Friendly reminder that ancient cultures had no set theologies that everyone agreed on (like “hard polytheism”) and were actually very open to a variety of interpretations of how gods work or what gods are.
Saying that “[x] ancient culture/religion” was your preferred theological stance is not true.
Actually that is kind of deceiving. While it was true for let’s say that Greece didn’t have it’s set theology per se and it was open to interpretation, it was by no means eclectic, there were many traditions and schools of philosophy that did have very well formed and detailed theologies and some had very strict rules for instance in the Orphic tradition blood offerings were strictly forbidden and you were required to believe in reincarnation and the Gods were composed of specific elements and though they were elusive were powerful beings with unlimited abilities to their disposal (however they could not break the laws of nature because they were the laws of nature and they had put the laws there in place for a reason.) While most ancient Greeks did have differing beliefs most of them were hard polytheists. So you could technically say that ancient Greece was your preferred theology or stance because most of them had key aspects they believe in which is the concepts of virtue and vice, hard polytheism, and other concepts such as hubris (this one is very unpopular with the pagan community). My point is all ancient cultures were very conservative maybe not our idea of what conservative is but they were and they were sexist and they had rules and practices that could make you a social out cast if you didn’t believe or follow them. With that said despite this they were still able to come up with differing views and perspectives and for that they should be respected.
I wrote this and I would like to add that there was religious group in Greece that was extremely orthodox and was just as strict as the Jews were but indifferent way. You can find most of this information in Greek Religion by Walter Burkert. As for the Orphic tradition you’ll have to do some independent studying to learn more about that.
