Choosing Many Over One: Building a Polytheistic Religion

The previous article in this series is about monotheisim and can be found here.

In this article, Casparata discusses polytheism touching on older faiths as well as a few modern ones. Casparata also discusses how Ancient polytheism was basically utilitarianism. In the section meant to help worldbuilders create a polytheistic pantheon, Casparata offers some common roles that are filled in polytheistic religions:
 * Sky God
 * Culture hero (inventor or discoverer of important cultural techniques, like the use of fire or the introduction of laws)
 * Goddess of fertility
 * Mother goddess
 * Political god (for example a mythic king)
 * Creator/destroyer god
 * Sun/moon god
 * God of the dead
 * Trickster (creator of mayhem and breaker of taboos, often identical with the culture hero)
 * Water/earth god
 * Reborn god
 * Gods of different trades, like the hunt, artisans, keeping knowledge, etc.