There was a day when Jupiter was the king of gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is anyone who worships Jupiter today?
What about Sutekh, once the high god of the Nile valley?
What about Huitzilopochtli? …had no human father, and his mother was a virtuous widow. In one year [only 500 years ago] fifty thousand youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him.
…today is magnificently forgotten as Alien G. Thurman. Once a pier of Allah, Buddha, and Wotan, he is now a pier of General Coxey, Richmond P. Hobson, Nan Patterson, Alton B. Parker, Adelina Patti, General Weyler, and Tom Sharkey.
Huitzilopochtli had a brother, Tezcatilpoca. …almost as powerful: he consumed twenty-five thousand virgins a year.
And what about Quetzalcoatl? or Tialoc? or Chalchihuitlicue? or Xiehtecutli? or Centeotl, that sweet one? or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? or Mictlan? or Ixtlilton? or Omacatl? or Yacatecutli? or Mixcoatl? or Xipe? or all the host of Tzitzimitles?
Or what of Dis (chief God of the Celts during Caesar’s time). Or Tarves, the bull; Moccos, the pig; Epona, the mare; Mullo, the celestial jack-ass;
Damona; Esus; Drunemeton; Silvana; Dervones; Adsalluta; Deva; Belisama; Axona; Vintios; Taranuous; Sulis; Cocidius; Adsmerius; Dumiatis; Caletos; Moccus; Ollovidius; Albiorix; Leucitius; Vitucadrus; Ogmios; Uxellimus; Borvo; Grannos; Mogons. — All mighty gods in their day, worshipped by millions, full of demands and impositions, able to bind and loose — all gods of the first class, not dilettanti.
The business of interpreting their whims occupied thousands of priests, wizards, archdeacons, evangelists, haruspices, bishops, archbiships. To doubt them was to die at the stake. Armies took to the field to defend them against infidels: villages were burned, women and children were butchered, cattle were driven off. Yet in the end they all withered and died and today there is none so poor to do them reverence.
How about from the Old Testament — many of the following were mentioned with fear and trembling: Resheph; Baal; Anath; Astarte; Ashtoreth; Hadad; El; Addu; Nergal; Shalem; Nebo; Dagon; Ninib; Sharrab; Melek; Yau; Ahijah; Amon-Re; Isis; Osiris; Ptah; Sebek; Anubis; and Molech. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Jahveh himself.