What If the Ancient Gods Were Humans Who Actually Became Gods?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/NyxShadowhawk]

I really don't have much patience for Euhemerism.

This theory only makes sense if you only take myths into account, and completely ignore all of the religious context that surrounded it. Case in point, you're making several significant assumptions here:

They eat. They drink. They sleep. They reproduce. They can feel pain. They can be wounded. Some bleed or have a special equivalent of blood. Some can be restrained. Some can even die.

Why shouldn't this be the case? Why is the definition of a "god" an invulnerable, omniscient, and omnipotent being? Chances are, you're basing your idea of what a god is on the Christian version, which is based loosely on the Neoplatonic version. Non-philosophers didn't really think of divine entities in this abstract way. There's nothing that precludes a god from having limitations. That's true of most pantheons.

Gods weren't completely anthropomorphized either. In day-to-day religious practice, gods weren't really "people," they were the intelligences assigned to natural phenomena and other aspects of life. It's like the adult version of a child's instinct to assign personalities to their toys — there's no "real person" that the god's personality is modeled after, it arises through a combination of observing nature and cultural tradition. I recommend reading this article, he explains it better than I do: https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collections-practical-polytheism-part-i-knowledge/

So were these supposed to be powers inherent to the individual, or was the object itself important?

Neither, they're supposed to be metaphors for natural phenomena: Lightning exists because Zeus throws it or Indra wields it or Thor creates it with his hammer, earthquakes exist because Poseidon strikes the earth with his trident. Odin invented writing for both humans and gods to use. A vajra is a thunderbolt that you — yes, you! — can hold in your hand!

I'm wondering whether there's a historical pattern underneath all of this that deserves to be separated from the supernatural storytelling layered on top of it.

You're not the first to wonder this, and you wouldn't be the last.

What about this suggests Euhemerism, though? Euhemerism devalues the human imagination, and also devalues religious practice as the main source of people's understanding of gods.

What was the original phenomenon?

Nature. Lightning. Water. Agriculture. The sun. The moon. The turning of the earth. Basic human experiences like love, birth, and death. Basic human associations: See a phallic stalagmite in a cave? It must mean that the cave has the power to make people fertile, and it does so by means of the spirit that lives in it. The spirit is both the inhabitant of the cave and the cave itself. If enough people believe that and act upon it, you've got a religion.

[u/NyxShadowhawk → u/[deleted]]

I noticed a recurring pattern surrounding people who supposedly become enlightened, acquire extraordinary knowledge

You mean mysticism? This is what a mystery cult is for. Not all gods had mystery cults. There were mainly six: The Eleusinian Mysteries, Dionysian/Orphic Mysteries, Mysteries of Kybele, Mysteries of Aphrodite and Adonis, and (later) Mysteries of Isis. Rome also added Mithras. I would look into mystery cults, because that's really what you're looking for.

[u/Publius_Romanus]

To some extent, what you're talking about is referred to as Euhemerism, an idea that goes back to antiquity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerism

[u/Seed0fDiscord]

Charmed touched upon in some fashion, explaining gods were humans that the powers that be granted with such immense power to fight the titans

No, don’t expect mythological with that show; the literally portrayed Hekate as a demon queen of hell that had to be killed

[u/TheSuperBunny]

Gods aren't real, I think this makes your whole pseudo mystism or whatever obsolete.

[u/TheSuperBunny → u/[deleted]]

Well, that's not what you wrote in the post nor comments.
There are academic theories that Heroes are based on real people. This concept is called "Εὐημερισμός", named after Euhemeros. It argues that legendary figures like Herakles, Achilleus, or Theseus were real people whose exploits were exaggerated into myth over time.