u/Dry_Ant_3857

Our Gods are Universal, common to all people, they are not "Tribal Gods" or "Folk Gods" but rather Gods of not only mankind, but also the Gods of both seen and unseen worlds

Hesiod:

>But you, Perses, lay up these things within your heart and listen now to right, ceasing altogether to think of violence. For the son of Cronos has ordained this law for men, that fishes and beasts and winged fowls should devour one another, for right is not in them; but to mankind he gave right which proves far the best. For whoever knows the right and is ready to speak it, far-seeing Zeus gives him prosperity; but whoever deliberately lies in his witness and forswears himself, and so hurts Justice and sins beyond repair, that man’s generation is left obscure thereafter. But the generation of the man who swears truly is better thenceforward.

https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodWorksDays.html

>"For upon the bounteous earth Zeus has thrice ten thousand spirits, watchers of mortal men, and these keep watch on judgements and deeds of wrong as they roam, clothed in mist, all over the earth"

[929, cf. Works and Days 248-53].

Homer:

>"[Zeus says] So much stronger am I than all the gods, and stronger than all the mortals... I would bind the rope to a pinnacle of Olympus and all would hang in air, yes, the very earth and the sea too"

[596, 1167, cf. Iliad 8.10-27].

Pausanias:

>"That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men... whoever made the image made it with three eyes, as signifying that this same god rules in all the three 'allotments' of the Universe"

https://www.periegesis.org/en/reports.php?reportid=68

Letter from an old pagan of Madaurus to future Bishop of Hippo Augustine:

>"May you be preserved, Augustine, by all those subordinate gods whose mediation helps us to reach the communal Father(Zeus) of Gods and men, whom all the nations of the earth honour and pray to in a thousand different ways but with one accord. (Aug., Ep., 16, 4)

 (Aug., Ep., 16, 4) from book (Robert Turcan - The Gods of Ancient Rome. Religion )

Maximus Tyrius:

>"You will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one God, the king and father of all things (Zeus), and many Gods, sons of God, ruling together with him"

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Dissertations_of_Maximus_Tyrius/Chapter_1

Cicero :

>[83] Age et his vocabulis esse deos facimus quibus a nobis nominantur? [84] At primum, quot hominum linguae, tot nomina deorum; non enim ut tu, Velleius, quocumque veneris, sic idem in Italia Volcanus, idem in Africa, idem in Hispania.

>[83] Come now: Do we really think that the gods are everywhere called by the same names by which they are addressed by us? [84] But the gods have as many names as there are languages among humans. For it is not with the gods as with you: you are Velleius wherever you go, but Vulcan is not Vulcan in Italy and in Africa and in Spain.

https://www.loebclassics.com/view/marcus_tullius_cicero-de_natura_deorum/1933/pb_LCL268.81.xml

Cleanthes:

>"Most glorious of immortals, honoured under many names, all-powerful forever, O Zeus... Hail! For it is just for all mortals to address you, since we were born of you, and we alone share in the likeness of deity"

https://elfinspell.com/ClassicalTexts/Rolleston-Epictetus/TeachingsOfEpictetus-HymnToZeus.html

Menander Rhetor:

>"By what names shall I address you? Some call you Lydian, some Delian, some Ascraean, some Actian. The Spartans call you Amyclaean, the Athenians Patroos, the Milesians Branchiate. You control every city and land and nation. You control the whole inhabited earth (. . .). The Per-sians call you Mithras, the Egyptians Horus, the Thebans Dionysos"

https://www.pollitecon.com/Assets/Ebooks/Ancient-Macedonia-The-Gods-of-Macedon.pdf

Porphyry :

>In the same way: the supreme God would not be supreme unless he ruled over other gods. Only this sort of power would do justice to the greatness of God and redound to his honor,64

>[Matt. 22.29-30; Exod. 31.18] You say, "The immortal angels stand before God, those who are not subject to human passion, and these we speak of as gods because they are near the godhead." Why do we argue about names? Is this [difference of opinion] not really a difference over names? The one whom the Greeks call Athena is called Minerva by the Romans, and she is called other things by the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Thracians, and so on. Is something lost (I think not!) in addressing the goddess by different names?

>Whether one addresses these divine beings as gods or angels matters very little, since their nature remains the same. Matthew supports this when he writes, "Jesus answered and...

https://www.academia.edu/115821564/Zeus_Messengers_Angels_and_Archangels_in_Porphyry_of_Tyre

Marcus Aurelius (Entire Universe is the city of Zeus):

>23. All that is in tune with thee, O Universe, is in tune with me! Nothing that is in due time for thee is too early or too late for me! All that thy seasons bring, O Nature, is fruit for me! All things come from thee, subsist in thee, go back to thee. There is one who says Dear City of Cecrops! Wilt thou not say O dear City of Zeus?

https://lexundria.com/m_aur_med/4.23/lg

>. In taking umbrage at anything, thou forgettest this, that everything happens in accordance with the Universal Nature; and this, that the wrong-doing is another’s; and this furthermore that all that happens, always did happen, and will happen so, and is at this moment happening everywhere. And thou forgettest how strong is the kinship between man and mankind, for it is a community not of corpuscles, of seed or blood, but of intelligence. And thou forgettest this too, that each man’s intelligence is God and has emanated from Him; and this, that nothing is a man’s very own, but that his babe, his body, his very soul came forth from Him

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Marcus_Aurelius_(Haines_1916).djvu/375

Plutarch:

>“Nor do we think of the Gods as different Gods among different peoples, nor as barbarian Gods and Greek Gods, nor as southern and northern Gods; but, just as the sun and the moon and the heavens and the earth and the sea are common to all, but are called different things by different peoples, so... There have arisen among different peoples,... different honours and appellations.”

Isis and Osiris 67
https://topostext.org/work/274

Nonnus of Panopolis:

>"Belos on the Euphrates, called Ammon in Libya, thou art Apis by the Nile, Arabian Cronos, Assyrian Zeus! ... Be thou called Sarapis, the cloudless Zeus of Egypt; be thou Cronos, or Phaethon of many names, or Mithras the Sun of Babylon, in Hellas Delphic Apollo".

https://topostext.org/work/529

 Lucius Appuleius:

>"Behold Lucius, I am come! Your weeping and prayers have moved me to succour you. I am she that is the natural Mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the Elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of heaven, the principal of the Gods celestial, the light of the Goddesses! At my will, the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell be diposed. My name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the Mother of the Gods; the Athenians, Minerva; the Cyprians, Venus; the Candians, Diana; the Sicilians Proserpina; the Eleusians, Ceres; some Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate; and principally the Ethiopians who dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies are accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis."

https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/apuleius/the-golden-ass/william-adlington/text/chapter-47

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