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Kindness is a Tool of Persuasion
According to the reciprocity principle, you really do catch more flies with honey
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In Ancient Greece, the Gods were busy.
Zeus especially was always busy, if you know what I mean.
But even aside from that, Mount Olympus knows most of the Greek Gods had a fair bit of drama going on. There was always some God swallowing their children whole, some other Gods arguing or kidnapping or revenge plotting. Lots happening. Awkward dinner parties, I’d imagine.
I bring this up because if you were an Ancient Greek person praying to a God for help, you had to appreciate they had more to focus on than humans. So, you couldn’t just expect prayers to be answered. You needed a better plan.
What you’d likely do is provide a votive offering. These were given both in anticipation of a prayer being answered and afterwards to show gratitude. A sacrifice would be the other option — libation, some cake, or maybe a big piece of meat.
These actions gave you a better chance of being helped by the Gods. Those immortals probably wouldn’t even…
