Are there historical examples of cults or sects worshipping ‘evil or more morally questionable gods/beings’ of their pantheon/faith?

by Aodhana

Title is very much being reductive when applied to a number of religions, I know.

Not counting satanism here, are there real world examples of this kind of thing? In which an antagonist of a faith such as Angra Mainyu is worshipped? Did Apep have cults? Were there temples of Eris or Deimos and Phobis, or Hel? Anything along those lines, or were these kinds of beings worshipped only to keep their attentions away from the petitioner, if worshipped at all?

SirVentricle

There certainly are - the best example I know of is the worship of Erra, the Mesopotamian god of death-through-unnatural-(often-violent)-means. He is known primarily for his role in the text Erra and Ishum, a satirical text parodying the Babylonian national epic, Enuma elish. In Erra and Ishum, Erra has a serious case of the Mondays:

Erra himself felt as weak as a man short of sleep

saying to himself, 'Should I rise or sleep?'

He told his weapons, "Stay propped in the cupboard." (I.15-17)

His right-hand man, Ishum, then delivers a rousing speech in which he reminds him that it is his sworn duty to deliver slaughter and death to the world. They have a bit of a back and forth between them about whom they should deliver this to precisely - only people living in the countryside, or perhaps also city-dwellers? They settle on both.

Now, Erra and Ishum is very much a satirical text: while warfare in Mesopotamian literature is generally seen as a heroic thing, Andrew George points out that it is described decidedly as a horrible thing to be avoided: it is perhaps exciting to those of a particular disposition, but the suffering it causes to everyone else is a cruel evil.

In this light, it's interesting to see that Erra had his own temple, E-meslam in Kutha, where he was worshipped along with Nergal, the god of the underworld (who, like Hades in Greece, wasn't necessarily an evil deity). Not only this - particular lines from Erra and Ishum started being used in the Neo-Assyrian period (9th century BCE-late 7th century BCE) on prophylactic amulets to ward off plague, demonstrating that he was taken very seriously as a deity with significant power, albeit primarily a destructive power that was best avoided.