I’m currently reading Plato’s Republic and i’m a bit confused at how Socrates will shift between referencing a “God” and then “gods” in his dialogues. For instance, in the span of one paragraph (in the Republic) we go from:

…the strife and contention of the gods was instigated by Themis and Zeus

To:

“God plants guilt among men when he desires utterly to destroy a house”.

And it’s not just in Plato’s works either, or indeed just Greek texts, as I noticed Marcus Aurelius doing the same thing in his Meditations.

I’ve read that monotheism and polytheism “weren’t necessarily mutually exclusive” in the ancient world, particularly among Ionian Greeks and other philosophical schools of this time, but beyond that I don’t really know what that means.

So, my question: is this weird plurality a casualty of translations, or is there actually some greater theological dimension here that i’m missing?