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polytheism
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Hinduism: Trimurti Zeus hurling a thunderbolt Surya Gaea Indra Peter Paul Rubens: Venus and Adonis Dionysus Large black stone statue of Nandi the bull, adorned with garlands and white markings, seated on a raised platform at Chamundi Hill in Mysore, India. Guandi Brahma
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Hinduism: Trimurti
Hinduism: Trimurti (From left) Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, the three Hindu gods of the Trimurti.

polytheism

religion
Written by
Ninian Smart
J.F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religions, University of California, Santa Barbara. Author of The Religious Experience and many others.
Ninian Smart
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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polytheism, the belief in many gods. Polytheism characterizes virtually all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which share a common tradition of monotheism, the belief in one God. Sometimes above the many gods a polytheistic religion will have a supreme creator and focus of devotion, as in certain phases of Hinduism (there is also the tendency to identify the many gods as so many aspects of the Supreme Being); sometimes the gods are considered...

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