/lit/ - Literature

So according to Roman syncretism they believed the Germanic peoples worshiped Mercury as the highest god. It’s believed by most scholars (and seems very likely to me) that this syncretic Mercury is based either on Odin or some form of proto-Odin, as they both lead souls to the underworld (the grim reaper actually is based on Odin, Grimm being another name for Odin), both are gods of wanderers, both value knowledge, both are very much rogue trickster gods.

Anyway this got me thinking, if say the Norse Vikings (since we don’t have access to the Norse pantheon during the time of the Romans) were the ones syncretizing the religion of the Greeks/Romans with their own who would Jupiter/Zeus be in Norse mythology?

I think the most obvious answer would be Thor. Both are big muscle bound lightning dudes that are considered the most powerful martially of their prospective pantheons. Both also seem to love drinking and partying. I don’t think it fits exactly right though. To be nice Thor is very simple minded, whereas Zeus might be very overly prideful but never comes off as dumb at least to me, he has his own cunning. As well, Thor obviously gets tons of women and has tons of kids, but Zeus is an absolute coomer in a league of his own.

Anyway for the sake of an interesting discussion are there any Norse gods that would syncretically fit better then Thor character wise for Jupiter/Zeus?

"Hear me, all you gods and all goddesses too,
as I proclaim what the heart inside me urges.
Let no lovely goddess—and no god either—
try to fight against my strict decree.
All submit to it now, so all the more quickly
I can bring this violent business to an end.
And any god I catch, breaking ranks with us,
eager to go and help the Trojans or Achaeans—
back he comes to Olympus, whipped by the lightning,
eternally disgraced. Or I will snatch and hurl him
down to the murk of Tartarus half the world away,
the deepest gulf that yawns beneath the ground,
there where the iron gates and brazen threshold loom,
as far below the House of Death as the sky rides over earth—
then he will know how far my power tops all other gods'
Come, try me, immortals, so all of you can learn.
Hang a great golden cable down from the heavens,
lay hold of it, all you gods, all goddesses too:
you can never drag me down from sky to earth,
not Zeus, the highest, mightiest king of kings,
not even if you worked yourselves to death.
But whenever I'd set my mind to drag you up,
in deadly earnest, I'd hoist you all with ease,
you and the earth, you and the sea, all together,
then loop that golden cable round a horn of Olympus,
bind it fast and leave the whole world dangling in mid-air—
that is how far I tower over the gods, I tower over men."