Polytheism

===Ancient Greece===
{{Main|Religion in ancient Greece}}
[[File:Greek - Procession of Twelve Gods and Goddesses - Walters 2340.jpg|thumb|Procession of the Twelve Olympians]]
The classical scheme in Ancient Greece of the [[Twelve Olympians]] (the Canonical Twelve of art and poetry) were:<ref name="EnAm1993">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Greek mythology |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Americana]] |year=1993 |volume=13 |page=431}}</ref><ref name="EnPLB2007">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Dodekatheon |trans-title=Twelve Olympians |encyclopedia=[[Papyrus Larousse Britannica]] |year=2007 |language=el}}</ref> [[Zeus]], [[Hera]], [[Poseidon]], [[Athena]], [[Ares]], [[Demeter]], [[Apollo]], [[Artemis]], [[Hephaestus]], [[Aphrodite]], [[Hermes]], and [[Hestia]]. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when [[Dionysus]] was invited to [[Mount Olympus]], this is a matter of controversy. Robert Graves' ''The Greek Myths'' cites two sources<ref>{{cite web|title=Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 5, section 3|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.5.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Pausanias, Description of Greece|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.31.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160}}</ref> that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did. [[Hades]]<ref name="EnAm1919">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedia Americana Vol. 13 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PWYMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA408 |volume=13 |year=1919 |editor=George Edward Rines |publisher=Americana Corp |pages=408–411}}</ref> was often excluded because he dwelt in the underworld. All of the gods had a power. There was, however, a great deal of fluidity as to whom was counted among their number in antiquity.<ref name="Stoll1852">{{cite book|author=Stoll, Heinrich Wilhelm (R.B. Paul trans.) |title=Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks |publisher=Francis and John Rivington |year=1852 |page=8 |quote=The limitation [of the number of Olympians] to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea}}</ref> Different cities often worshipped the same deities, sometimes with [[epithet]]s that distinguished them and specified their local nature.

[[Religion in Ancient Greece|Hellenic Polytheism]] extended beyond mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of [[Ionia]] in [[Asia Minor]], to [[Magna Graecia]] (Sicily and southern Italy), and to scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean, such as [[Marseille|Massalia]] (Marseille). Greek religion tempered [[Etruscan mythology|Etruscan cult and belief]] to form much of the later [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]]. During the Hellenistic Era, philosophical schools like [[Epicureanism]] developed distinct theologies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmO-s9qkrgA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/pmO-s9qkrgA |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=On the Epicurean Gods|date=2020|publisher=Society of Friends of Epicurus}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Hellenism is, in practice, primarily centered around polytheistic and animistic worship.