Yes of the pre-Olympian deities, a lot of them are quite literal and almost animist, in the sense that it is clear that the god is simultaneously a being but also a physical reality of the world. The sky, the earth, the ocean, night, day, darkness, light. And their children are concepts associated with their parents - to early civilised humans, the night creates strife, doom, death.
Only in later “generations” does a truly distinct personhood emerge - eg Zeus is not lightning himself, but he can control it. It’s hard not to wonder if the generations of gods seen differently represent actual waves of religious reform or absorption where family trees were made to fit the story rather than vice versa.
Yes of the pre-Olympian deities, a lot of them are quite literal and almost animist, in the sense that it is clear that the god is simultaneously a being but also a physical reality of the world. The sky, the earth, the ocean, night, day, darkness, light. And their children are concepts associated with their parents - to early civilised humans, the night creates strife, doom, death.
Only in later “generations” does a truly distinct personhood emerge - eg Zeus is not lightning himself, but he can control it. It’s hard not to wonder if the generations of gods seen differently represent actual waves of religious reform or absorption where family trees were made to fit the story rather than vice versa.