Understanding The Greek Gods

In the 21st Century when we consider the Greeks we think about the philosophers, the Greek language the Greek myths and legends, the architecture and of course the gods. We have studied the Philosophers in great depth and know a lot about their theories. We have a wide knowledge of Greek architecture, how they built the temples, specific styles they adopted. We know a lot of facts about the Greek gods, however the thought behind them is not considered in as much detail. We have not come up with a definite answer as to why the Greeks felt the need to believe in so many gods. I think this is because (at present time) we don’t know of any information or artifacts that can answer this question. Thus, we can only try and uncover the reason as to
The Ancient Greek belief system was polytheistic, meaning that they believed in more than one god or deity. Each god and goddess had power over a different aspect of life, leading the Greeks to believe that these gods had power over what happened in their own lives. The Greek Gods looked like humans physically, essentially the only difference between the Greeks and their Gods was that the Gods were considered immortal. The Greeks believed that the gods lived high above Mount Olympus and were always watching the life below, and from time to time would interfere with it. This led them to the understanding that, you would not want to anger any of the gods in any way, or else they would make your life miserable. Emphasis was placed on pleasing the gods in order to live a life free of hardship and oppression. Man, created the Greek gods to explain the world around him, act as a means of exploration, provide legitimacy and authority to ancient Greek aristocracy, and provide entertainment for the masses. The religion of the ancient Greeks was different to the many religions we follow in the 21st Century. It did not have a single source of written scripture such as the Bible or the Qur'an. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks did not
This would lead to an obedient, safe society where you would not need to enforce rules (a concept which seems unlikely in the 21st Century) because people knew that the gods would ‘punish’ you if you were bad. Consequently, much of their society would be good although there would be some who wanted to test the theory and risk being punished. This may be the reason for the creation of the mythology stories, as they showed people what would happen to them if they were bad. They showed the few that wanted to test the theory what would happen to them. Thus, the polytheistic belief system was widely accepted amongst the Greeks. Aside from creating an obedient society, the Greeks also believed in the gods as a way of reassuring themselves. For example, they would include Ares in their offerings even though he was not a likeable God. I think they made offerings to him despite this fact, so that they did not suffer from violence or harm. In other words, they did this out of fear, and by making sacrifices to him it subdued their fear. Another way in which the Greeks used the Gods as