I don't recall any deaths having been reported, so I have to assume
that there must be several former Gods still in existence on or around Mount
Olympus, presumably living in some luxury on their heavenly pensions.

Who decides that they should be hired & fired (and when) and also what
benefits they are then entitled to?

And where do these ex-Gods go and what do they do after they have been
made redundant?

And are they ever seen these days, a la Elvis?

Curious of Hove

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 14 Jul 2006 03:18 PDT

Ah the ever-reliable Answerfinder-ga has done what he does best: find
the answers that have eluded the other 499 GARs.

Please do me the honour of posting your enlightened Comment as an Answer.

Adonis

(formerly known as probonopublichouseco)

Dear Adonis,

Thank you for accepting my comment. I'll repeat it.

I?ve researched this and discovered that Greek Gods were in fact a
family run corporation based on Mount Olympus.

Founded by its chairman, Zeus, he ran the corporate empire with a grip
of iron. He hired and fired without compunction any employees who
failed in its principal aim of subjugating man. Sadly, the corporation
has now gone bust and placed into liquidation. Man no longer believed
in their products and services. I?ve done some further research and
discovered what happened to a few of the gods.

Zeus is now a rather sad figure. Instead of summoning thunder,
lightning and rain, he now forecasts it on an obscure cable television
late night weather programme.

Hades, who was ruler of the underworld, is now a children?s
entertainer at Pontin?s Holiday Camp in Minehead. Specialises in
reviving apparently dead rabbits.

Apollo, famous for his archery, is now a stunt man in Hollywood
specialising in medieval and classical epics. You may recall him in
Gladiator, third soldier on the right when the flaming arrows were let
loose.
 
Poseidon suddenly found he was always sea-sick and had to abandon his
nautical ways. Now a fully-qualified chartered account.

Aphrodite. Ah, the beautiful and sexy Aphrodite. Now a pole dancer at
the Twirl Those Tassels Dancing Club.

Atlas. Opened a body building club in Las Vegas but lost his licence
when it was discovered he used steroids. Now a vagrant begging outside
one of the casinos.

Hebe, goddess of youth, now running a support group for celebrity
victims of plastic surgery.

answerfinder-ga

Here's my comment to help you maintain your research standards:

What standards?

Many thanks

Adonis

Elvis is coming to Perth, Australia

Elvis Presley in Concert
Elvis Presley In Concert, the stunning theatrical production that
reunites former band mates live on stage alongside Elvis as he
performs a full concert on a giant video screen, continues its
historic and critically acclaimed world tour.

Burswood Dome
Friday, 6 October 2006

Ticket Prices
A Reserve - $149  
B Reserve - $95 
C Reserve - $75

Cheers

I would guess Zues is in charge over there.  He pretty much keeps the
status quo, the "Twelve Gods of Olympus".

You don't hear much about them anymore, they tend to live off there
laurels.  Much like old movie stars and quasi-famous authors of for
example, World War II conspiracies and books about viruses and fooling
the telephone company.

Every four years or so they lend their name to a collection of
sporting events (being paid royalties, of course) and make their
living off of that.  Some of the individual gods lend their name to
space missions, movies, drugs, etc.  I hear they do quite well.

Not many reports of them being seen unless you count comic books.  

Bowler-ga

Apparently someone must have considered firing the Messiah of the New
Testament, since I keep running into the word "exegesis."

Try reading SMALL GODS by terry Pritchet 
that will provide your answer
KLEMO

The word religion is used to convey to the listener that he/she
subscribes to whatever mythology is the subject of their conversation.
All mythologies are collections of stories, like all stories these
mythological stories become more and more elaborate with the passage
of time and the retelling from one generation to the next.

Eventually people that know the stories of a particular mythology
travel to a region where another set of stories dominates, and he/she
takes along his stories. If these stories are entertaining enough they
get a hold among the local population and eventually incorporated into
the dominant mythology with a local flavor. And so all mythologies are
thus related, if they are not a direct offspring of an even more
ancient mythological belief.

The ancient Gods are still alive today, they have simply taken a new dimension. 

This book appears to explore the subject intelligently and in an
entertaining manner. The reviews are all excellent.
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~barnesmh/Google-Promo/Index-PM.htm

My cat, Leo, handles these matters. I'd let you take it up with him
but he's very busy in a staring match with a dust mote packed full of
dancing angels.

