Anthropomorphism is something that has been interesting to me. The idea that God/Gods take the form of humans. I think this comes about a lot in ancient societies because the Gods play such important roles in the everyday life of the people that it makes sense for them to be human-like. If people are going to be dealing with the Gods all the time, it makes it easier if they look like humans and act like humans, even though they are definitely not human.
In the Greek myths the Gods, especially Zeus, would come down and often sleep with a human, which pretty much always produced a child. The children were sometimes divine, such as Apollo and Artemis, but not always. Also, just like humans, the Gods experienced a wide array of emotions. In Egypt, the God Seth killed his brother Osiris because he was jealous of Osiris’ power. Isis, Osiris’ wife, managed to find all the pieces of Osiris and he was brought back as ruler of the underworld. Stories like this show that the Gods experience jealousy, love, lust, anger and vengeance. The range of emotions experienced by the Gods are the same that humans feel, it’s just that the Gods feel them more intensely and can do a lot more damage than a mortal.
I think that anthropomorphism is interesting because I wonder what people would think God looked like if not like people. When people think of God, most people imagine someone that looks human, usually with the brown hair and beard, as he is depicted in many pictures. I think it’s comforting for people to believe that their God/Gods look like them and are capable of acting like them. I would imagine that it makes people feel that they can get closer to God.
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