Polytheism - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pictographs of the Egyptian gods in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Polytheism means believing in many gods. A person that believes in polytheism is called a polytheist. A religion with polytheism can be called a polytheistic religion.

Polytheism is well documented in historical religions of classical antiquity, especially those of ancient Greeks and Romans. Other ancient people who were polytheists include German pagans, Turkic peoples, Ancient Egyptians, the Celts and the Norse.

There are various polytheistic religions practiced today. Examples include Sanamahism (Meitei paganism), Tengrism, Shinto, Chinese folk religion, Thelma, Wicca, Druidism, Taoism, Asatru and Candomblé.

Usually, a polytheistic religion has a set of stories about the gods. This is called mythology.

The opposite of polytheism is monotheism, which is the belief in only one god, practiced by the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, etc.