A lot of this is the result of forcing syncretism with pagan religions to more easily convert their adherents. Gods become saints or demons and their mythologie

A lot of this is the result of forcing syncretism with pagan religions to more easily convert their adherents. Gods become saints or demons and their mythologies retconned as needed. Saints Olaf[0] and Brigid[1] being two possible examples from Norse and Irish mythology, respectively. And from an outside perspective there's very little daylight between venerating and praying to the saints for intercession, and praying to household gods, possibly by design. Also (more interestingly) there's still evidence in the OT of the time when the religious precursor of Judaism was polytheist[2][3] ("let us create Man in our image", "God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.") [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Olaf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Olaf [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahwism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahwism [3]https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4nys70/what_do_we_know_about_judaisms_polytheistic/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4nys70/what_...