Is it not more reasonable to assume the first recorded instance was the origin? To me, this would suggest that the Greco-Roman gods descended from the earlier accounts of angels found in the Torah/Old Testament rather than the odd conclusion that it was other way around. Ross, Leicester, According to Judeo-Christian belief, angels are usually invisible unless they come in dreams or visions to make some rather startling announcement ( You are to be with child by the Holy Spirit ).

There’s no reason to think that angels must have wings, although artists no doubt put the wings on them to suggest flight. Cherubim and Seraphim biblically are terrifying powers, hardly the melancholy, rather feminine marble angels that are used as gravestones. Eli Wiesel repeats the Jewish belief that Messengers of God are sometimes human. These helpers need not be angels, and perhaps are only infrequently angels.

I knew a man, a very sober scientist, who had a very strange experience that left him a believer in angels. So don’t diss the heavenly host; you could be wrong. M.