kinda stumped

[evilgrins]

I'm working, in my head till I'm ready to type it out, on a little religious post involving names and how they're assigned to gods and the like. Like there's the big gods and the little gods and a whole mess of gods and it's an involved thing; trying to do a polytheistic post to proveyourgod. Anyway, I was going to use an example involving the Greeks and the

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[virtual_anima]

From wikipedia:

"Archaic Roman mythology, at least concerning the gods, was made up not of narratives, but rather of complex interrelations between gods and humans. Unlike in Greek mythology, the gods were not personified, but were vaguely-defined sacred spirits called numina. Romans also believed that every person, place or thing had its own genius, or divine soul. During the Roman Republic, Roman religion was organized under a strict system of priestly offices, which were held by men of senatorial rank. The College of Pontifices was uppermost body in this hierarchy, and its chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus, was the head of the state religion. Flamens took care of the cults of various gods, while augurs were trusted with taking the auspices. The sacred king took on the religious responsibilities of the deposed kings. In the Roman empire, emperors were held to be gods, and the formalized imperial cult became increasingly prominent.

As contact with the Greeks increased, the old Roman gods became increasingly associated with Greek gods. Thus, Jupiter was perceived to be the same deity as Zeus, Mars became associated with Ares, and Neptune with Poseidon. The Roman gods also assumed the attributes and mythologies of these Greek gods. The transferral of anthropomorphic qualities to Roman Gods, and the prevalence of Greek philosophy among well-educated Romans, brought about an increasing neglect of the old rites, and in the 1st century BC, the religious importance of the old priestly offices declined rapidly, though their civic importance and political influence remained. Roman religion in the empire tended more and more to center on the imperial house, and several emperors were deified after their deaths.

Under the empire, numerous foreign cults grew popular, such as the worship of the Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Beginning in the 2nd century, Christianity began to spread in the Empire, despite initial persecution. It became an officially supported religion in the Roman state under Constantine I, and all religions except Christianity were prohibited in 391 by an edict of Emperor Theodosius I."

[gotmalkavian]

Yeah, it seems that the Romans were essentially religious packrats. They picked up little things here and there, and it's virtually impossible to know where exactly they started. There's another little write-up on it here.
http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html

[virtual_anima]

That's what I get from it too. In that way, the US is quite like rome, assimilating things form other cultures.