Well, I've continued my research on Greece and its history and
religious beliefs and have the following to my previous input
here. The Period I am aiming at for information on is about 3000 BC to
about 600 BC, what is known to scholars as the Bronze age of Greece,
from the Minoan Culture on Crete's beginings thru the 'Dark Age' of
Archaic Greece, but before the writings of Homer. Homer was a
politically and also religious influencing person in the centuries
that followed his tales, who did not show the actuality from the times
before him but romanticized it to fit the influences of the culture of
his day (which was the iron age of Greece). Lost with his writings
were the Greek beliefs in a reincarnation/afterlife (the wandering
shades he represents are not the beliefs of what happened to the dead
in early Greece), the true natures of many of the gods and goddesses
are misrepresented and often easily maligned due to politics (Apollo
and Aphrodite are shown as enemies of the Greeks since they were both
originally derrived from Persian influences which were in question
when the Greeks were at war with the Persians and thus they were
attached to 'siding' with the Trojans), and many of the less
regimented softer beliefs in Magic, sexual openess, the binding of the
rules of hospitality and more were dropped, distorted or simply
misrepresented because it made no sense to a person of Homer's
era. (Much like the problems found with one modern text I read which
tried to say that the Greek gods were more like the angels in the
Bible and that Zeus was a representation of the Christian God.  This
from a book written only two years ago!). Much of what I've had to
research into is not the later day writings on Greek theological
development and myth, which ignore most of the time period involved,
but into Archaelogical texts, reports and analysis mostly from people
outside the influence of standardized Western culture.

   The Greeks were far travelers, much like the early Phoenicians,
dependant on the Sea for survival and trade and their culture reflects
this greatly in the early times. Each river had its god, each spring
its nymph and the seas were ruled over by a single great being whose
rule extended over all the lower gods of water without supplanting
their power or import. There is not as much a heirachal condition as a
collection of checks and balances between the deities involved.  Each
in their element can and will be supreme, but no one deity has sway
over them all (although any of them might be persuaded by a collection
of the rest that oppose their actions). Greek gods did not create the
world, as Christians had their belief their own did, but were mearly
the caretakers of it and its many inhabitants, as if it was expected
for the human race to develop itself properly and the gods were the
teachers, parents and protectors of the fledgling race (much like many
of the American Indian, Shinto and similar Shamanistic beliefs that
there are many spirits and many ways to advance spiritually thru their
help and advice).