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This chapter investigates the concept of ‘god’ in early historiography, particularly Herodotus, with reference to his contemporary intellectual environment. Though building on a large body of work, some quite recent, on ‘religion’ in Herodotus’, it seeks to go further by linking the concept of god or the divine to the concept of history at the most fundamental level, comparing and contrasting other genres and traditions. It considers forms of divine intervention, indirect (omens, miracles, dreams, oracles) and direct (epiphany). The case is made for Herodotus as a revolutionary in his thinking about gods, or at least participating fully in a contemporary revolution, as opposed to the usual picture of him as a rather conventional purveyor of religious commonplaces.

There has been one thorough examination of Lucian’s religious beliefs. Its author came to the conclusion that Lucian was an outright atheist. It is not at all easy to say what Lucian’s views are on any subject, let alone religion, for the very simple reason that it is hard to tell when Lucian is speaking in his own voice and is expressing views that are his own. The repeated expression of certain positions by Lucian himself and by what would seem to be sympathetic voices do suggest that Lucian believed the divine to be an all-good, all-giving entity that was completely self-sufficient and so was deaf to the blandishments of prayer and sacrifice.

Regarding the gods and their local cults, Pausanias is an important literary source that enables us to understand the so-called local Greek pantheons, particularly when we are able to compare his testimony with the epigraphic evidence. On the other hand, as far as the very concept of god in Greece is concerned, other questions - different from the ‘pantheonic’ reading though complementary to it - should be considered. The first question is: can we find a definition or definitions of what a god means to a Greek intellectual living during the Roman period like Pausanias? The second question is: to what extent can his review of “all things Greek” provide us with information on the point of view of his local informants on the same question of what a god is. This chapter will present the different places where Pausanias confronts divine and heroic rank. Which interpretative tools does he use as regards divine or heroic status? Furthermore how does Pausanias explain the beginnings of a cult in a community?

The chapter analyzes the main features of Orphic gods. Most Orphic gods are the same as those of the Olympian religion. Yet there is a tendency in Orphism to identify gods with each other through various mechanisms, e.g. a god may be born more than once or reappears in another god. The Orphic tendency to unity may lead to an image of Zeus as supreme god who oscillates between creator god and a deity identified with the universe. The most un-Olympic of the features of the Orphic gods is the idea that human beings are of divine origin and can be re-integrated into their primitive condition. An important source for these themes is the Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius who gives evidence for the existence of three distinct Orphic theogonies.

The epilogue explores that way that scholarly concentration on the religion of classical Greece and especially of Athens has resulted in a very partial picture of Greek religion. It asks what our view of Greek religion would be if the focus was instead on the early centuries AD at the time of the Roman empire. Gods such as Sarapis, Isis and Tyche would be more central to any study and not treated as novelties. Similarly ruler cult would no longer be marginal. This should also make as think further about how the Greeks conceived the divine.