Bryan, You actually went an spent $5 on a question like this. For that
effort, it demands an answer. The Gods of Olympus are entirely the
product of man's imagination. There is only ONE Almighty God and He
should rightly occupy our time and minds. It is a good idea to keep in
mind this scripture; Exodus 34;
14 For you must not prostrate yourself to another god, because
Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God;

oh hogwash, pugwash . . .

Leo the cat has the right idea . . .

Hello again, pugwashjw65-ga, and many thanks for your Comment which is
greatly appreciated, as usual.

However, I was surprised to learn that Jehovah is a jealous God.

How can this be reconciled with Envy being one of the Seven Deadly Sins?

Bryan
Always careful not to be too obviously envious.

Bryan,

Yet another interesting question. I?ve researched this and discovered
that Greek Gods were in fact a family run corporation based on Mount
Olympus.

Founded by its chairman, Zeus, he ran the corporate empire with a grip
of iron. He hired and fired without compunction any employees failed
in principal aim of subjugating man. Sadly, the corporation has now
gone bust and placed into liquidation. Man no longer believed in their
products and services. I?ve done some further research and discovered
what happened to a few of the gods.

Zeus is now a rather sad figure. Instead of summoning thunder,
lightning and rain, he now forecasts it on an obscure cable television
late night weather programme.

Hades, who was ruler of the underworld, is now a children?s
entertainer at Pontin?s Holiday Camp in Minehead. Specialises in
reviving apparently dead rabbits.

Apollo, famous for his archery, is now a stunt man in Hollywood
specialising in medieval and classical epics. You may recall him in
Gladiator, third soldier on the right when the flaming arrows were let
loose.
 
Poseidon suddenly found he was always sea-sick and had to abandon his
nautical ways. Now a fully-qualified chartered account.

Aphrodite. Ah, the beautiful and sexy Aphrodite. Now a pole dancer at
the Twirl Those Tassels Dancing Club.

Atlas. Opened a body building club in Las Vegas but lost his licence
when it was discovered he used steroids. Now a vagrant begging outside
one of the casinos.

Hebe, goddess of youth, now running a support group for celebrity
victims of plastic surgery.

answerfinder-ga

Excellent answer!  
Since PB has now assumed the name   - if not the form -  of Adonis, I
think we should include some references to him:
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/greek-mythology.php?deity=ADONIS

Be careful, the following site opens with frontal nudity
(close your eyes, click, scroll down, open eyes and carefully scroll
back to start of text):
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Adonis.html

This site has more details:
http://demipagan.freeyellow.com/adonis2.html

Important to the question is the treatment of Adonis's death. 
Apparently Zeus is responsible for the final solution  (which has
nothing to do with Nazi Germany), but it may explain PB's long absence
from here last year, now that he has revealed that he is the true
Adonis  (although I'd like to get his daughters' opinions on that ;-).

Adonis,
Thank you for the tip and you kind words of advice.
answerfinder-ga

@ probonopublico - that's a very interesting question. Please let me
try to explain.
Love is an identifying mark of true Christianity. (?By this all will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves,?  -
John 13:35) . And Paul wrote: ?Love is not jealous.??1 Corinthians
13:4.  So, one may wonder why, since the word ?jealousy? has negative
connotations most of the time, why does Jehovah describe himself as ?a
jealous God.??

The answer is simple; there are two kind of jealousy - envious,
selfish jealousy of humans and the same word with different meaning
that is applied to Jehovah.

When Paul wrote ?Love is not jealous?, he was referring to improper
jealousy. Otherwise he could not have told THE SAME congregation just
a little bit later: ?I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy.? (2
Corinthians 11:2)
His ?godly jealousy? was aroused trying to protect the congregation
from men who were a corrupting influence . And that helps us
understand what does it mean when we read that Jehovah is jealous:
Jealous when used in the Bible in connection with God embodies the
thought of exacting exclusive devotion. The Creator therefore
unequivocally demands exclusive devotion! The verb to exclude is drawn
from the Latin verb claudere, meaning to shut, with the prefix ex,
meaning out; so the complete word means to shut out. This is, of
course, the direct opposite of to include which means to shut in.
Exclusive devotion to God must therefore be devotion that is unique;
it shuts out or excludes every other person or thing from this
devotion. (We can see and compare here this Jehovah's attempt to
protect his people from corrupting influences with what Paul was doing
in 2 Corinthians 11:2)
Jesus highlighted this thought in his famous summary of the
commandments, recorded at Matthew 22:37-39, by saying: ??You must love
Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and
with your whole mind.? This is the greatest and first commandment. The
second, like it, is this, ?You must love your neighbor as yourself.??

