The earliest knowledge of Greek religion comes through the epic poetry of Homer. Two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are presumed by historians to have been written by him. The oldest papyrus portions of these poems are believed to date from sometime before 150 B.C.E. As George G. A. Murray, a professor of Greek, says of these early texts, they “differ ‘wildly’ from our vulgate,” that is, from the text that has been popularly accepted in recent centuries. (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1942, Vol. 11, p. 689) Thus, unlike the Bible, there was no preservation of the integrity of Homeric texts, but they existed in an extremely fluid state, as Professor Murray demonstrates. The Homeric poems dealt with warrior heroes and gods who were very much like men.

Note, now, what the writings attributed to Homer and Hesiod reveal.

The numerous gods and goddesses they described had human form and great beauty, though often being gigantic and superhuman. They ate, drank, slept, had sexual intercourse among themselves or even with humans, lived as families, quarreled and fought, seduced and raped. Though supposedly holy and immortal, they were capable of any type of deceit and crime. They could move among mankind either visibly or invisibly. Later Greek writers and philosophers sought to purge the accounts of Homer and Hesiod of some of the more vile acts attributed to the gods.