"The god in monotheistic religions is the (body-less) embodiment - or the very definition - of what is right."

Yes, I believe that is a fair description of monotheistic theology.

"In Greek and Roman religions, the gods are pretty much just humans (with both human virtues and failings) with superpowers."

Kind of yes, but not really. I take polytheistic gods to be embodiments of *some* aspects of perfection.

In a monotheistic religion, all those aspects are united in a single being. When we talk about "Elohim", for example, we are using a plural word that to some people, means the unification of all "El" (can be translated as power) in a single being. It's like they took all of the deities that each represented one aspect of perfection and merged them together into a single being that possesses all aspects of perfection and, therefore, cannot lack it in any way, thus being perfection itself.

"But how did their stories relate to anything going on down on Earth?"

Their stories convey lessons related to that aspect of perfection that they are believed to embody. A god of war, being the embodiment of a perfect warrior and of the perfect way to wage war, cannot be also the embodiment of a perfect musician, and his story will reflect the lacking of those perfections, sometimes as a way to emphasize the perfections related to the god, and sometimes to emphasize the imperfections that are taken to be normal to a warrior.

"And why would any power derived from them give you any authority over other people?"

Again, through examples. If you are in a situation in your life where you need to be victorious, you go to the temple of Nike in order to learn about victory itself. If you need to get married, you look for a temple of Hera and learn what you need from the stories told about her. If you wish to be a good musician, you look for the servants of Pan. And so on.

Many gods were patrons of specific professions and their followers were the experts in those fields. If you wanted to become a successful blacksmith you were bound to seek help from a follower of Hephaestus.

"What did Greek and Roman priests even do? And why?"

They kept a tradition related to the role/nature/perfection related to the god they served. They kept oral traditions, books, and rituals (that are usually theatrical demonstrations of principles applicable to the perfection they served). They collected sacrifices and used them to fund the entire operation of keeping a place that must serve many generations and be a hub for the study of a particular aspect of reality.

I welcome any correction to this way of understanding it.

Trying to read this title gave me the black plague.

Historically, it would be uncommon for a man to wear a wedding ring. It’s a modern thing to have both husband and wife wear a ring.

This post was sandwiched between two lotrmemes posts. Had to do a double take at first

My grandmother lost her wedding ring while planting her veggie garden only to dig it up 20 years later.

Why would the rings be similar?

OP’s post title is grammatically incorrect due to word misplacement; so we are having a fun jest at OP’s expense by jumbling their words up further to make even more nonsensical titles.

Moral of story: proofread or end up with Titlegore jokes!

Thanks!

What is actually happening here with this comment chain?

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The Witch King of Angmar wears his crown to denote his sovereignty over the orcs of Gundabad.

A wedding mud ring found in medieval is worth thousands gold

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Some poor peasant woman was pulling up carrots and lost her most prized possession, then searched the garden in vain her whole life to find it. 'Someone's found your ring, Love. We'll honor it for you.'

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That’s typically the case with antiques.

Or, and just hear me out on this one, it takes two to get married

$47,000 is surprisingly low for a 600 year old object in "perfect" condition. That's less than some magic cards FFS

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An article quoted in another comment says it was brought to the British Museum for evaluation

Are you saying that they were all deceived and another was made?

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