red stones, sometimes regarded as images of specific deities, such as the pyramidal Zeus at Phlius or the rough stones called the Graces at the ruined city of Orchomenus in Boeotia. Origins Ancient Greek religion has been the subject of speculation and research from classic times to the present. Herodotus believed that the rites of many of the gods had been derived from the Egyptians. Prodicus of Ceos (5th cent. B.C. ), a Sophist philosopher, seems to have taught that the gods were simply personifications of natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, winds, and water. Euhemerus (370?-298 B.C. ), a historian of myths believed, and many other shared this belief, that myths were the distortions of history and that gods were the idealized heroes of the past. Modern etymology and anthropology research produced the theory that Greek religion resulted from a combination of Indo-European beliefs and ideas and customs native to the Mediterranean countries since the original inhabitants of those lands were conquered by Indo-European invaders. The basic elements of classical Greek religion were, in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, somewhat modified and supplemented by the influences of philosophy, Middle Eastern cults, and changes in popular belief (as shown, for instance, in the rise of the cult of Fortune, or Tyche). The main outlines of the official religion, however, remained unchanged....