G. H. Livingston explains the same thing with following words: ?the
concept of jealousy does not carry the connotation of a warped
emotion, but, rather, of an insistence on the singleness of worship of
Jehovah.? (The Pentateuch in Its Cultural Environment) Thus, the New
World Translation sometimes renders the Hebrew noun ?insistence on
exclusive devotion.? (Ezekiel 5:13)
Other appropriate renderings are ?ardor? or ?zeal.??Psalm 79:5; Isaiah 9:7.


Of course, that is not the only word in the Bible that can confuse us
at first if we apply it the first, most common, 'human' meaning. For
instance, there's this word - regret! How can possibly God regret over
something he has done?
But here it also becomes obvious that one word can be, and sometime is
used, to portray two different things.
How could it otherways be that in 1Sa 15:29 it says " ... and He will
not feel regrets, for He is not an earthling man so as to feel
regrets.? , while only a few sentences later the same author wrote "
As for Jehovah, he regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel."
(1Sa 15:35)
This makes it obvious that when it says God regrets is not the same
like when "earthling man" regrets. One word - two meanings: I love
chocolate. I love my children. Doesn't mean I love my kids the way I
love candies.


And one last comment - 7 deadly sins you mentioned have their roots in
tradition only, not in the Bible. The Bible teaches that every sin
brings forth death: "For whoever observes all the Law but makes a
false step in one point, he has become an offender against them all."
(James 2:10) and "sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth
death." (James 1:15) ?The wages sin pays is death.? (Romans 6:23)
So, EVERY sin is as deadly as another. True, one may say it's not the
same thing to kill a man and to, for instance, lie about something.
The thing is it's only the consequences for us in this world that are
different. But when it comes to our position before Jehovah, any sin
will result with our death (and it does): ("sin entered into the world
and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they
had all sinned.? Romans 5:12)

N.B. IF some sins are "more deadly" than another, how comes picking
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad is not listed
amongst the 7? After all, it is that very sin that has brought all the
deaths and evil we see as its consequence? ;-)

Back to the Greek gods.
Bryan, aka Adonis, being/becoming a god was not a matter of hiring,
and there was no firing or resigning from the job.  It was very much
like being born to royalty:  no choice or escape.

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/gaia.htm

That is the version for kids.  The facts are not for them:  material
for every kind of family problem that Freud could imagine:

http://historel.net/english/egypt/21mythg.htm

Adonis got off easy: only six months in the underworld each year,
probably in suspended animation, only aging half as fast as mere
mortals  - if at all.

Cheers, Myo

Bravo! fruitfly.

My thanks to the ever-reliable Pugwash and a newcomer, Fruitfly. (I
hear Fruit Flies don't live very long but I hope this does not apply
in your case.)

My thanks also to Myoarin but, for once, the poor fellow is way off beam.

He wrote: 

QUOTE

being/becoming a god was not a matter of hiring, and there was no
firing or resigning from the job.  It was very much like being born to
royalty:  no choice or escape.

UNQUOTE

Clearly, Myoarin is not aware of King Charles I who was separated from
his head in 1649 (The Act of Axification) ...

Or King Edward VIII who abdicated in 1936 ...

Or the Tsar Nicholas who renounced the Russian throne in 1917 ...

Etc., etc.

Bryan

Pax, Adonis,
It was just a simile.  Of course there have been exceptions.  I rather
thought that Charlie One's fate demonstrated the no choice aspect; and
Nick's resignation was not so voluntary  - and didn't save him and his
from a similar fate.

Yes, Eddie the eighth got away with it.  (What some men will do for an
American girl!)

...as for me, I chose this nick 'cause fruitflies are the smartest
animals of them all; -to my knowledge- only fruitflies appreciate
vine!!!  LOL

Besides, they've got such a great name: Drosophilla Melanogaster!!!
Such a mouthfull: sounds more like an old Latin professor than a
little fly. ;-)

I meant they drink "wine", not vine! (English is far from being my
first language, but I can always find some more excuses if needed! :) 
)

I seem too remember a roomer that to the effect  in all probibilitey
and not withstanding else elff
THE GREAT GOD PAN IS DEAD

So, c'mon Fruitfly ....

Do tell ... What is your first langauge?

Croatian; I'm from Split, Dalmatia (coastal region of Croatia)

Thanks, Fruitfly!

I've never been to Split although I'm pretty sure that I sailed past
it on one occasion.

I have been to Dubrovnic though.

Bryan