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Altars
You do not need an altar to worship a deity. However, they are a great way to give offerings and honor that deity. But if you have strict religious parents I would not recommend setting one up. The gods will understand and they will not love you any less. Let’s begin with offering something simple, like a snack food or some tea. I personally prefer tea but that’s just me. (Bonus points if you put honey in the tea! In ancient Greek times honey was considered very fancy and rare.)
Get your tea/snack/whatever you want to offer. (People like to say you can’t just choose a deity to worship and I say: yes you can!) If you’re in the broom closet go somewhere quiet or outside where nobody can hear you. (you can also go to a park!)
Place your offering down on a flat surface. Look up a prayer to the deity you want to offer it to. For example, as an Apollo worshipper, I would say something like:
“O Father Apollon, lord of healing. Please accept this humble offering. I will place it here for you, and in about thirty minutes I shall eat it myself. Thank you for your understanding and guidance.”
Or something like this…
“Hey father I made this for you and I’m gonna eat it in like thirty minutes or something love you bye”
Prayers don’t have to be fancy. (and a side note: you won’t be damned forever if you eat the offerings. The gods understand.)
Offerings don’t have to be fancy either! You can literally just find a cool rock and give it to them because it reminds you of them.
I know those aesthetic altars online are beautiful, but you should make your altar yours.
The gods vs. Myths
I’m just going to come out and say it. The gods are not their myths.
Shocking, I know.
“B-but! Zeus is evil! He raped people!” He did that in the myths. Not the real Zeus. And if you disrespect Zeus, oh boy are you in big trouble.
Zeus is god of all gods. He controls the weather. He’s insanely powerful and it’s really disrespectful to be rude to him, especially if you’re a percy jackson fan and judge your opinion on a LITERAL RELIGIOUS FIGURE off a fictional middle grade book series.
Sorry for the little rant there. The myths are a result of their time. Not saying that's an excuse, but that’s why the gods did all those things to women and goddesses in the myths.
Humans wanted to show people how much power the gods had. At that time, symbols of power were:
-Having control over women/people in general
-Taking advantage of women
-sleeping with a lot of women
-ordering your wife around
Etc.
That’s why the gods act like that in the myths. If you don’t want to read those specific myths, don’t read them if it makes you uncomfortable. It’s pretty simple to understand.
In conclusion, if you ever said Lord Zeus was a bad guy, you might want to offer him something as an apology real quick.
Lastly, people having "headcanons" for the Gods
No, it is not okay to have “headcanons” for the Gods. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, someone I found on pinterest said Apollon was a Bi icon. That’s like saying Jesus is “such a pansexual king!” It’s so disrespectful and really rubs me the wrong way.
“Oh, but Apollo is attracted to women and men in his myths!” True. But literal RELIGIOUS FIGURES don't fit into our modern day labels. Apollon just loves who he loves. Loving is a natural part of him. The gods don’t have sexualities because they aren’t human. They just love.