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There was a very strong Greek influence all through the Eastern Mediterranean , both as a residual from Alexander the Great's empire and subsequent Greek ruled kingdoms and later , indirectly through the Romans .

That's a fact yet Alexander was abot 350 - 320 BC. while the artifacts at Dion are estimated at 500 B.C. ancient Greece's "Golden Age."

I believe that Greek and Roman gods are one and the same. The God of Abraham is the one true God, he says to "have no other God before me" and to not worship any other god. That makes one suspect that these other gods and goddess are minor dieties. Gods to us poor humans but in reality created by the one true God. In other words fallen angels with super powers for want of a better way of saying it. So the Norse and all the other legends I believe are not fiction, but they are forbidden to us.

Although I don't recall the details, I remember seeing reports with photos years ago that ancient Hebrew, not Cananite, ruins showed a female deity that shared dominance equally along with "El". It was determined that after some period of time, well before Greek influence, that belief in this deity was then deleted.

Some groups believe in Lilith not the equal of "El" but cool feminist dtory lilith seduced adam in edan before the thing with eve. she wanted the top position adam became scare and attempted to fight back another reason i think the Garden of eden was a mistake. (Lilith becomes a nightime demon that drives boh lust and can steal babies.The other intrpretation she is the metaphor for women power. She is not found in the hebrew bible but as a story. There is a feminist magazine called lilith.

In its loosest sense, "religion" in some form seems to have always been a part of humanity. The clay figurines of the portly Mother/Goddess are apparently from deep prehistorical times. The experts say those figures indicate that the early primitive societies were matriarchal. It is not known if the female deity had a male counterpart in the earliest days but at some point a male deity appears as a consort. It would seem that just before the dawn of historical times, the male gods (sky gods) became supreme and the goddesses (earth spirits) were relegated to - at best - a supporting role. Patriarchy replaced Matriarchy and so it has largely been ever since.

I have always fel the matriarchy "garden of eden stuff ws a little too pat. that is why i always like that ranfy hen-pecked, anf just, or at least trying to mete out justice zues. The Greek pantheon of gods aer just absorned into the Roman culture. Not too sound harsh but from my pespective out side of gladitorium game, the circus,the only culture Rome has is from the Greeks. The Roman gods do not have the "press, in poem or plays that the greek ones have.

Think Rome was more physical....liked sex more than poetry.

afte Octavian Augustus the next 6 empeors were bizarre and just read the poer of Vattulus (whom i love to read or the satryicon (if you can just look atthe first 2 pages whee you meet the main characters and look at their names you will not stop laughing and it cue you what the story is about. ) and one can feel the intensity and sexuality of Rome. but Rome really was a complex culture it saw itself as developng a world man based on manliness , justice and cleency. It made up a book the codex of national laws for the treatment of slaves a definition of a good war of a fair deal of being a citizen. These things mattered very much while at the same time was this pull of aggression. playing to the lawlesness of hemob. when cicero said all rosds lead to rome he meant it and it was probably true. Rome invited all cultures in and the onses they conquored were under a yoke while att he same time were alowed to keep tei own gods, commerce. They had a very diffeent concept of Imperialism (their word for itis closer to being one who acts cosmopolitan.)