GODS WANT TO BE HUMAN

For some reason, several religious traditions have their god/gods fixate on food.  Genesis readers know of the famous divine command not to eat from the tree of good and evil.  In Leviticus the proscriptions get more detailed. Animals of land, sea, air: all are divided into clean and unclean.  

The ancient Greek gods were not  as prone to clear-cut commands. They were, to their discredit, prone to  god-awful (literally) behavior. When it comes to food, the god-awfulness sunk to its greatest depths.  Cronus devoured 5 of

his own kids. The youngest, Zeus, was saved by his mother. Continuing the paternal tradition, Zeus tricked one wife into becoming a fly and then promptly swallowed her.

How about regular food?  Well, the gods had nectar and ambrosia. Both words indicate immortality.  It therefore makes sense that they would be the main intake for deathless divinities.  But, let’s face it, a steady diet of nectar and ambrosia would get kind of dull and repetitive.

The human case offered a sort of reversal. No ambrosia, no nectar (the main human/divine difference, after all, was mortality).  Otherwise, humans had it pretty good, even better than the gods. Roasts, vegetables, fruits, seafood--all of these pleased the human palate.

Hesiod depicted the first, “Golden” age of humans in happy terms. They “lived like gods.”   They “made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils.” Earth was good to them, bearing “fruit abundantly and without stint.”

There was not that much difference between Hesiod's gods and  human beings. What Hesiod got wrong was the direction of longing.  It was the gods who longed for the enjoyments available only to humans. Not surprisingly, when a Renaissance painter, Giovanni Bellini, portrayed gods at a feast, they sure (1) looked, and (2) behaved, like regular old human beings.

This makes sense.  Humans are open to pleasurable experiences  closed off to the gods. Living like gods would necessitate being disembodied. Being disembodied would bring immortality. That´s okay. But at what price?  Imagine what a dull existence would ensue. No eyes to see; no stomach/taste bud combination to savor food; no ears to hear; no tongue to speak; no arms for hugging; no lips for kissing; no ability to interact with anything.  Hesiod, I repeat, got it backwards. It is the gods who wish to live like humans (and in Greek mythology this is just what they do). Otherwise, life’s pleasures, culminatory satisfactions, shared enjoyments, are all out of reach.

This reversal is important when humans dream of eternal life. That case also involves a sleight of hand.  Officially, life beyond this one is characterized by what is known as "beatific vision,” a status of direct apprehension of the divinity. Such a mystical experience, however, doesn’t satisfy the imagination. Much better to envision an unending life that looks a lot like the pre-death one, except that all difficulties and challenges have been eliminated. The illogic of this scenario: such a life would be impossible absent the corporeality that necessitates mortality. Existence would be that of disembodied minds or souls. True, it’s possible to envision such a state. Envisioned honestly, with no sleight of hand, i.e. no sneaking in dimensions of corporeality, such existence would be far from desirable.

A disembodied status, for one, would involve an existence without hugs. Deprived of arms and eyes, immortal

grandparents would be unable to see, not to mention offer warm caress-filled welcomes for their grandchildren. The general status would be one of unalterable deprivation: no lovely sights (without eyes); no enticing odors (without nose/taste buds); no melodious sounds (without ears); no movement (without legs). Within traditional theology, these deprivations would be counterbalanced by the satisfaction of beatific vision. But even that experience, to be attractive, has to be described using a physiological metaphor, the corporeal dimension of sight.

Overall, unending disembodied existence does not provide an enticing picture.  The draw of nectar and ambrosia (immortality) is admittedly strong. But, it is so only if we ignore the rest of the picture.  Once we realize how hugs, conversation, music, good company, and good food would be absent, the temptation toward immortal existence becomes less attractive.  We come to realize why it is the gods who wanted to be more like humans.