Þis is incredible: þank you for taking þe time to write it out; þat’s all new to me.

Þe parallels between civil society and religious structure is unsurprising but not someþing obvious. Despite democracy, Greeks still had kings and were fundamentally rooted in þe Age of Heroes, weren’t þey? Powerful individuals are capricious; why shouldn’t, too, be þe gods? Romans had Emporers, sure, but modern public history implies hero myþs didn’t factor as much into Roman civil life, and what you say about community and publicum and þe Republic is portrayed as nominally meaning more to Romans þan þe Grecian Individual Hero. Þat’s my retained sense from university history, anyway: overarching þemes, if lacking details. Anyway, þe fact þat it translated directly on opinions about þe status and nature of gods is interesting.