What do we call a personified supernatural being who is not worshiped? Are there really no such entities?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God informs me: "In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the universe or life, for which such a deity is often worshipped". The "often" tells me that a god is not always worshipped.
How should I make sense of this line from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin#Roman_era_to_Migration_Pe... : "There is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and the existence of a cult of Odin among them is debated."
Definition 1 starts 'The veneration, devotion and religious rites given to a deity'. What veneration, devotion, and religious rites are attested?
You should read "the worship of Odin" and "the existence of a cult of Odin" as meaning the same thing. The sentence wouldn't mean anything different if it said "there is no direct, undisputed evidence for a cult of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and its existence among them is debated", or "there is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths, and it is debated whether he was part of their pantheon".
> Definition 1 starts 'The veneration, devotion and religious rites given to a deity'.
There are two concepts here:
1. Belief that a god or spirit exists.
2. Rituals intended to communicate with, maintain good relations with, propitiate, or placate a god or spirit.
"Worship", "veneration", and "devotion" all refer to both of those concepts. "Religious rites" refer to the second one.
(Compare https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/worship : "to honor or show reverence for as a divine being or supernatural power".)
So a reference to belief in a deity is an attestation of "worship", "veneration", and "devotion". For rites, Tacitus mentions that Mercury receives animal and human sacrifices while other deities only get animals.
> What do we call a personified supernatural being who is not worshiped? Are there really no such entities?
In the ordinary sense, obviously not, because acknowledging that something is a supernatural entity is worshiping it. But even in the sense of particular rituals, there are no such entities. All supernatural beings receive prayers some of the time.
Right, but as the text I quoted earlier pointed out: "Of course, it has already been shown by Karl Helm that this was a historical trope copied from Herodotus, and/or Caesar’s Commentarii de bello gallico (Helm 1946: 7-12). The fact that Caesar was talking about Celts, and his description of religion among the Germani mentions worship of the sun, moon, and fire, does nothing to secure the reliability of such ‘historical’ sources. Either way, the argument that the foremost deity interpreted by Tacitus as a ‘Mercury-type’ must be Wodan/Óðinn is a projection of the latter’s supremacy in Old Norse material onto a Germanic society several centuries older. This becomes a circular argument and cannot be leading."
> acknowledging that something is a supernatural entity is worshiping it
I ... really? Christianity has angels, devils, cherubs, the Nephilim, and other supernatural entities who are not worshiped. Who prays to the first and second beasts of Revelation or the Ophanim?
Those are supernatural entities in a (nominally) monotheistic religion.
But really I was thinking more that given all the world's mythologies, I find it hard to believe that all supernatural entities in them are worshiped as gods.
In trying to research this, it seems the main problem is the dearth of information we have about pre-literate German culture. We have views through the eyes of Tacitus and Bede, but these come with unknown biases and misunderstandings.
"The cult of Odin" would refer to anything and everything related to Odin. See sense 1 here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cult , or sense 3/4 here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult .