Can An Archetype Be Offended?

Many religions, pagan included, believe their gods can be offended the same way a human might be. I disagree. However, I would say they can in a sense, take "offense" metaphorically speaking.

There are many stories in Greek mythology illustrating the horrors of what happens when you do not give a god their due worship. Aphrodite and Dionysus are good examples of this.

I believe these stories can be seen as allegories for the fact that each domain of life must be given its due respect and attention lest someone find they cannot work with that domain properly. Aphrodite is powerful because love can be both a blessing and a curse, and Dionysus' punishments of those who refuse to worship him illustrate the dangers in trying to suppress madness.

Luckily this also means that there is absolutely no risk of offending the gods for trite reasons such as doing a ritual wrongly, as this has zero real natural consequences. There are no sentient gods to get offended at this. Even the metaphorical "offense" listed above, is just that, metaphorical.

The advantage of atheism is that you don't have to worry about doing rituals wrong, although everyone, religious and non-religious alike, could be affected by the forces represented by Aphrodite and Dionysus.