pantheon of gods that stretches across cultures. The idea is that all cultures have a portion of the truth. These gods, able to shapeshift, are capable of appearing as any adjacent god in the eyes of humans. For example, Zeus can become Odin and Astarte can become Aphrodite. There are already theories surrounding this, but many are flawed.
These gods pick their names, some choosing names mortals gave them and others just picking whatever name suits them. That being said, here is . . . .
The Creation
Out of chaos came Persephone, the sun goddess who longed to see others like herself. After producing all the stars in the sky, she finally created her mirror image the moon goddess Hecate. They became foils for each other as well as complements of one another. They bonded over creating the earth. With the formation of the moon came monthly cycles, and Persephone’s uterine blood formed the seas. Hecate carved the lands from her own flesh, for she did not have uterine blood to create with.
When Hecate bled into the chaos between herself and the earth, the god Erasmus arose. He then pulled from the seas the goddess Ishtar, whom he called his daughter while many saw them as siblings. Persephone loved them and created humans for them to look after. Then she began planting on Hecate’s flesh-made lands, raising vegetation and animals for humans to feed on. When humans could not cook the meat, Hecate wrestled flame from Persephone’s body and the two fell to the earth leaving the sun and moon to guide themselves.
Hecate gave humans flame and the sisters did not speak. Missing her sister’s creations, Hecate sought to create her own humanity in the shadows. What she made instead were creatures of darkness and dreams whom she had to trap in the dark to keep alive. Then the humans threatened to eat all the animals in the world. Then they created Damien from clay so he would protect animals and the wildlife that Persephone had poured herself into. Persephone and Hecate reconciled their differences when Persephone was allowed to use Hecate’s flesh to further immortalize Damien.
The creatures Hecate created terrified humans, and so Persephone helped her sister split them into three groups to be less powerful. Humans eventually became too numerous, but Persephone didn’t want her favored creations to simply perish. So she and Hecate pulled a god from the foam of the sea. This god was Virgil and he took over the weather and the underworld which formed beneath the oceans. In the underworld he could closely monitor Hecate’s children while also keeping Persephone’s children happy or punishing the bad ones.
Virgil worked closely with Hecate but formed a deep bond with her sister. He began to court Persephone, but her being in the underworld meant nothing would grow and the lands grew cold. So they decided to spend certain times of the year with one another as well as separate so they could perform their duties seasonally. Their union, centuries into the formation of several civilizations and pantheons which were modeled after their efforts, Yeshua was born unto a mortal chosen by Persephone and Virgil.
Rowan Liddell 