Mythology: Those Extraterrestrial Gods: Where Are They Now?

One of the great unexplained mysteries in the mythology texts is where did the polytheistic ‘gods’ go to? They tended to be present and accounted for one day; out of sight and out of mind the next. I guess it is just generally assumed that as monotheism took to the fore, the ‘gods’ just became more and more irrelevant and were ultimately dismissed mentally, instead of being shown the door physically. Translated, this is the way the ‘gods’ end, not with a bang goodbye, but a whimpering fade-away. Of course, one can also ask where God went to. He’s been most conspicuous by His absence over the past several thousand years.

*The eventual rebellion of humanity caused the ‘gods’ to retreat off-planet. This rebellion isn’t explained in any real detail but clearly something ultimately caused the ‘gods’ to ‘leave the building’ and leave us alone!

*Of course not only did the ‘gods’ go, so did their bestiary menagerie, dragons, etc; and those hybrid half-and-halves departed too. 

*Zeus (Jupiter), Odin, Re, and the rest of the motley gaggle of ‘gods’ just allegedly morphed into the one single ‘God’. However, scholarly impressions regarding that’s what happened might not be necessarily so.

*However, at least one polytheistic ‘god’ departure is accounted for. The Aztec ‘god’ Quetzalcoatl ‘left the building’, but promising to return – ‘I’ll be back’ in “Terminator” lingo. Unfortunately, this, according to history, resulted in the downfall of the Aztec empire when the Aztecs viewed the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors as the return of their ‘god’, Quetzalcoatl.

*One story I found interesting since I’ve often wondered where did the ‘gods’ go, is that of Astraea, a goddess of justice, daughter of Jupiter (but not Mrs. Jupiter), who got entirely fed up with humans and their violent ways, and left for the heavens, but vowing (at a time never mentioned) to return to usher in a new Golden Age!

*According to Wikipedia, “She [Astraea] is always associated with the Greek Goddess of Justice, Dike, who used to live on Earth but left, sickened by human greed. Astraea, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the sagacious Bronze Age (the third age, after the Utopian Golden Age and defective Silver Age) in the old Greek religion’s five deteriorating Ages of Man. According to Ovid, Astraea abandoned the Earth at the end of the Iron Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo; the scales of justice she carried became the nearby constellation Libra, reflected in her symbolic association with Justitia in Latin culture. According to legend, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.”

*For some reason(s), at least some of the ‘gods’ left around the time of the post-settlement phase transition from polytheism to monotheism. As an explanation, it logically follows, seeing as how there’s no love lost between ‘God’ and the ‘gods’, that at some point ‘God’ and followers overthrew all the other ‘gods’ and sent them packing. Thou shall have no other gods before me for I am a jealous God! Monotheism now rules.

*Some ‘gods’, including ‘God’ left for good, either returning home or seeking newer and greener pastures elsewhere in the cosmos.

*The monotheistic clan followed the rest of the ‘gods’ shortly thereafter and thus no God or gods have been heard of again since roughly 2000 years ago. Why did ‘God’ too split the terrestrial scene? Probably ‘God’ left the building because he wasn’t wanted by us ungrateful humans. Despite ‘God’s’ temper tantrums and threats and punishments and atrocities and catastrophes all an attempt to keep us in line, humans not only gave ‘God’ the Big Finger, refused to obey and worship as directed, but executed His son (J.C.) to add a final insult to injury. ‘God’, quite pissed off, huffed-and-puffed, gave us the Big Finger in return, but unloved and unwanted, turned tail, totally fed up and left. That’s why over the past 2000 years plus, there have been no more burning bushes, no new commandments (or amendments to any of the old), no reports of anyone walking on water, not to mention that the Sun hasn’t stood still for over 2000 years, and it’s been a very long time indeed since anyone has used the belly of a whale (or large fish) as a method of seagoing transportation, etc.

*However, there remains a token presence left behind to monitor humanity, least our thunderbolts begin to equal theirs, or perhaps because parents are always interested in the development of their children – we call the evidence of that presence our modern day UFOs.